The Best Street Food in Rome

Grab it and go - here's a guide to the best street food in Rome

Rome is a city best seen on foot and luckily, there's a whole variety of street food perfect for snacking on while wandering its cultural sites. As with the best Italian food, these budget-friendly dishes are fantastic simple comforts and prioritise fresh, quality ingredients. From doughy delicacies to sweet treats, check out some of the city's popular favourites below.

Pizza Bianca

This flatbread is a popular favourite and is a foccacia style bread, served fresh out of the oven. Baked with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt, it might not sound like much but it's utterly addictive. It's available at most bakeries and makes for a tasty snack to tide you over between meals. It can also be served with a number of fillings, including melted mortadella cheese, tomatoes and prosciutto for a heartier meal.

Supplí

These deep fried rice croquettes are similar to arancini, however the rice is flavoured with meat or alternate sauces and packed around a ball of melted mozzarella. Served frequently as appetisers at restaurants, they're also great street food snacks and everybody has their own take on the recipe with meat, tomatoes and even pizza-flavoured renditions at different stalls.

Gelato

Rome's numerous gelaterias are the bane of any dieter, but fantastic for culinary travellers. With numerous stalls and sit-down restaurants all over the city, this sweet treat is made with milk, cream, sugar and is generally thicker and richer than regular ice cream. With numerous flavours including stracciatella (a vanilla ice cream sprinkled with chocolate) and fruitier options like cherry, it's a treat made for hot summer days.

Trapizzino

These triangular dishes are a mash up of pizzas and sandwiches, using pizza dough to create a sandwich pocket filled with cheese, tomatoes and beef ragu. As with any great street food recipe, every stall has their own spin on it and creative variations include offal, octopi and eggplant parmesan.

Pizza al Taglio

As one of Italy's most famous culinary exports, Pizza al Taglio is a must for any Rome traveller. These large rectangular pizzas are served by the slice (much like New York's famous dollar slice joints) and topped off with anything you can think of: artichokes, zucchini, truffles, prosciutto, olives and more. With simple bases like tomato and cheese (margherita), tomato (rossa) or olive oil, garlic and rosemary (bianca), there's an endless number of varieties.

Porchetta

You can never go wrong with slow roasted pork and the Italians have taken it to the next level. Porchetta, sandwiches stuffed with juicy deboned pork and crispy crackling, are a hit with both locals and tourists and can be found at street food stalls all over the city. Sprinkled with salt and herbs such as rosemary, it's a simple comfort that always hits the spot. There's been a recent rise in places that serve processed porchetta that just isn't the same, so keep an eye out for the mom and pop shops that serve up the real deal.