Johannesburg, South Africa to Rome, Italy from $387

🌍 About rome

Rome's food is built on pork and sheep's cheese, not tomatoes. The four pasta classics — carbonara, amatriciana, gricia, cacio e pepe — share barely a handful of ingredients; order cacio e pepe to judge a kitchen (just pecorino, pepper, pasta water, no cream), or gricia, the guanciale-and-pecorino ancestor most tourists never order. Skip the restaurants ringing the Colosseum and eat in Testaccio, the old slaughterhouse quarter where offal cooking was born and where Monte Testaccio is literally a hill of broken ancient Roman amphorae. It's where Romans actually eat. Come April–May or September–October: warm days, lighter crowds, hotel rates near €100 against summer's €200-plus. Skip August — brutal heat, and half the city closes while locals flee to the coast.