Is there anything worse than being sick while you’re on holiday? Poor old Dr HH was coughing and wheezing the whole time we were in Rome, meaning that we had to cut back on our adventuring a little and eat our evening meals in the comfort of our accommodation. I didn’t mind too much skipping some of the evening spots I’d been eyeing up, but when it comes to sweet treats, I refuse to compromise! However dire the circumstances, there will be baked goods and creamy gelato!

Our first stop when we arrived was Wani, an all-vegan bakery. The name stands for ‘We are not ingredients’, which is obviously a sentiment I can get behind. It’s a lovely little place with a few seats and a steady stream of customers, with good reason!

We arrived at around 11am when they were just selling out of breakfast pastries and introducing a couple of savoury options.  There were some cakes that looked incredibly elegant and delicious, but we didn’t have room for everything we wanted, more’s the pity.

This slice of quiche was delicious!  (The savoury food was out the back, so you might have to ask – the staff were really friendly and talked us through everything in perfect English.) It was a potato, leek and chard quiche with a really cheesy flavour and a very soft pastry fold at the edge -sometimes those bits can be quite tough.  It was a thing of beauty. Speaking of which…

HELLO.

Yes, these so-called chocolate bombs were exactly as good as they look.  They were essentially sugary little donuts filled with the best vegan nutella I’ve ever had – I genuinely think it could just be melted Vegolino, it was that good.  We had one each and would have got more had they not sold out while we were scoffing.

But we could still get a few things for the next day. (The light in our accommodation left a lot to be desired, but you can still get the idea.) It was carnivale weekend when we visited, so they were stocking this frappe, which is some kind of fried dough. It was sweet and crispy, and I approved!

And we got some regular old croissants too. One was filled with lemon cream, and the other was originally empty, but we were given the option of having it filled with chocolate or pistachio cream. We went for the latter.

Both were extremely well-filled, as you can see, though breadier than the traditional croissant. The lemon one was more delicious, as it was so zesty! These were a great start to the day.  I heartily recommend a trip to Wani, either to eat in if you can grab a seat (they also have hot drinks) or to get some takeaway treats.  It’s not in the city centre, but is easily accessible by metro and is on the same line as Rome’s Non-Catholic Cemetery…

…which is the resting place of Shelley and Keats, and also houses a giant pyramid!

Our next breakfast came from a different all vegan bakery (there are three in Rome – yes, you read that correctly), Dharma’s Vegan Cakes. Again, they had a sumptuous cake corner, and served hot drinks as well, but we were only there for a few takeaway pastries. They had some plain croissants, but we wanted something more exciting, hence the flaky cinnamon roll and sweet, sugary knot.  Wani was the better option overall, but this was still pretty exciting, and I’d have loved to sit down and enjoy one of their decadent-looking cakes. Unfortunately I didn’t find any fun tourist spots in the vicinity of this bakery.

And no trip to Italy is complete without gelato! As it wasn’t quite so tropical on this visit, we had to settle for just the one, from Cremeria Monteforte. It had the fairly standard vegan options – various fruits, plus dark chocolate. I was delighted with my forest fruits and chocolate combo.

There are a few all-vegan gelaterias in Rome, but as they’re not located right next to the Pantheon like this one, we didn’t manage to see them.

And you know you’re in a vegan-friendly city when they have vegan baked goods in the budget airport. Yes, Moka Cafe in Ciampino airport had vegan croissants, sandwiches and carrot cake, plus soya milk for hot drinks. We were at the airport at 7am, so this was sublime news. The croissants looked rather well done, so I opted for the carrot cake – even the wrapper had the word “vegan” printed on it!  It was a good, flavoursome sponge, and made flying a bit more bearable, so let’s be thankful for that!

After a tremendously successful summer trip to Italy, I was really pleased to find another vegan-friendly Italian city to add to the list. So, when in Rome, eat all the vegan sweet treats!