UrbanPicnics

Italy

Rome

Roman street food was built for this. Pizza al taglio is sold by weight, cut with scissors and folded into paper. Supplì are fried rice balls you eat with one hand. None of it needs a table, and the city is full of gardens on hills with views worth sitting down for.

5 places to sit · 11 places to buy food · checked 2026-09-14

Green markers are the picnic spots. Amber ones are where to buy the food. Every place below also links straight to Google Maps for walking directions.

Before you go

  • Pizza al taglio is priced per kilo. Point at what you want and say 'così' — like this — as they cut. A slice is usually €3–5.
  • Sitting on the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain steps is banned and fined. The gardens on this list are all fine.
  • Public drinking fountains — nasoni — run cold and free all over the city. Block the spout with your finger and it arcs upward.

Giardino degli Aranci

Aventine Hill

A walled orange grove on top of the Aventine with a terrace looking straight across the Tiber at St Peter's dome. Go an hour before sunset and the whole city turns the colour of the bricks.

Where to sit
Benches, low walls and gravel under the orange trees. Little grass.
Open
7am–9pm.

Walking directions to Giardino degli Aranci

Pick up food first

  1. Mordi e Vai

    €

    Panini filled straight from the pot: allesso di scottona, meatballs, tripe

    Roman offal cooking in a bread roll, made by a former butcher. Lunchtime only, and it sells out.

    16 min walk Mon–Sat 10am–2.30/3pm. Closed Sunday.

    Box 15, Mercato di Testaccio, 00153 · Directions

  2. Supplì Roma

    €

    Supplì — fried rice balls with a molten mozzarella centre — plus pizza by the slice

    €2–3 each and the size of a fist. The cacio e pepe one is the one to get.

    12 min walk Mon–Sat 10am–9pm. Closed Sunday.

    Via di S. Francesco a Ripa 137, 00153 · Directions

  3. Trapizzino

    €€

    A pocket of pizza bianca stuffed with slow-cooked Roman stews

    Invented in Rome in 2008 and now everywhere. Chicken cacciatora or the meatballs.

    18 min walk Daily from 12pm until late

    Piazza Trilussa 46, 00153 · Directions

Passeggiata del Gianicolo

Janiculum Hill, Trastevere

The highest viewpoint in central Rome and the one the locals use. A long tree-lined walk along the ridge above Trastevere, with the entire skyline laid out below and busts of Garibaldi's soldiers watching you eat.

Where to sit
Benches and low walls along the whole ridge. Shade from umbrella pines.
Open
Open all hours. A cannon is fired at noon.

Walking directions to Passeggiata del Gianicolo

Pick up food first

  1. Trapizzino

    €€

    Stuffed pizza-bread pockets

    At the bottom of the hill on the Trastevere side. Buy here, then walk up.

    11 min walk Daily from 12pm

    Piazza Trilussa 46, 00153 · Directions

  2. Supplì Roma

    €

    Supplì and pizza al taglio

    Deeper into Trastevere, and the better of the two if you only have room for one.

    16 min walk Mon–Sat 10am–9pm. Closed Sunday.

    Via di S. Francesco a Ripa 137, 00153 · Directions

  3. Forno Campo de' Fiori

    €

    Pizza bianca and pizza rossa, sold by weight

    Note the afternoon closure. The plain pizza bianca with salt and oil is the Roman standard.

    15 min walk Mon–Sat 8am–2.30pm and 4.30–7.30pm. Closed Sunday.

    Campo de' Fiori 22, 00186 · Directions

Lungotevere at Castel Sant'Angelo

Ponte, Prati

The riverside lawns and benches below Hadrian's tomb, facing the Ponte Sant'Angelo with its ten baroque angels. Close enough to the Vatican to be convenient, far enough that the crowds have thinned.

Where to sit
Grass and benches along the embankment, plus the wide stone parapet.
Open
Open all hours.

Walking directions to Lungotevere at Castel Sant'Angelo

Pick up food first

  1. Bonci Pizzarium

    €€

    Pizza al taglio with rotating, unusual toppings, on a long-fermented dough

    The most famous pizza al taglio in Italy. Standing room only, so buying to go is the point. Take the metro one stop to Cipro.

    26 min walk Daily 11.15am–10pm

    Via della Meloria 43, 00136 · Directions

  2. Antico Forno Roscioli

    €

    Pizza by the slice, focaccia, bread, pastries

    Open seven days, which makes it the Sunday answer. The mortadella pizza is the one.

    18 min walk Daily 7.30am–8pm

    Via dei Chiavari 34, 00186 · Directions

  3. Forno Campo de' Fiori

    €

    Pizza bianca by weight

    Across the river in the centro storico, fifteen minutes on foot over the bridge.

    14 min walk Mon–Sat, with a long afternoon break. Closed Sunday.

    Campo de' Fiori 22, 00186 · Directions

Villa Borghese

Pinciano

Eighty hectares of gardens above the Spanish Steps, with a boating lake, a fake Greek temple and the Pincio terrace looking down over Piazza del Popolo and the rooftops beyond it.

Where to sit
Grass, benches, and the balustrade at the Pincio terrace.
Open
Open all hours; the Pincio terrace is busiest at sunset.

Walking directions to Villa Borghese

Pick up food first

  1. Pastificio Guerra

    €

    Two fresh pastas a day, one meat and one vegetarian, about €5 a box

    A shop, not a restaurant — you take the box and go. Absurdly cheap for this street.

    8 min walk Daily 1pm–9pm

    Via della Croce 8, 00187 · Directions

Villa Celimontana

Celio

Five minutes from the Colosseum and almost empty. A quiet park with an Egyptian obelisk in the middle, gravel paths, cherry trees and Roman families with pushchairs.

Where to sit
Grass, benches, shade. The best-value shade near the Colosseum.
Open
Dawn to dusk.

Walking directions to Villa Celimontana

Pick up food first

  1. Zia Rosetta

    €€

    Small filled rosetta rolls, three to a portion, with inventive combinations

    In Monti, on the other side of the Colosseum. Good gluten-free bread, which is rare.

    20 min walk Mon–Wed 10.30am–4pm, Thu–Sun 10.30am–10pm

    Via Urbana 54, 00184 · Directions

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