Taste of Testaccio Food Tour, Rome: Review and 2026 Details

The Taste of Testaccio food tour is a 3.5-hour walk through Rome’s Testaccio district with 7 tasting stops, a maximum of 12 people and every bite and drink included, starting from €104 (about $121, £89) per guest. It runs daily at 10.30 and 11.15 from Piazza Testaccio, it takes ages 4 and up, and it is the tour I went on and would send a friend on.

Food can make or break a trip in a city like Rome, Italy, where plenty of places near the sights charge tourists more for worse food than a Roman would accept. I had my friend Maria from Heart Rome taking me out each evening, which is the ideal solution and not one most visitors have. A food tour is the nearest substitute: it puts you in shops and kitchens you would walk straight past, with someone who can tell you why they matter. I was a guest of Eating Europe on this one, the decision to finish everything put in front of me was entirely my own, and the 2026 prices and opening hours below come from the operator and the shops rather than from my receipt.

What the Taste of Testaccio tour includes in 2026

The Taste of Testaccio covers 7 stops in 3.5 hours for a maximum of 12 guests, with all food, all drinks and the guide included in one price. Eating Europe, which started in Rome in 2011 as Eating Italy and now runs tours in London, Amsterdam and Prague as well, publishes the details below on its own Taste of Testaccio page.

The current tasting list runs to cured meats and cheeses, supplì, caprese with buffalo mozzarella, bruschetta you build yourself at the market, all three of Rome’s canonical pastas, gelato, red and white wine and water. Eating Europe says the line-up moves with the day and the season, which matches what I found: the pastry I was given is an Easter cake that exists for about six weeks a year.

Vegetarians are catered for. Vegan, gluten-free and kosher options are limited and have to be flagged at booking, and anything outside what has been arranged for you is at your own risk.

What we ate, stop by stop

Our group met at Piazza Testaccio and worked outwards on foot, alternating food with a look at the neighbourhood. The guide, Dominico, was the reason the thing held together, and he knew every stallholder in the market by name.

I chose Testaccio over Eating Europe’s Trastevere tour because I was already sleeping in Trastevere. It was the right call. Trastevere has the bars and the Santa Maria church and everybody goes there, while Testaccio is a working residential district built on a hill of broken Roman amphorae, and I would not have walked into it on my own.

Pastries at Barberini

The first stop is Pasticceria Barberini on Via Marmorata, a coffee and pastry bar named after the family that started it, and it was full of people getting their morning coffee standing up. Dominico handed round colomba, the dove-shaped Easter cake you can only buy for a few weeks a year, which is fluffy, light and very sweet.

Then he produced small tiramisù served inside cups made of chocolate, which nobody had been told about. Barberini is at Via Marmorata 41 and opens at 06.00 every day, until 21.00 Monday to Saturday and 20.00 on Sunday.

Pizza at Volpetti Più

The pizza stop was Volpetti Più, around the corner on Via Alessandro Volta, where we had slices with plain tomato sauce and slices with tomato and buffalo mozzarella. Volpetti Più has since closed, so if you are working from an older review of this tour, that stop no longer exists in the form I had it.

The distinction Dominico drew over the pizza still holds everywhere in Rome. Rectangular pizza al taglio is takeaway food: you point at how big a piece you want, it is weighed, and you pay by weight. A round pizza is what arrives when you sit down and order one in a restaurant.

Meats and cheese at Volpetti

Salumeria Volpetti is the delicatessen the tavola calda was named after, and it is the stop I would go back to with a suitcase. One man in our group had told Dominico that prosciutto was his favourite thing in Italy, so he tasted first, and his face did the review for him.

We also tried salami and two cheeses, then had the run of the shop, and the owners kept handing over more things to try without being asked. Volpetti has been trading since 1973 at Via Marmorata 47 and opens Monday to Saturday, 09.00 to 20.30, closed Sunday.

