Cheap food and picnics in Rome

Alimentari (deli) are all over Rome. Have a sandwich made the way you want - pick out the bread, meat & cheese and pick up a drink: instant picnic. Stop by a fruit vendor if you want to add to the meal. Eat in one of the piazzas and people watch. Pizza by the slice is easy to find and cheap. It's easy to find places just by walking through the town.

For cheap food, get out of the piazzas and onto side streets. There are great salumerie (delis) with fabulous meats and cheeses. There are also a lot of places where you choose from a counter buffet, although be careful because this can add up quickly. If I don't want to carry food around with me but still want to eat cheaply, I usually find a pizza place on a side street. Most of these sell pizza by weight, so you indicate which type of pizza (obviously the more toppings the heavier and therefore costlier) and about what size, then they weigh and price it. This is a ton cheaper than eating in a sit down restaurant where you will likely pay a table fee in addition to the cost of food.

Pizza and panini are good choices for an inexpensive meal. Many bars (actually cafes) sell small pizzas and panini to go at lunchtime for around EUR 4. For pizza by the slice (usually sold by the etto - 100grams) look for Pizza al Taglia signs. There's a decent one just to the left of the Pantheon, but my favorite is Fior Fiori near the Spanish Steps (Via Croce, I think). For a super cheap meal, assemble a picnic at a grocery store. The one near the opera house is nice - it's either on the corner to the left or one block further left - in the basement. There's another nice grocery store on Via Vittorio Emmanuale II near Largo Argentina.

Good luck on your trip and please come back and share what you found to eat "cheap" in Rome :-)

By the way, can someone tell me about the pizzas in Italy? Are they anything like we have in the States? I'm thinking not, but figured I would ask anyway. My son was curious too.

Eli: It just may be that nothing in Italy is the same as in the US, including pizza. If you ask for pepperoni, you'll get green or red peppers, not sausage.

Eli - Homemade restaurant pizzas in Italy are usually about 10"-12" in diameter, have a thinner crust than here, and also less sauce and cheese. Usually each person orders a pizza and it's eaten with a knife and fork. I can't eat a whole pizza here, but have no problem finishing one in Italy.

Eli: The pizza I had the first time in Rome was great. I can't even come close to replicating it here in my home. The above decription is pretty right on when it comes to pizza in Italy. IT IS GREAT! Try it you will love it. I didn't get to eat enough when I was there the first time. However, I did learn something new. I was looking on line at a menu of a place that serves pizza and almost all of their pizzas had peas on them. I didn't see that when I was there the 1st time. It doesn't sound like a good pizza topping but the great thing about being out of the US is trying things we don't have here. So I will have to report on what peas are like on pizza when I get back.

Eli: Our Italian teacher (who is from a small town near Rome) says that pizzas are never shared in Italy - one orders one's own. She also says that they are much simpler and fresher-tasting, and don't use nearly as much cheese as we do. She also said that garlic in pizza sauce is "an abomination." "When I eat pizza here, it stays with me for a month!"