Last Updated on September 24, 2023 by Tori Pines
Travel to Italy with us and follow along on our adventures as we do a Trastevere food tour! We will be spending 11 days in this magical country and I hope these journal entries will entertain, inspire and help with your Italy travel planning, so you too can plan a future vacation to Bella Italia!
For all of the facts, tips and pointers about Rome, read What to Know about Rome, my Rome Travel Guide that will help you get ready for your trip.
Getting to Rome
After a very long day of travel and 4 flight delays, we finally arrived in beautiful Roma! We flew United and had delays for a variety of reasons. I have always heard that you need to have long layovers in case of delays, but I learned firsthand to always have at least a 3 hours layover for international trips. We were so glad we did. We were not asked for any proof of vaccinations throughout the entire flying process, and we had to show our passports as we boarded the final plane and that was it!
When we landed the signs were super easy to follow with all of them having Italian and English. Customs was a breeze, we arrived at 7:45 local time and we didn’t have to wait even a second to go through customs and walked straight through. We went to baggage claim, to the train station, bought our tickets and were on the train in less than 30 minutes!
Taking the Train into Rome
We purchased train tickets from the kiosk which was fairly easy. It only took a minute, but we had to double check everything as it was still somewhat in Italian, even after selecting English as our language. The single most important thing to know about trains in Italy, is you MUST get your train tickets validated. The only exception to this is if you buy the tickets through the Trenitalia app. I asked someone who worked there where to validate them and she said we didn’t have to, but then we kept walking and saw the validation machines. We watched everyone else validating theirs so we followed suit.
A nice Italian woman even showed me how to use it when she saw how confused I looked. My lesson so far, watch how the Italians do things and don’t be afraid to ask questions!! And they really do seem to appreciate you saying “grazie” instead of thank you. So I do it every time even when my husband rolls his eyes at me trying to have an Italian accent! The train was silent, and the locals are not interested in letting you sit in the seat next to them, even if there are no other seats available. But it’s a quick 35 minute ride into Roma Termini, and then you have officially made it.
A quick note about luggage. Dragging your suitcase along the cobblestones its not that incredible difficult, but does require high quality luggage. Also, try to bring a carry on, or one of the smaller checked bags if possible. You don’t need that much stuff for your trip to Italy, but there are some things that are incredibly important to have. Make sure you learn what to pack for your Italy vacation before you go!
Our Hotel: The St. Regis Rome
Once we arrived at Termini Station, we walked to our hotel and dragged our large checked bags along the cobbled streets. It wasn’t awful, but our hotel was also pretty darn close to the station. We are staying at the St. Regis Rome. It’s a stunning Marriott brand hotel and everyone there has been so incredibly nice so far. We were able to get into our room at like 9:45am so we were thrilled. We showered and took an hour nap before we had to head out for adventure!
There are a ton of other amazing hotels in Rome to choose from. I explain all about where to stay in Rome in my Rome Travel Guide.
Trastevere Food Tour with Katie Parla
We walked across the city to Trastevere for a 3 hour Trastevere food tour with the famous Katie Parla. If you don’t know who she is, check out her podcast called Gola and you will love her immediately. Katie is a cookbook author and is featured in many shows and websites (including Stanley Tucci’s Finding Italy show!). Anyways, the tour was fabulous. She is so brilliant and taught us so much about food, food history and Rome’s history in general. She made us feel so comfortable and like we were hanging with a friend!! I highly recommend booking a tour with her during your time in Rome.
She was even kind enough to sign my cookbook that I have of hers. If you want amazing Italian cooking inspiration buy her cookbooks!
Some of the food we tried on the Trastevere food tour were the Trappizino, street pizza at Casa Manco and Suppli! The pizza was insane, especially the one topped with potatoes which is apparently a traditional flavor…Carbs topped with carbs? Yes please!!! I could have eaten ten slices, it was so good. The Trapizzino was also amazing, super crispy and the sauce had better flavor than any I’ve had in the states.
After the Trastevere Food Tour
After the Trastevere food tour we decided to do the Rick Steves free audio guide around the main part of the city. It was super informative and led us to all of the special sights which we will definitely be coming back to. It was so nice to be able to wander along at a slow pace while listening to the tour. Rick has these audio tours for places all over Europe and they are completely free and totally informative! I recommend you download his app before you leave for your trip and download all of the tours you might want to do. And, be sure to bring some Bluetooth headphones for listening to the audio guides while out and about. I personally love these headphones for traveling because they are not super easy to lose like some can be!
The tour brought us past all the big sites in the city. But y’all, the Pantheon. I can’t explain it. It’s more gorgeous than I could have ever imagined. Pictures don’t do it justice and I can’t explain how it makes you feel and it’s so much bigger than it looks in photos. We will come back tomorrow to go inside, but for now we are tired and need to freshen up before dinner.
Dinner at Da Enzo
We stopped back at the hotel to drop our things and refresh, and headed back out for dinner to Da Enzo Al 29. It opens at 7 and I heard we had to get here early so we arrived at 6:45….but get there by 6:30 at the latest if you don’t want to wait an hour! We just barely missed the first round of table seating but I wanted to eat there so badly so we waited. There was tons of people-watching to do, so the time passed quickly.
We ended up meeting a couple from Texas in line and sat with them for dinner! We shared some great laughs and enjoyed our first night in Italy with new friends. It was a really neat experience. Dinner was good. I loved loved the burrata appetizer, and would go back just for that. The pasta sauces were super creamy and yummy and the house wine was super cheap and delicious. We finished off with the tiramisu and wild strawberry desserts.
A Perfect Day at the Trastevere Food Tour
All day long we have not been asked for our vaccine cards at all. I’m sure we will need them eventually so I will still keep them on us, but nothing yet. We got a taxi back to the hotel and are ready to go to sleep. We walked 24,000 steps and 11.8 miles today and that was with taking two taxis! My feet didn’t hurt at all since I was wearing Keds sneakers and Vionic arch supports. We are running on about two hours of sleep at this point, my first day in Rome feels like a dream. I’m so happy to be here. The colosseum is tomorrow and I can’t wait!
Make sure you read the Day 2 Daily Journal next, and please be sure to read through all of my Italy travel resources to help you plan the perfect vacation.
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