A break in the Non-Catholic Cemetery

Halfway through the eating, Dominico took us to a cemetery, which nobody saw coming. The Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners is a walled garden holding more than 6,000 burials from around fifty religious denominations and nearly sixty countries, and two of the names are John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Keats asked for his name to be left off his stone. He had not been recognised as a poet in his lifetime and did not think he had earned one, so the grave carries only the epitaph he chose and no name. His friends later added a separate stone beside it with his name on, which is why there are two. The cemetery is at Via Caio Cestio 6, opens Monday to Saturday 09.00 to 17.00 with last entry at 16.30, and Sundays and public holidays 09.00 to 13.00 with last entry at 12.30. A donation is asked for at the entrance.

The Testaccio market

The market hall is the middle of the tour and the part that explains the neighbourhood. We learned which vegetables Romans actually cook with, built our own bruschetta from stall ingredients, and ate Sicilian cannoli, the fried tube filled with sweetened ricotta.

Mercato Testaccio is on Via Beniamino Franklin, in a covered modern hall rather than the old square, and its own opening hours are Monday to Saturday 07.00 to 15.30. Go in the morning if you want the market working rather than packing up.

Pasta at Flavio al Velavevodetto

The sit-down lunch is at Flavio al Velavevodetto, and it is three pastas: cacio e pepe, amatriciana and carbonara, which are the three Rome argues about. Having a proper table halfway through does two things, it lets the group talk to each other and it lets your legs stop, and it is the part of the format I would keep if I could only keep one.

The pasta is filling enough that its position near the end matters. Flavio al Velavevodetto is at Via di Monte Testaccio 97, dug into the side of the amphora hill, and the dining room has a glass wall showing the broken pots the hill is made of.

Supplì at Trapizzino

Supplì are fried rice balls, and I knew the Sicilian version first, the arancina, whose name comes from looking like a small orange. The Roman supplì is usually rice, tomato and cheese; the one we were given was rice with meat and meat sauce, and it is the point in the tour where you find out how full you are.

Trapizzino on Via Giovanni Branca 88 is where Stefano Callegari invented the trapizzino, and the company now has shops across Rome and one in Trieste. The Testaccio branch is the original.

Gelato at Giolitti

The tour ends with gelato at the Giolitti in Testaccio, which is not the Giolitti near the Pantheon that most Rome guides mean. This one is at Via Amerigo Vespucci 35 and opens Monday to Saturday, 06.30 to 23.30, closed Sunday.

Dominico used the stop to teach us how to spot real gelato, which turned out to be the single most useful thing on the tour, and it is below.

How to tell real gelato from the rest

Three things separate gelato made on the premises from gelato made from a powder mix, and you can check all three from the pavement before you commit. The signs are listed below, in the order they are easy to see.

1. Look at the colour. Real pistachio is a dull khaki-brown-green, not bright green, and real banana is grey, not yellow. Colours that look like the fruit’s advertising are colours that came out of a tub.
2. Look at how it is stored. Gelato piled into tall decorated mountains behind glass has been stabilised to hold that shape. Gelato kept flat in covered steel wells, the pozzetti, is being protected from air and light because it will not survive them.
3. Look at the flavour list. A short list that changes with what is in season is a kitchen. A permanent list of thirty flavours including several that do not grow anywhere is a supplier.

What has changed since my tour

Two things on the tour I took are no longer the way I found them, and both are worth knowing before you book on the strength of an older review. The list of what you eat has also moved on.

• Volpetti Più has closed. The pizza stop on Via Alessandro Volta is gone. The Salumeria Volpetti on Via Marmorata, which is the older and better of the two, is still trading.
• Pizza is no longer on the published tasting list. Eating Europe’s current line-up is cured meats and cheeses, supplì, caprese, bruschetta, three pastas and gelato, with wine throughout.
• The tour is 3.5 hours, not four, and runs 7 stops with a maximum of 12 guests. Eating Europe now runs several Rome tours rather than the two it had when I went, covering Trastevere, Campo de’ Fiori, the Jewish Ghetto, Monti and the Colosseum as well as Testaccio.

Is the Taste of Testaccio food tour worth it?

