Food tour on day of arrival in Rome?

I think the idea of a food, walking tour at the beginning of your stay in Rome is a good one to introduce you to the area and food specialities. My only concern is to see if it is rebookable or cancelable if your flight is greatly delayed because of weather, mechanical or other issues. Otherwise I like the idea of having an engaging, early evening walking tour on your day of arrival.

What time do you leave the US? That would be 11:30 AM your body clock time. If if we’re me, I’d do it the second or third day.

What time do you arrive in Rome?

If you arrive early enough to get a 30-60 minute power nap ( and not longer) and have time to shower, it could be a great way to start your vacation.

If you will only have time to drop your luggage at the hotel and dash off to dinner, then you may find yourself struggling to stay awake until they serve the gelato.

I've done food tours on arrival day, and they work well for me.
My flights from the east coast arrive early in the day. I prefer to take a short nap when I can get into my room and by early evening I'm ready for a walking tour and appreciate not needing to find a restaurant.

People react differently to jet lag and sleep deprivation (and some lucky people can sleep well on planes). For me a food tour on arrival day, especially that late in the day, would be a bad idea because it would force a pace on me, force me to focus on specific information, and have me eating too much. I'd be too zonked out to appreciate it and get the most of my investment. But your experience may be different, might as well try and find out.

Your body clock is off too, with jet lag, so its not just a lack of sleep issue. We never have an appetite for dinner on the arrival day, as it is midday not evening, according to my stomach. Sitting at a table with a full stomach would put me to sleep.

But I don’t think on a food tour you sit at a table and have a full meal (?). I think you wander around sampling various things. To me it sounds like a good plan for arrival day — especially since your hotel is so centrally located (I.e. it will be easy to get back there after the tour when you are tired).

I mean, do you risk being zoned out? Yes, but you don't know for sure, and being up and walking around is a lot better plan than most things!

I'm a zombie on arrival day. Food tours are expensive. It would be a disastrous idea for me, because I'm quite sure I wouldn't make it to the starting point. Walking is a very good idea, but the most I'd do is research options for walking tours of the just-show-up-and-pay (or tip) variety.

You've traveled to Europe at least once before. How do you feel on arrival day?

Thanks for all the feedback!

On our last trip to Europe, we fared pretty well, walked along the Ramblas and had dinner, and didn't go to bed until 10 pm. We were up quite early the next morning as I recall (the internal clock no doubt).

We are supposed to land at FCO mid morning, so I'm not really concerned about missing the tour.

Although we will probably not be at the top of our game, I do like the idea of having a local show us around and to not have to worry about finding a restaurant on our own the first day.

We took a food tour in Rome right after Christmas in 2019, expensive and filling! We enjoyed it a lot. There would be no way I could get any value from one on arrival day. We usually take a daytime flight into London and continue on the next day to other places in Europe. We still waited one more day for our Roman food tour.

You've hit on something else key, Todd: not having to go looking for somewhere to eat that first night, it will be taken care of for you ! And as someone mentioned upthread, you will undoubtedly get ideas from your tour / want to return to one or several places that you try out that first night!

Clearly, it all depends on how YOU (and your travel companion) respond to the flight -- for myself after on overnight fight from the west coast I have to concentrate on just putting one foot on front of the other and remaining upright. Because we take longer trips, losing the first day to restorative sleep isn't a totally bad thing. Maybe some emergency granola bars in my carryon.

toddw, if you do it, come back here and report on your experience.

It wouldn't work for me. Fatigue can make me grumpy. Food tours tend to be more social than sightseeing tours. I wouldn't want to be on the tour and be perceived as someone bringing the group down.

First, I'd like to thank everyone who posted a reply.

After reviewing the many responses and discussing with my DW, we have decided to go ahead and book the tour. Rest assured, I'll be sure to post a follow up on how it all turned out.

Happy Travels!

Hi Todd,

Just read your last response before I could even give my opinion lol. I will give a thumbs up anyway.

I think it might be a little easier for you since you will be flying in from Boston, I presume.
(When I fly into Italy, I arrive midday also. So the daytime hours usually help getting acclimated easier.)

I avoid alcohol at the airports and on the planes. I drink lots of water. For me, that helps with many things.

Since you will be arriving in Rome around lunch time or there about, you will have time to check into your hotel, take a shower, organize your belongings in the room - so when you return after your tour, you can get ready for bed and have a good night's sleep to begin your Roman Holiday.

