Custom Pizza Tour in Rome with Katie Parla Co.

Hi all, while our guidelines prohibit selling items on the forum, this situation is allowed if no money is exchanged between forum members. As long as payment goes directly to Katie Parla’s team, there's no issue of transactional liability as it relates to use of this forum, just coordination for a meetup.

Just got back from Rome Italy and had a great experience with a private tour guide by the name of Janaina Felix of Parla tours. She is part Italian and part Brazilian and speaks excellent English also she speaks French German and Spanish. We spent about three hours with her on a food tour and she was excellent very knowledgeable and we had two small children and she accommodated them very well. We were a group of five. I felt she was so excellent that I wanted to post this online for anybody who is interested in doing a tour in Rome she is a licensed guy who specializes in food and wine, but is also well-versed in history of Rome and knows all the sites contact her at https://katieparla.com make sure to ask for Janaina thank you ….Alfred Ciraldo

This is very interesting, but 432USD??

Would you mind explaining a bit about what that price brings?
Would you be able to go to the same, or similar pizzerie and taste various options and ask a few questions??

I would like very much t learn more details about this; I know Katie is very well respected and I own all of her books,,but that price (??). for pizza?

Did PRSCHweikert take the tour and how did it turn out?? Recommend??

Unfortunately, that's in the vicinity of the going rate for private tours in Italy these days. For only 2 people it's pricey, but when we had 4 people last April to do:

A) private tour in Chianti to a winery, then lunch at a home in the hills where we made homemade fettuccini (6 hours)
B) driver/guide for an Amalfi Coast tour (6 hours)
C) driver/guide up the slopes of Mt. Etna in Sicily, including lunch at Gambino Winery (6 hours);

...all of them came out to between $100-$150/pp. Not a bad deal in the grand scheme of things. Bottom line is a private tour--as long as it's good--is a time saver, thus value-driven in my eyes.

That's understandable, but I was wondering about the price for the pizza tour in Rome...just walking from place to place and sampling a few bites of food...,(??)

I' not at all against those types of tours in Tuscany or anywhere else in any other country, if you don't want to drive yourself....it's the walking tours with the pizza that I'm curious about.

Aren't some of us able to just go on our own to whatever market, or salumeria, or pizzeria we are curious about, and either buy some foods to bring back to hotel or eat on the spot..why would someone want a wild expensive tour to do that when it is so easy to plan this kind of thing yourself....??? Granted, I either travel alone or with one person so have to pay the full frieight so it comes out to much more money.. if you have a few friends, it's much less of an expense but I kind of still do not get why anyone need to do this--or maybe a first-time traveler who might not know much about Italian food starting out..

Example: Last time in Rome we went from hotel by taxi (I think) to Testaccio "new" market.

Shared a sandwich at MORDI E VAI. and of pizza at MANCO. I remember I bought some lovely olive wood spoons from a vendor who showed me how he makes them and got into a long conversation about the process.

Then walked to VOLPETTI (famous deli/salumeria) where they gave us a few samples and I bought some cheeses to bring home to US.

Then we took the long walk along the river up to Castroni for more food shopping...but we could easily had lunch at FELICE or one of the old-line Testaccio restaurants instead of walking all the way up there..

I'm not against taking a food tour (I have never done this, anywhere) but I just can't see the value here in the walking tours. Very different situation if you are driven place to place and drink wine, so should not be driving yourself..

Let's face it--virtually everything to be found--even when doing a deep dive into a specific city or town--can be found online by doing enough research. That's a given. I do that, and then I come here for the most part to follow pertinent posts/responses and then determine whether it's worth my time.

ek--I suspect you've traveled internationally for decades and know these areas intimately. You're the type of person I go to for solid info even on Rome, where I've visited 4 times and will next year again. I love to get boots on the ground recon. Whether your tastes are and what you find interesting is simpatico with mine...well, I have to make up my mind on that, no? That's the fun of it.

My point is that the OP and probably 90% of foreign travelers from the States are not like that. I cannot tell you the number of friends, on the cusp of planning their first Italian trip, that I've begged, pleaded with them, saying 'you can do this yourself--I'll show you how!'. Yet they call Perillo or Trafalgar or the like and book a tour, spending two and three times more than they should had they done it on their own. That's really what this forum's for, in essence--so folks that want to DIY don't have to.

This is very interesting, but 432USD??

That was the quote for up to six people, so $72 pp at the exchange rate at the time it was written - most likely more now with the weaker USD. Assuming it includes the cost of the food, pp price seems reasonable for a curated, custom tour - especially considering the vendor.

This may be a similar tour:

https://katieparla.com/rome-walking-tours/roman-cuisine-in-prati-and-trionfale/

The Parla tour does not include the cost of the food.
It does make sense if you have a few people to share, but I don't.

Jay, thank you for the well-thought out response. I appreciate your comments.

