Sure, it’s the capital of Italy, hosts Vatican City, and is the home of world-renowned sites like the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, and the Roman Forum. But if there’s one reason to visit the chaotically charming mecca of Rome, it’s for the food. Here, vegetables are green, meat a key player, and dishes typically have no more than four or five main ingredients–yet are aggressively flavorful. 

While the food of Rome’s counterparts like Naples, Genova, and Palermo were mainly influenced by other cultures, here, the city’s cuisine was created internally via the surrounding countryside’s pastoral traditions, the Jewish community–the oldest in Europe–and the Testaccio slaughterhouse.