We ate a lot of amazing vegan food in Rome, but it is more difficult to find vegan options there than other large European cities. According to Happy Cow, there are 25 vegan restaurants across all of the metropolis of Rome, vs 94 in Paris, 165 in London, 117 in Berlin, and even 13 in the much smaller Florence. And there are much fewer omni restaurants with vegan options than those other popular cities, too! Read on for my top ten tips for finding vegan options in Rome below.

One thing you will find in Rome is tons of simple options in the grocery stores. So when you are travelling to see the city, you can easily adapt with picnic lunches, takeaways, cooked meals, and creativity. When we went this year we knew the options were more scarce, and we didn’t want to venture too far from our Centro Storico base so we rented a (licensed) apartment and planned to cook once or twice a day.

While these tips are written for Rome, they would work in any city where you want to find the vegan options!

So without further ado, here are my top ten tips for finding vegan options in Rome

1. Use Happy Cow for recommendations, and then google the restaurant for current hours, closure days, and to see if they still offer vegan options.
2. Make a map of the city, like a saved list in google maps, with restaurants and attractions so you can easily see options near your planned attractions each day.
3. Join a travel Facebook group like Vegan Italy or Vegetarian & Vegan in Rome and scan past posts for recommendations or post yourself looking for recommendations.
4. Follow hashtags on instagram like #RomaVegana or #VeganRoma to see restaurants that regularly post their vegan options or locals that find awesome options.
5. A lot of restaurants, especially osterie and tavole base their menus of markets and seasonal items, so focus on restaurants that advertise vegan options to be sure they will have something on their daily menu.
6. Learn the items that are traditionally vegan (there aren’t many but there are a few!) like tomato bruschetta, Roman artichoke, fried potatoes, verdure from the contorni menu (veggies from the side dishes), or tomato or olive oil pasta made with dry pasta.
7. Learn how to say you are vegan in Italian, or say without eggs, dairy, meat, fish. “Sono vegano/a” is “I am vegan”. If the restaurant staff doesn’t know what vegan is, or confuses it with vegetarian, you can also look up how to say something like “I don’t eat…, is there anything on the menu like that” or “Does this contain meat, fish, milk, cheese, or eggs?” I’m not putting the translations for those here as they are complex phrases but google a few sites with phrasing tips (this blog post from World Vegan Travel is one of my favs) and keep one saved on your phone!
8. Enjoy lots of Roman pizza! Roman-style pizza is very different than Neapolitan pizza – it’s on a very thick dough and it reminds me of a focaccia with pizza toppings. The cheese-free veggie ones are almost always vegan.
9. Pack a picnic using grocery store items. Even without a kitchen it’s possible to create a great picnic from items you pick up at a local grocery or market and take it to a park or piazza to enjoy. Look for ciabatta, vegan cheese slices or spreads, vegan mortadella (hard to find, but deliciious) or other sliced “meat”, olive packets or vegan tapenade, seasonal prepared fruit, or even pre-made options in well-stocked stores.
10. Live on gelato! Most (but not all) gelaterie have fruit flavours that are accidentally vegan, plus a dark chocolate option that usually is. And some of the gelaterias even offer more options made with soy or almond milk like pistachio or cappuccino. While I’m joking about living on gelato, if you are are at a restaurant with vegan food options but no dessert, feel free to pop in to the nearest gelato place for your dolci instead! I had gelato every day on my recent trip and I tried so many places that all had vegan options!