Yes, if you would otherwise eat near the sights and never cross the river to Testaccio, which describes most people on a short Rome trip. Everything we were given was good, every place we went was somewhere I would not have found alone, and the guide was an entertainer rather than a reciter of facts.

The case against it is arithmetic. At €104 (about $121, £89) a head it costs more than the food does, and if you are the kind of traveller who will happily walk into a market alone and point at things, the addresses below get you most of the way for the price of the food. What you are paying for is the guide, the order things come in, and not having to decide.

I have been on several food tours since this one and Eating Europe still sets the standard I measure them against.

Testaccio without a tour: the addresses

Every stop on the tour is a public shop or restaurant you can walk into, so the tour is a curated version of a walk anybody can do. The addresses and current hours are below, in the order the tour uses them.

Doing it yourself costs you the running order and the introductions. Dominico got us tastes at Volpetti that were not on any list because the owners knew him, and that does not happen to a stranger with a phone.

Where to stay in Rome

Stay in Trastevere or between Piazza Navona and Campo de’ Fiori, both of which put Testaccio within a walk or one tram stop. I spent three nights at Il Boom B&B in Trastevere, which has since stopped taking bookings, so that recommendation no longer stands.

The central alternative I have checked is Palazzo Lupardi Relais B&B at 104 Via del Governo Vecchio, three minutes from Piazza Navona, with breakfast included. Check dates for Palazzo Lupardi Relais. Our 4-day Rome itinerary covers the districts in more detail and the Colosseum underground tour is the other guided thing in Rome I would repeat.

How to get to Rome

Fly into Fiumicino and take the train in, which is what I did after a direct flight from Brussels. The FL1 regional line stops at Roma Trastevere and Roma Ostiense, and Ostiense is a ten-minute walk from Testaccio, which makes it the useful station for this tour.

To compare airlines and set a price alert, look at flights to Rome. If you are coming from elsewhere in Italy or Europe by rail, check train timetables and fares before assuming the plane wins.

Testaccio food tour FAQ

How long is the Taste of Testaccio food tour?

3.5 hours, with 7 stops and departures at 10.30 and 11.15 every day. Eating Europe’s other Rome tours run 3 to 4 hours.

How much does the Taste of Testaccio tour cost?

From €104 (about $121, £89) per guest, with all food, all drinks and the guide included and no upsells on the day.

Do you need to book the Testaccio food tour in advance?

Yes. Groups are capped at 12 and the tour needs a minimum of 2 guests, so it books out and it can fail to run.

Is the Testaccio food tour suitable for children?

Ages 4 and up are ticketed and under-4s join free without food. It is 3.5 hours of walking between stops, so it suits children who can manage that.

Where does the Taste of Testaccio tour start?

Piazza Testaccio 39, 00153 Rome. The guide carries a purple Eating Europe bag.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The five tips below come from the tour itself and from checking the addresses again in 2026, and each one changes how the day goes.

1. Eat almost nothing beforehand. I had a light breakfast and was still beaten by the supplì, which arrives near the end after a sit-down plate of three pastas. The tour is a full day’s eating compressed into 3.5 hours.
2. Take the Testaccio tour rather than the Trastevere one if you are sleeping in Trastevere. I did, and it was the right call: you get a district you would otherwise never see instead of a guided version of your own street.
3. Go back to Salumeria Volpetti afterwards, with room in your bag. Via Marmorata 47, Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday. It is the one stop on the tour you can take home.
4. Do not plan the tour for a Sunday if you want the market. Mercato Testaccio runs Monday to Saturday, 07.00 to 15.30, and both Volpetti and the Testaccio Giolitti close on Sundays.
5. Learn the gelato test on the tour and use it all week. Grey banana and khaki pistachio kept behind covered steel lids is the short version, and it saved me from several bright tubs afterwards.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the review in this post comes from the Taste of Testaccio tour she walked in Testaccio while staying in Trastevere in Rome. The team covers Rome and the rest of Italy for independent travellers, including the food tours and guided visits worth booking, the markets and delicatessens worth a detour and the neighbourhoods worth sleeping in, and re-checks the addresses and opening hours on this page when they change.