Someone said, "Don’t eat in a Restaurant with Photos of Their Food!"

Ciao! Ciao!

The title of my post was the mantra my sister-in-law Beth repeated several times as we hustled around Rome and Florence in May 2025. She mentioned that many bloggers and travel influencers (think Rick Steves et al.) claim that any restaurant that shows pictures of its food outside its establishment is not worth the effort to cross the threshold.

I disagree. Please let me explain.

A quick rainstorm had just passed following our Rome Ruins tour, and my travel mates and I, a bit wet and weary enough by carrying our heavyish backpacks, decided we were all hungry for lunch. Angry, dark grey clouds still hung low, and there was no guarantee the sun would shine for a while, so finding a restaurant on one of the main streets in Rome was plausible.

Once we turned the corner onto one of the main boulevards up from the ruins, we divided the group on both sides of the traffic-filled street to find a pleasing place to repast. Of course, we were hunting for a restaurant that could sit six and had no picture menus, per Beth. I never pushed back on the menu idea, but finding a place to sit six was certainly at the top of our hunt.

The three girls found a nice restaurant on our side of the street, or so we thought. Beth yelled over four lanes of heavy traffic to her husband, Don, that we found something over here. Not really hearing her initially, Don yelled back that he found one, too, and it can fit the six of us. Beth then yelled back, asking if the restaurant had pictures. By this time, Don didn’t respond back, but waved his hand like come over here, and headed into the place he had picked, Bill and Ryan behind him like little ducks following their big Daddy.

Sigh.

So, when honking horns and traffic cleared a bit, the three girls maneuvered around cars and motorcycles on the busy street to gain entrance to the restaurant with the pictured menus right outside the door. I hoped Beth didn’t notice, but the signs were too big not to miss.

Thankfully, it was a go at this “touristy” restaurant that Don “found.” Once we let our backpacks, which sometimes felt like it was filled with bricks, drop to the floor, pictures or no pictures, we were happy for some grub. The place was alive and smelled heavenly with homemade pasta and other Italian dishes. We were a bunch of hungry bears, and, heck, we are in Italy, where the food is GREAT anywhere, right?

Well, let me share that the place was filled with love and magnificent food. It was not the fanciest place in town, but it had incredible, caring wait staff, a great selection of Italian wines, and a cool vibe we all felt once we sat on the nondescript chairs. I felt like I was dining at a friend’s nonna’s home, because we could all feel the coziness and that extraordinary Italian charm. That is the heart of Rome - not only the ancient ruins, famous churches, and art, but the food, oh, that glorious food! I don’t think anyone could ever have a bad meal in all of Italy since almost everyone makes homemade pasta and uses the freshest ingredients for everything.

Our full bellies helped our attitudes as we weaved back to the main train station to head back to Poggibonsi. Before that last walk in Rome, a stop for gelato was high on my travel mates' list. I passed on this opportunity (I have a secondary post to write about gelato coming soon), but perhaps I shouldn’t have. My posse was raving like mad about how good it all was, and I believed them.

A distant, but pleasant memory of our lunch at Antica Roma on Via Cavour, it didn’t matter to any of us about those pictured menus. Maybe owners all over the city feel obligated to share their pasta, pizza, and more via photographs (like the sweet aromas don’t matter?) to the many passersby, so people can get an inkling of what they are in for should they enter any given restaurant. Before we had pocket computers, we all had to take a chance on where we ate, slept, and traveled since guidebooks could only take us so far. It was trial and error with little or no reviews or feedback on anything we may choose while on holiday. Winging it was it, ha!

I must say that the Ristorante e Pizzeria we ate at in Rome with the six of us in our group made the most significant impact on Beth. She was thrilled with her entree, as were all of us. When Don and Beth returned to Rome at the end of the trip in Tuscany to fly back to Ohio, their hotel was within walking distance of “our” restaurant. By golly, they made it a point to go back again and, this time, have dinner. They were excited to be back, and I suspect they ordered something different that was equally delicious.

Neither Beth nor Don cared about the pictured menus anymore because they learned the value of a great dining experience in the very heart of Rome, even getting to know the family that owns it.

Cibo squisito! (Great food). Now, that’s amoré!

Ciao!

Photo credit: Don Tomoff: 1) The six of us - Don, Beth, Linda, me, Bill & Ryan, 2) Outdoor seating at Antica Roma, 3) a photo of two entrees, 4) Don, Beth, and the restaurateur, 5) Business card/address