I read a few of the reviews for this particular tour, and it seems many people enjoyed it.

Since it is in the neighborhood of your hotel, you won't have far to walk to and from.

After some good pasta and some good wine, (and maybe a little flute of prosecco) you will be ready for a good night's sleep!

Enjoy.

I’m glad to hear you have booked the food tour, it will help to keep you on your feet and walking around and awake. As others have noted, your dinner is taken care of, too.
I will share my experience with a cooking class I took on my arrival day in Rome which, in retrospect, was not the best idea, as standing for a couple hours rolling out pasta dough didn’t make it easy to keep my eyes open. Walking will be much better!
The class began about 7 pm, I chatted with other tourists during the class and at dinner we ate our handmade pasta and drank wine! Lots of fun. Later, a taxi dropped me at my hotel at 11 pm, my flight had arrived about 9 or 10 am so it was a long day. I had almost no jet lag after that for my week in Rome tour. Such a memorable trip. Next time I would book a walking food tour on arrival day. Walking is better for keeping awake because there were moments I was almost overcome with sleepiness between instructions from our chef and a lull in conversation.
Enjoy! Report back, we love to read trip reports.

You've got to eat, right? Sounds like fun!

When are you going to be in Rome? We’ll be there in October and were thinking of doing that same food tour. I would love to hear what you think of the tour once you’ve done it.

In a different thread from his trip, Todd has posted about the food tour they took on their arrival day (you have to scroll down the thread to get to the post):

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/flying-to-rome-in-2-days

Spoiler alert: they loved it!

As promised, here are my takeaways from partaking in the food tour on the day of our arrival.

We arrived at our hotel (Smeraldo) earlier than expected, around 10:00, our room was ready, so we stowed away our belongings, and immediately headed out towards Campo di Fiore. On the short walk to the Campo, we stopped at Largo Librari, sat at a small cafe, and had caffe and a cornatto.

Well caffeinated, off to the Campo. While enjoyable, I was a bit taken aback on the touristy nature of the Campo. Next stop was Piazza Navona, which was practically deserted (yea!). from Navonna, it was onto the Pantheon. I'm a RS devotee, so I was determined to make the most of our first day. Unfortunately, our travelling companions were fading fast, so we all walked back to the hotel where we left them so they could nap. While they napped, my DW and I ventured out again in search of lunch, which was easily accomplished a few blocks from the hotel. After some delicious pasta and a little wine, we strolled awhile, then headed back to the hotel for an apperitivo on the rooftop terrace.

At 17:00, we headed with our companions to Piazza Farnese to meet up with the tour. Our guide who was born in Rome to a US serviceman and an Italian mother, obviously spoke excellent Italian and English. We started out by visiting a salumeria in Camp di Fiore which has been in business for over 120 years. Next stop was back at Largo Librari for the best Baccala (fried Cod) any of us had ever tasted. Next we were off to Trastevere, for a lovely meal of 2 classic roman pastas (cacio e pepe and ameritiano sp?) followed by veal saltimbucco. I must note that wine was flowing freely at all of the above stops, and in combination with the jet lag, names of the businesses have escaped me. Last stop was a short walk to sample gelato, which was a perfect end to our tour.

After saying arriverducci to the tour, we strolled back to our hotel (about 12 minutes), went to the rooftop for a night cap (it was a full moon) and then retired for an excellent night's sleep.

As this was my first overnight in Rome, I am very glad we took this tour. It really got us into the rhythm of the city and helped us get our bearings, not to mention beat the jet lag. On my next visit to Rome, we will probably do our own thing, as I now feel quite comfortable navigating and enjoying this remarkable City.

I would be happy to answer anyone's questions, should there be any.

Ciao

toddw thanks for reporting back. Glad you had an excellent experience

Todd - Thanks for posting this report. We’ll be in Rome 2 weeks from now and we’re also staying at the Hotel Smeraldo. The food tour sounds good. I think we’ll sign up for it too.

Todd, I’m happy to hear you took and enjoyed the food tour. I would have (and actually have) done the same thing for the same excellent reasons. Our food tour in Rome was our first and very similar to yours. We loved it so much, food tours became one of those things we always book when we travel now. What better way to get to know where you are and to be fed such terrific goodies! We did later learn a lesson though…..we booked another great food tour in Ljubljana but unfortunately for the same day our Rick Steve’s tour started. Can’t say we enjoyed our first tour night dinner together as much as we should/could have-we were all so already stuffed. We won’t make that mistake again!