Verified Writer4.912527 reviews
Verified Writer
Rome, Italy
4.95(3841)
14 Guests Max
3 hrs
24h Free CancellationSpending Thanksgiving in Rome this year and wondering where to find a little of that holiday warmth. Thankfully, there’s Friendsgiving — a Thanksgiving-style celebration with friends instead of family, and the Italian capital is not short of fun ideas for the festive season.
While the tradition of gathering friends around the table to share in great food and good company dates back decades, the term “Friendsgiving” only came about in the mid-2000s to signify a relaxed, inclusive twist on Thanksgiving. Not everybody gets to travel home for the end of November and gather with family around a food-laden table. But Friendsgiving gives people the chance to gather their “chosen family” — whether they be travel buddies, classmates, coworkers, or close friends — and share a sociable meal filled with laughter and togetherness.
The Friendsgiving meal generally takes place on or around Thanksgiving (Thursday, 27th November, this year). Usually, Friendsgiving is a potluck-style meal. But sometimes hosts might provide and cook everything themselves. The feast is especially popular among millennials, whose remote-working situations might not allow them to return home, or those in the LGBTQ+ community, many members of which have strained relationships with their biological families. But Friendsgiving is by no means exclusive to any particular demographic.
What better place to celebrate that spirit than in Rome — the capital of a country that has perfected the art of eating, drinking, and connecting over good food?
At Carpe Diem Tours, we offer fun, festive Friendsgiving ideas for groups of friends or solo travellers who want to meet new people. So why not make this Friendsgiving one to remember!
If you’ve already got your group together, these private classes let you create your own cosy Friendsgiving feast — without any of the stress of cooking (or cleaning!) in your apartment:
Sip, paint, and laugh your way through an evening of creativity. Guided by a local artist, you and your friends can toast to the holidays while creating your own masterpieces.
Perfect for small groups looking for a fun, relaxed night that’s part art class, part party.
Nothing says Italian Friendsgiving like making pasta and dessert from scratch!
Roll, cut, and shape fresh fettuccine or ravioli, then learn the secrets of crafting the perfect tiramisù. You’ll cook together, laugh together, and enjoy the meal you’ve made — just like family.
👉 Book your pastsa & tiramisù cooking class here
Turn your Friendsgiving into a pizza party! Learn to make authentic Roman-style pizza dough, bake it in a traditional oven, and share your creations straight from the peel. Add wine, music, and friends, and you’ve got the perfect Italian-style celebration.
Each experience is private, customisable, and designed for fun — ideal for travellers who want a memorable way to celebrate together during the holiday season.
👉 Book your pizza & cocktails class here
Speaking as someone who once had to spend Christmas alone in Italy due to my passport getting lost in the post, I fully understand that spending the festive season alone can suck. But if this describes your situation, don’t despair. The Italian capital is a city that never sleeps, and there are plenty of fun, sociable things to do in Rome this festive season.
Why not make Friendsgiving 2025 extra memorable by creating your own Italian feast? Our Pasta & Tiramisu Class teaches traditional handmade pasta techniques alongside Italy’s most beloved dessert. Both classes welcome kids and create that warm, family-focused atmosphere that makes every Thanksgiving Day special.
Looking for something with a little more buzz? Our Spritz & Spaghetti Class combines pasta-making with cocktail crafting for a truly Roman celebration.
Browse our Rome Cooking Classes
Our Tipsy Tour of Rome offers the most lively, offbeat way to experience the city’s nightlife, culture, and stories — all accompanied by drinks (with non‑alcoholic options, too).
A Tipsy Tour isn’t a typical bar crawl: it's a social and cultural combo that introduces you to local wines, aperitivos, and spritzes while your guide weaves in scandalous anecdotes, historic tidbits, and hidden gems around Monti and the Roman Forum. It's also the perfect tour for those looking to meet other fun, like-minded travellers.
👉 Secure your spot on our Tipsy Tour
If you’d rather let someone else take care of the cooking, Rome has plenty of places serving traditional Thanksgiving feasts with an Italian twist. Here are a few of our favourites:
The Hard Rock Café on Via Veneto serves roast turkey, stuffing, and all the trimmings from Thursday to Sunday, with live music and plenty of festive cheer.
Situated on the bourgeois yet bohemian Via Margutta, EMME Ristorante will be serving its annual Thanksgiving dinner with pumpkin soup, stuffed turkey, cranberry sauce and all the trimmings. Make sure to reserve your table well in advance.
