The height of citrus season is just starting to wind down here in Rome, and I feel an urgent need to get in on as much of the action as I can in the next month or so. Luckily the tiny fruitteria just outside my door is still piled high each day with an astounding assortment of oranges, tangerines, clementines, and lemons. Other signs of citrus mania are evident on trips to the market. Huge takeaway buckets of sweet oranges are conveniently stacked at the front of my supermercato—there seemed to be one sitting in every creaking, wheeled cart I passed the other day. Even shoppers running in and out for a quart of milk and a pack of... More

Editor's note: We're excited to introduce the following author to you today—though you may already be familiar with her work. Gina DePalma is the pastry chef at Mario Batali restaurant Babbo and the author of Dolce Italiano. She's now in Rome, doing research for a new cookbook, and will be posting weekly here on Serious Eats as her journey there unfolds. Outside of Forno Marco Roscioli. I engage in a specific eating ritual immediately upon my arrival in Rome; it is a personal affirmation to my heart and stomach that I am really, truly here. Other Roma regulars may want to run to the nearest bar for a perfectly pulled espresso, sit down to a steaming plate of spaghetti alla... More

It's July and serious eaters' gustatory thoughts turn to ice cream. Every city has its creamy delights, its "drips-run-down-the-side-of-your-face" pleasures, and here at Serious Eats we have decided to explore the ice cream culture of every state and city we can, in the US and beyond. Today we explore the Eternal City, Rome. We have been inspired to do so by a enlightening (hey, it is the Eternal City) story in the New York Post by David Appell. I like his fundamental premise: "Partly because of its size, the Eternal City has some of the finest gelaterie on the planet. Unfortunately (and any New York City bagel lover can understand this) there are plenty of hacks gelato serving gelato-ish--bluntly,... More