Mixing it up in Italy--food wise

You will be surprised at the variety of food there is in Italy. It is not all pasta and pizza.

Enjoy

We saw all kinds of Asian restaurants in Rome. I wouldn't worry about finding something different than Italian food to eat.

There are a lot of interesting looking ethnic restaurants on the Via Marsala side of Termini-- not on Via Marsala per se but in the neighborhood on that side.

Carolyn,, just a warning, where we live we have alot of good Asian food available,, and many ethnic restaurants.. we love flavourful and spicy Thai, Vietmese, etc etc.
My experience in both Italy and France is they don't really do spicy well. They are "wimpy". For instance, last summer in Rome my 12 yr old ordered a pizza "diablo", and the waiter warned me it was very hot and spicy and maybe too hot for her. We ordered in anyways( as we had already tried finding spicy in Paris, and that was wimpy too!).

It was not what we would have considered hot or spicy.. My basic thought here ,, is stick with Italian,, at least it will be what it is meant to be, and not toned down versions.

I am not really big on Italian food, but we did have a really good roasted rosemary chicken dish,, very flavourful.. so it is possible to eat well and not just pasta all the time.

Pasta is only one of the choices in the second course in the usual Italian restaurant meal of four courses ie;
1. antipasti (starters) -
2. primi (includes pasta)-
3. secondi (fish/meat plus vegetables) -
4. desert/fruit.
So you could skip the primi course altogether or have say a risotto instead.

What Americans call "Italian food" is really "Italian American", having very little to do with the variety of food you will find in Italy. Italians eat everything we do, and more. Fresh vegetables, soups, seafood, meats, just like in restaurants here! (but better!) You name it, it may be cooked differently, but they have it! Though, I must admit, I never saw fettucinni alfredo offered in Italy. I asked; they told me no, Alfredo died!

Ditto Lorraine. Italian restaurants have a variety of entrees including food and game we don't have at home (rabbit, wild boar, other stuff I can't remember and didn't order..) You won't get bored. Pasta is not the main course and you can't get a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs. More importantly they don't use corporate factory food out of cans, so it's not going to taste mediocre like Italian/American food.

But, I don't think Carolyn is implying she thinks Italian food is like Italian American food. Just looking for a change of pace. Asian food is not the ethnic cuisine of choice though. I paid little attention to ethnic food scene, but other Mediterranian cuisine can be found for a very good price. Greek caught my eye. Rick has pointers on ethnic cuisine in his guide since it's a favorite of the budget conscious.

For a cheap lunch, I'd keep an eye out for "Kebab." You'll probably see a bunch of these stands, at least up north here. I always find the kebab stands to be a tasty inexpensive meal. I just don't remember if I saw any in Rome or not....? In Rome, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant which was really great. (I don't see a lot of Indian food in Italy in general, so when I find one I go for it!)

And yes, I just want to agree with the other comments about the great expansive variety of Italian food. I haven't gotten sick of Italian restaurants yet!

To me, with just a few days in Italia, "mixing it up" in terms of food would be like spending the day at the Louvre but wanting to "mix it up" with something other than art! (: Get away from the tourist zones, and you'll find an infinite variety of pastas, meats, fish, sauces, sides and desserts that don't resemble the stereotypical Italian food. That's my advice.

The food everywhere in Italy ruined us for anything we can find back home, and we cannot wait to get back there and eat nothing but real Italian food the entire time. It's one of the main reasons we go.

You'll find completely different types of Italian food in the three cities you'll be visiting. We were in Italy for two separate visits (first one for four weeks, second one for three weeks) and never got tired of eating the local cuisine. That said, there's tons of non-Italian food in Rome. I just can't imagine wanting to eat it, for the same example given above in talking about going to the Louvre but not wanting to see a lot of art.