When walking around the city of Rome, we would recommend veering off the main street, Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, to find Via dei Coronari. This narrow street is lined with shops, cafes, and old buildings with substantially fewer people.
This is an excellent place to stop for lunch. We found a hole-in-the-wall called Pasta Imperiale, which serves cheap and delicious pasta to go. Several sit-down restaurants with outdoor tables are also set up along this picturesque cobblestone street.