Street Food Guide: How to Eat Cheap in Rome, Italy

Where to eat in Italy's capital on the cheap.

The concept of street food isn't new in Rome, where stalls selling cheap snacks populated the city center more than 2,000 years ago. In recent decades, pizza by the slice joints and supplì (fried rice ball) vendors have thrived in holes-in-the-wall all over town. But in the past few years, the number of shops selling economical snacks advertised as "street food," "cibo di strada," and the phonetic "strit fud" has boomed, and new food formats have been born to provide an array of cheap eats in a time of dire economic crisis.

For a variety of bureaucratic reasons, food trucks aren't common in Rome and just last week, the Roman city government banished tourist-oriented mobile food stalls parked around historical monuments. And while Romans apply the notion of street food more liberally than the global definition might allow, local "street food" is always portable, relatively economical, and often rooted in typical flavors and forms. Here's what (and where) to eat cheap in Rome:

Porchetta, Polpette di Bollito, Pizza al Taglio, Supplì, Trapizzino, Gelato & Sorbetto, Pizza Co' La Mortazza, Panini etc. etc. etc.

Thanks to EASTER.