A few weeks ago, I wanted to go to the countryside for a traditional Catalan feast of "calcots," a spring vegetable, and a quick tour on Montserrat--from Barcelona. I was shocked that I would have to pay more than $1,000 euro. This was with a well-respected tour company recommended to me by someone who knows Spain very well and knows the owner of the company so I knew they were not just joking up the price for a clueless foreigner. (or so I thought).

It would have been a private tour because I was I the city alone. I would have loved a chance to do that, but I jut could to spring for that price...who knows, maybe it would have been fabulous..I just could not do it.

I never criticize someone who takes a tour. That's their choice.

Why do some people stay in five star hotels while others stay in 1 or 2 star hotels? It's their choice.

I, many years ago, worked in the tour industry. At times, I wondered why people would take tours over traveling on their own. In general, there are many reasons (and in no particular order.)

--lack ot time to plan a trip

--lack of desire to plan a trip

--they want to leave the work to someone else.

--fear of not knowing the area and having someone to turn to for help

--comraderie

--having a guide to tell them about what they are seeing

--having someone to take much of the work out of traveling (someone to arrange transportation, someone to check them into hotels, etc.)

--the ability to just sit back and enjoy (they're on vacation.)

--safety

--provides transportation to places where public transportation might not be easy.

--and many more

Please also remember that the person who owns this travel forum is basically in the tour business.

The other slice of this (pun intended) is that food tours are often more than just food. A good guide is also giving history, cultural, economic geography, and culinary lessons along the way. The mini slice of pizza or spoonful of gelato in and of itself may not seem like $72 worth, but all combined with what you're learning can be well worth the price IMO.

I've only ever taken one food tour--in Boston's North End--but I learned details about the Big Dig, immigration, fennel, and flour, that I likely wouldn't have discovered/considered if I hadn't taken the tour. Not dissing doing it on your own, but tours have positives.

I agree.

And also there is the issue of language. For someone who can got to a pizza place, restaurant or food shop anywhere in Europe (or anywhere else where English is not the local language) and feels comfortable asking a few questions, I think it's a lot less daunting.

Even a simple meal in a restaurant. If you speak no Italian, and are not familiar with local food and local menus, you would have a different experience than a person who could sit down and engage in a discussion with the waiter: "Are there any dishes that are not on the menu today?" or "I feel like a vegetable with my meat--what's in season now? " The vegetable dish is likely not even listed on the menu, so how would you know it's available unless you felt comfortable asking....

It's too bad that many Americans are so limited with foreign languages. Do you think this Is a failure of the education system, or are foreign languages not emphasized in schools because most Americans might not have any use for a language other than English??

I attended a public junior high school, not considered a very good one at the time, but ) we had to take a foreign language. The choices in my school were limited to Spanish or French and in high school Latin was also possible.

But at my college, there were no language requirements and, in fact, no requirements at all, but that's a different topic...

What's it like now in the "average" public school in the US??

Looking back, I neither retained nor have any use for, the chemistry and math and physics that we all had to take.....but I think my life experience would be extraordinarily diminished if I did not speak a second language... But that would not apply to someone who might never have the opportunity to travel... I guess this ia topic for a separate thread, but curious to what you all think.....

ekscrunchy, as a retired science teacher, I used that math and chemistry and physics. But like you, I wish I had taken a foreign language at my public high school(in college I took music appreciation and art appreciation instead of a language). I took Latin in grades 8 and 9, and was signed up for Latin 3 in grade 10 but the Latin teacher had retired. I could have taken 3 years of Spanish, but no one suggested that, not even my mother who minored in Spanish in college. Back then, we never thought we would need a foreign language-my life goal was to take a(as in one) trip to Europe.

We've taken food tours in Paris and Florence(food included in the tour price) and thought they were well worth the money. In Florence, the tour was in an area we hadn't been to.

We love a good food tour, even in the U,S., because of all the deep dive detail you get from a good guide, as others have stated. Getting a personal local perspective is what you pay for.
I taught global language (as we called it) and lead curriculum decisions my whole career in a high school with offerings in the middle school as well. We offered German, French, and Spanish, and at other times Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. For most Americans, it’s about having to fill a requirement, and students’ schedules are so packed, they can hardly fit it in. Americans know that most of the world learns English, so it’s not necessary for the work place down the road. Many students do find a passion in it and they enjoy the experience, but it’s not a “must have”. We provided many exchange experiences, which teaches kids far more than just the language. Cultural competence and sensitivity is essential, so beyond learning what to say, it’s how to act, engage, observe, see other perspectives. Unfortunately, on the list of things most Americans value, language learning is pretty low, and school offerings are a reflection of that. This is the “short” answer to a pretty deep topic!

BTW, I love this forum and the varied advice and opinions I get to read. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to share!!