This year, VIVI will be doing Thanksgiving with an Italian twist, offering vegetarian and vegan options for €45 per person in two beautiful settings: one at the bottom of Piazza Navona and the other at Le Selle, quite far to the north of the city.
Spending the holidays abroad, away from family, can be a little daunting. But if done right, it can also be one of the most memorable experiences of your life. Friendsgiving in Rome offers you the unique opportunity to create your own traditions, surrounded by close friends, good food, and the beauty of the Italian capital.
So whether you’re mixing dough, painting with wine, or toasting under the Christmas lights, remember this: in Rome, you’re never really celebrating alone.
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Rome, ItalyOne of the best ways to meet people in a new city is to grab a drink together, and few city serve up more iconic drinks than Rome. Whether you’re travelling solo or with a group, for a long vacation or a short city break – our Rome Tipsy Tour is for you!
This unique nightlife experience combines all our favourite elements of travel: discovering new places, being immersed in different cultures, meeting fun people, and trying out a range of delicious drinks! It’s not a run-of-the-mill bar crawl. It’s a sociable tour that gives you a real taste of with Rome’s sights, stories, and signature drinks in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere with fun, local hosts. We also welcome sober travellers who want to join for a social experience but who want to forgo a hangover, so we’ll have non-alcoholic options available as well!
You’ll meet your guide and group at Piazza Madonna dei Monti, where we’ll break the ice with a warm Italian welcome – aka, a refreshing glass of local wine. After saying cheers—salute—we’ll head into Monti, an uber-trendy district filled with quirky bars and cobblestoned streets, and plenty to unpack. In ancient Rome, Monti was known as a suburra – the red-light district of Rome where prostitutes plied their trade and gangsters once roamed. As we wander through the cobblestone streets your guide will tell you scandalous stories of sex and bloodshed that you won’t hear on your typical walking tour.
After so much scandal, you’ll surely need a drink. So at our first stop on the Rome Tipsy Tour you’ll get an extra stiff one. The spotlight will be on Carpano Classico a venerable vermouth with a curious story! Unravel the history of the man who made it – Antonio Benedetto Carpano – back in 1786 whilst sharing some sips with your newfound friends.
We’ll keep the night going with some more saucy stories before trying a classic Italian Spritz. Indulge in the bitter flavours of Aperol or Campari Spritz while enjoying dolce far niente, the sweetness of doing nothing—apart from getting tipsy of course!
Our final stop is Rome’s most iconic road, the Via dei Fori Imperiali, leading down to the Colosseum. The views of the ancient city are best enjoyed after dark with an ice-cold Limoncello – trust us. Sip away as your guide tells shocking stories of the power-hungry Roman emperors who once ruled the known world.
At 11 p.m., the Tipsy Tour officially ends, but the night out begins! We will continue drinking with our new friends at some of Rome’s most popular bars!
Don’t miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime experience. We promise to make your night in Rome one you’ll never forget! Skip a boring walking tour, and come get tipsy with us.
Book your spot now!
4.94(2344)
Rome, ItalyWe’re spinning up festive flavours, Italian-style! From December 1st until January 6th, our pasta and tiramisu class gets a holiday twist, complete with mulled wine magic and made-from-scratch fun.
Learn to cook like an Italian in this small group pasta & tiramisù cooking class that gives you mastery over the country’s best-loved classics. Over the course of three fun-filled hours, you’ll enjoy the expert guidance of our fluent professional chef and get hands on recreating real Roman recipes, culminating in a well-deserved dinner and dessert.
Situated in our centrally situated air-conditioned cooking school, your interactive class will give you the true sense of an Italian nonna’s loving kitchen. Led by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable English-speaking chef, our cooking masterclass is perfect for kids and adults, beginners and experts.
Savoiardi (ladyfingers) are gently dipped in rich coffee before being layered with dollops of delicately mixed eggs and panna (cream). Finished off with a sprinkle of cocoa, these delicious desserts are set aside to rest in time for an after-dinner energy boost. In fact, the espresso within a tiramisù is what gives it a name that translates literally as “pick me up”!
Rolling up our sleeves, here is where we channel our inner nonna. Mixing, kneading, rolling, and shaping our fresh pasta from scratch will work up a sweat but result in elegant end products. We will then combine these carefully crafted creations with the flavours of the season and locality; be it twangy cacio e pepe or creamy carbonara.
