🇮🇹 Rome
Ancient ruins, baroque chaos, and the best plates of pasta on Earth.
Start a Rome tour →What you can do in Rome
CityCompanion has audio walking tours, scavenger hunts, 4 curated local food signatures, multi-day itineraries, and a daily morning briefing for Rome. All free, no app store needed.
- 🎙️ AI-curated walking tours — coherent district-based routes (3h to 5 days)
- 🎭 Cultural scavenger hunts — narrative quests with questions, hints, rewards
- 🍽️ Local food signatures — 4 dishes with history and best places to try
- ☀️ Daily morning briefing — 1–5 min audio: weather, today's plan, a fresh story
- ♿ Accessibility routing — wheelchair-accessible, step-free, stroller-friendly
- 🗺️ Offline maps — cache for travel without data
Must-try local food in Rome
3 signature dishes every visitor should try. Each has its own history and the best places to find it authentically.
🍝 Cacio e Pepe Must try
Three ingredients: pasta water, pecorino romano, black pepper. Endlessly difficult to perfect.
A peasant dish invented by shepherds — pecorino keeps for weeks, pepper stimulates appetite in summer, the rest is technique. The challenge is the emulsion: too hot and the cheese clumps, too cool and it stays gritty. The best Roman trattorias guard their version like a secret.
📍 Where to try (3)
- Felice a Testaccio — Via Mastro Giorgio, 29, 00153 Roma RM
The temple of Cacio e Pepe - Roscioli — Via dei Giubbonari, 21/22, 00186 Roma RM
Modern interpretation, perfect emulsion - Tonnarello — Via della Paglia, 1/2/3, 00153 Roma RM
Trastevere, queue worth it, traditional
🍳 Carbonara Must try
Eggs, pecorino, guanciale, black pepper. No cream. Ever.
Surprisingly modern — likely invented post-WWII when American GIs introduced bacon and powdered eggs. The Italian transformation: pancetta became guanciale (cured pork cheek), powdered eggs became raw yolks, and a national myth was born. Still cream-free, despite what international menus claim.
📍 Where to try (3)
- Roma Sparita — Piazza S. Cecilia, 24, 00153 Roma RM
Served in a parmigiano basket — Anthony Bourdain favorite - Da Enzo al 29 — Via dei Vascellari, 29, 00153 Roma RM
Trastevere institution, expect to queue - Salumeria Roscioli — Via dei Giubbonari, 21, 00186 Roma RM
Famously good — book ahead
🍙 Supplì Must try
Fried risotto balls stuffed with mozzarella — when you bite, the cheese stretches into a "telephone wire".
Roman street food since at least the 19th century. The name comes from the French "surprise" — what's inside is the surprise. The cheese stretch test (al telefono) is how locals judge a good supplì. Different from Sicilian arancini in shape (oval vs. round) and rice (risotto vs. saffron).
📍 Where to try (2)
- Supplizio — Via dei Banchi Vecchi, 143, 00186 Roma RM
Arcangelo Dandini's temple of supplì - I Suppli — Via di S. Francesco a Ripa, 137, 00153 Roma RM
Trastevere staple, takeaway window
Also worth trying
🥯 Maritozzo
Sweet bun split and overflowing with whipped cream — Roman breakfast made theatre.
Dates to ancient Rome where similar honey buns were given as betrothal gifts — "maritozzo" comes from "marito" (husband). Today bakeries like Roscioli or Marigold pile the cream so high it cantilevers off the bun.
📍 Where to try (2)
- Roscioli — Via dei Giubbonari, 21, 00186 Roma RM
The cream cantilevers off the bun - Marigold — Via Giovanni da Empoli, 37, 00154 Roma RM
Modern Scandinavian-Roman, brunch
Why CityCompanion for Rome?
Most Rome guidebooks send everyone to the same spots. Most apps charge per-city or only cover the basics. CityCompanion is different:
- Free, no in-app purchases
- AI-personalised, not a fixed playlist
- Real local stories, written by editors who know Rome
- Adapts to weather — rainy day? Indoor cafés. Sunny? Best parks first.
- Daily concierge — a friendly companion who greets you each morning