Calling all ROMANS or those who know Rome please!

[Dumbledoresgirl]

Hi.

I am after a bit of advice please about buying groceries in Rome.

We are spending 5 days there at the end of July - a family of 6 - in self catering accommodation. We are planning on eating out most of the time, but the cost means we can't eat out every meal so I am hoping to self cater breakfast and maybe one or two lunches. I am thinking of packing one or two foodstuffs and taking them with us (I presume there are no restrictions on taking food into Italy - thinking cereal, possibly a jar of something eg marmite?) but will need to buy some things there, eg milk, cheese, bread.

So my question is where would I find such food stuffs? (we are staying just east of Piazza Navona and south of the Pantheon). It needs to be within walking distance of this area. Supermarket? small shop? Are there regular opening and closing hours I need to know about? For preference, I would like an actual shop name and address but any general info would be great too.

Umm, I am sure I need more information than this, but I can't think what else I need to know right now...what sort of thing do Romans eat for breakfast? (we would like to have an as authentic experience as possible!)

Thanks.

Hi I lived in rome for a while. Generally Romans have a very light breakfast coffee and a sweet roll, even hotels don't usually offer a cooked breakfast. Though pizza is always available! The tazza d'ovo near the pantheon is about as authentic as it gets the rolls are to die for especially the chocolate ones, there are no seats but there's grass nearby to sit. If you're looking for somewhere with authentic Italian food the fortunato al pantheon is great, a little pricey though.
If you google di per di they have a store finder online they are a small day to day store. SMA is one of the bigger supermarkets again google. You will find everything there.
One tip is to take water bottles, there are loads of places to get free water in rome from the fountains and many cafes offer this as well especially if you have children.
Hope any of that helps have a great time.

There are a few Spar shops dotted around the centre of Rome. If I remember correctly there is one on Via Giustiniani and one just off via della Pilotta. I can't recall opening hours but I do remember that the one off Via della Pilotta had a great deli counter with mini pizzas and olives which we washed down with plenty of very reasonably priced Prosecco.
For a great value meal I would also recommend Old Bear (www.oldbear.it). Have fun!

theres a good spa supermarket just off the Pantheon next door to the pizza by the slice place. we bought bread jam and nutella for our kids for breakfast. we also went to the market for lunch one morning and had pancakes and croissants with fillings. generally we ate breakfast at home so that we could get an early start for sight seeing. we stayed at piazza della madallena where there are some good restaurants that are half the price of the pantheon there is a good ice cream place here as well and a bit further up one that has hundreds of flavours. things do seem still to shut from 1 until 4 so we tended to shop either later in the evening or first thing in the morning. you will have a fab time I am sure. we used the lonely planet guide to Rome would be worth buying it to make the most of your stay.

If you Google supermarkets in rome near pantheon several come up on a map.

We used despar (with the spar logo) a few times and it was fine for a few basics.

Lots of shops shut in the middle of the day but not all.

Authentic breakfast is a coffee and a pastry served standing up as it is 3 times cheaper than eating in prices. You can have this style of takeaway breakfast for 3 euros.

Thank you. Just knowing the names to look out for is helpful. It had not occurred to me I could google in English for something in Italian But the more research I do before we go, the better prepared I will be.

It is not my first visit to Rome, but I have not had to self cater before and you know how it is, you don't notice the places, eg supermarkets, you have no interest in. Also, having googled, seeing a photo of what is supposedly the nearest supermarket to us, it is not obvious from the outside that it is a supermarket!