What I have seen on my last couple trips to Rome and especially Florence, is that speaking English has become ubiquitous. As a very fractured speaker of Italiano, yes, this works to my advantage, it's much easier but it's kind of sad just the same, kind of like formerly using maps vs. now a GPS. Last April in Florence, strolling at night down via Tornabuoni, just listening I heard only English and no Italian for minutes at a time. I chalked it off to American college students studying abroad with their drunken (ugly) American parents in tow...HA!

That's why after chilling in Rome for a couple weeks next year, we'll probably move on to Puglia, where my pidgin foreign speaking talents will be put to the test, which I sorely need. Immersion is a crash course, man. I remember in 2015 visiting Sant' Arsenio on a daytrip (mountain hilltown 1 hour SE of Salerno) doing some genealogical research--it's where my great-grandparents were born. I had studied the Rosetta Stone for a couple months, and thought I was ready. I was decidedly...not. Absolutely no English spoken at all. So cool...and scary as hell. But in the 8 hours there...the last couple hours things started clicking a little bit, and although our driver was ding-donging us to leave to get back to Salerno, I almost said, go ahead, leave, come back and get us tomorrow. We'll be OK. Still wish I'd have done that.

So...rounding back to the pizza tour thang...where in the big urban areas there might have been a language barrier before, it's not there now, so it's really not an excuse in Rome and/or Florence, probably Venezia either. English works just fine.

We were in Venice and it drove me CRAZY that our travelling companions spent hours trying to find a pizza place. There is a misconception that pizza is a thing anywhere in Italy. Pizza is a Naples thing. Anywhere else (unless made by uprooted Neapolitans), you are getting the same kind of pizza you can get anywhere in any strip mall in the US.

That story about looking for pizza in Venice reminds me of. (Great) restaurant in the hills just above Lake Como where diners are greeted by a sign (in Italian) on the front announcing that “we do not serve pasta!’” The polenta with mushrooms was so delicious that I still remember it so well.

We were in Venice and it drove me CRAZY that our travelling companions
spent hours trying to find a pizza place. There is a misconception
that pizza is a thing anywhere in Italy. Pizza is a Naples thing.
Anywhere else (unless made by uprooted Neapolitans), you are getting
the same kind of pizza you can get anywhere in any strip mall in the
US.

Different strokes...

Not true by a long shot. Just off the top of my head, in Rome there is a delicious extra thin, extra crispy pie at Al Caminetto in Pallazzo Talia. And then my all-time favorite--which I could eat a different version of every day because there's at least a 3-week rotation of toppings--is steps from where I stay at Campo de' Fiori at Forno Bakery, which is owned by the Roscioli family, of salumeria fame. It's served in rectangular slices, is a little thicker, but still airy & light, and has a helluva crunch as well. Neither of those exist anywhere I know in the States. The latter only at Bonci in Chicago, and that flagship store is in Rome.

True Napolitan pizza--big, airy crust, soft & wet middle--originated in Naples and now (unfortunately, I guess) is all over the US. I like it a lot, but those two Roman varieties described above got 'em beat according to my taste buds.

Having eaten pizza all over Italy, I agree that Roman pizza is just as good as Neapolitan, albeit a bit different. Sicilian pizza, with its thicker crust, is also good and authentic. And pretty much anywhere else you can get a perfectly good one even if not in a distinctive regional style. I had a memorably good pizza at a restaurant just down the street from a Venice airport hotel, in fact.

I agree with both of you--there is fabulous pizza all over Italy.

Once when I was staying in Ravello, I asked a guy working in the kitchen of CUMPA COSIMO (solid Ravello trattoria, popular with tourists and locals) where to have dinner,, apart from the restaurants in the town, because (although there are good ones like the one in which he worked and we were eating,) I knew that locals were not the folks jamming the popular spots therefor down on the Coast. Where were those folks taking their families for Sunday dinner, or for dinners when they were not working??

I got two bits of advice:

1. If you want great pizza, drive to Tramonti. All of the makers of the best pizza in countries other than italy, if they are not Neopolitan, come from Tramonti. I have no idea whether or not this is even partly true, but one day maybe I will check it out.

2. If you. want great food (including very good pizza) while staying I Ravello (or Scala) drive in the other direction-not down to Amalfi, but up into the hills, in the direction of Tramonti, and the Autostrada. Neither this guy, not the people he asked, could remember the actual name of the restaurant, but they advised us to look for the giant cell phone or electrical towers, and that the place would be "right there."

That advice we did follow, winding our way up and up and up the narrow, bumpy road in the dark for maybe a half an hour but seemed like much longer, , and we did have dinner that night, in a restaurant where I heard no English spoken and no sign that any foreigners were about. And they actually did have some pretty good pizza, too. So close to the Amalfi Coast but a world away....

....And nothing to do with Katie Parla's pizza tours.