How else to conclude your cooking class than by fully indulging in your culinary creations! Celebrate your accomplishment with family-friendly company, a gorgeous setting, and a glass of local wine or prosecco.
Whether returning a culinary maestro or a self-proclaimed novice, you’ll be sure to take the memories home with you and ruling your dinner parties back home!
4.96(1852)
Rome, ItalyMost of history's great artists enjoyed a drink or two; just look at Van Gogh's Starry Night and tell us that's how the sky looks. Now you can unleash your inner Leonardo with sips of unlimited wine and a nibble of Roman-style pizza in our Tipsy Art Class. Join a small group of fellow budding artists to recreate iconic Roman monuments and landscapes that will rival the works of Michelangelo. If he were blind, drunk, and not even trying.
A professional local arts instructor will guide you through the techniques that made the Great Masters great while you fill yourself with the spirit that inspired them. First, your art instructor will give you a crash course in brushstrokes and blending before you choose your muse and recreate it in your own style, or get creative and paint from your imagination.
During the course of 2 and a half fun-filled hours, you and your fellow artists will sip and paint in the comfort of a 17th-century palazzo. Indulge in unlimited red and white Italian wine, snack on pizza, and make a masterpiece. The best part? You get to take your canvas home with you--unless you overdo it on the vino, in which case we have plenty of space in the bins!
Ready to get merry with Michelangelo? Create a one-of-a-kind souvenir and bring a piece of Rome back home.
4.94(1345)Rome, ItalyTwirl, sip, and soak up the seasonal cheer, because from December 1st to January 6th, we’re giving our usual class a holly-jolly glow-up. You’ll stir up a limited-edition cocktail packed with Yuletide spirit and finish with a classic Italian Christmas treat.
Did someone say Spritz? Discover the flavours of Rome on our Spritz and Spaghetti Class. Our centrally located kitchen is where you’ll learn everything you need to mix traditional Italian cocktails, and perfect the art of making fresh pasta. This is the only cooking class of its kind in Rome – a perfect blend of food, friends, and tipsy fun. So come join us and see what all the fuss is about!
Our team will welcome you and your small, intimate group with a mixology demo making Italy’s best-loved drink: Aperol Spritz. You’ll then get started on your hands-on pasta-making lesson led by a fun-loving, fluent professional chef before making a Hugo Spritz.
Your professional chef will guide you every step of the way – from kneading the dough to cutting the pasta. You’ll also be making a creamy carbonara sauce to coat your fresh pasta (vegetarians can try out another Roman classic of cacio e pepe). Travelling is all about meeting new people. At the end of this cooking class, you’ll dine on what you’ve made with a glass of Limoncello Spritz to wash it all down.
Book now and start making memories.
4.95(3841)
Rome, ItalyExplore the wonders of the Eternal City on our Wonders of Rome Walking Tour! As you get your bearings around Rome’s cobbled historic centre, your expert storyteller will bring Rome’s most must-see sites to life, including the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Piazza Navona. Take photos, make memories, and most importantly, get the most out of your time in the Italian capital!
Your guide will share the city’s secrets and narrate its story in a way that will make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time – from explaining how the stunningly intricate churches and palaces were erected, to how the grand fountains were used to channel water throughout the city.
After meeting your guide at Piazza d'Aracoeli, we'll head to the Piazza Venezia, the crossroads between the ancient city and the modern capital and one of the most scenic squares in Italy! We'll then admire Trajan’s Column, a second-century AD monument which portrays the bloody victory of the emperor Trajan in his Dacian wars in Eastern Europe.
After taking a moment to marvel at the imposing Altar of the Fatherland, we’ll make our way to the iconic Trevi Fountain. Toss a coin into the fountain, spend a moment soaking in its sounds and scenery (metaphorically, not literally!), and uncover the fascinating stories behind the fountain’s statues and symbols.
We’ll then make our way to the Pantheon where the spectacle of the 2000-year-old dome will blow you away. Marvel at one of the best-preserved buildings of the ancient world, hear the story behind the man who built it, and discover the shocking architectural secret behind how the dome is (or isn’t) supported!
The square is situated near some of Rome’s best and most vibrant bars and restaurants and your guide will be happy to recommend where to go.
Our Rome Walking Tour is suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels. You can expect this memorable experience to last about two hours, which leaves you with more than enough time to explore the city beyond. Make sure you don’t miss out.
Secure your spot today!
4.97(2485)