My family and I are visiting Spain for the first time this summer and I’ve been researching for months to ensure that we get the most out of our trip. I want to make sure that we see the sights we need to see and, importantly for me, eat well while we’re at it. It occurred to me that I see many visitors in Italy eating inferior food at touristy places and I thought it might be useful to give some tips on how to avoid that. You do want to eat well while in Italy, don’t you? Isn’t that one of the most enticing reasons to come here? I don’t want you to fly across the world only to eat bad food. Wouldn’t that be awful? Hence, here are my dining tips to help you eat well in Italy.
In order to eat well in Italy – do your homework
To start off, you need to do your homework! I suggest that you learn:
- What the traditional dishes are in the city/town you are visiting; and,
- Research the local cheeses, wines, cured meats, produce, breads and pastas, etc.,
If you keep those two things in mind, you will be starting off on the right foot. Italian cuisine has so many regional dishes and products. Often, they are only available in their place of origin. If you don’t do your research, you could really miss out. Also, please note that traditional dishes usually aren’t prepared particularly well outside of their prospective cities and regions. The same goes for ingredients. For example, Prosciutto di Parma, which is available everywhere, is never as good as when you have it in Parma itself. It’s something to keep in mind.
Eat the local foods where you go…
If you eat the local dishes while traveling, the experience you have will be fuller. There is something to be said for eating food that has been made in a certain manner for centuries, right in a particular spot. When you eat in this context, it just feels right. Like eating fresh lobster in Maine, Hot Chicken (Prince’s!) in Nashville, or a bagel in NYC. Are any of those things, ever as good out of those places? Nope. They can still be tasty and prepared decently (rarely), but when eaten in the right setting, take on a whole new meaning. Pizza in Naples is magical, pizza in Venice, 1 minute away from St. Mark’s Square is crap… Don’t do it. Just stop. I’m not saying this to be a food snob, I’m trying to save you from disappointment.
Does that mean that you can’t ever eat pizza outside of Naples? Spaghetti alla Carbonara outside of Rome? No! However, you will need to do some digging to find out where those things might be done well outside of their respective cities. Below are sources I use to help me find out the best eateries, shops, markets, and products. I hope these tips will help you on your trip to Italy.
Getting Started
Obviously, a good place to start is a basic travel guide, which will provide general info that will get you going on your trip planning. When it comes to food though, keep in mind that in a general guide, food is not their only focus so there will often be errors or generalizations when it comes to descriptions of the local cuisines. When the authors are not food specialists, they can be careless, sloppy, and sometimes vague in their writing. Restaurant recommendations can be hit and miss, so cross-reference their suggestions with other publications and travel sites. If you hear about a place over and over again, you know you’re on the right track.
If you are lucky, there might be a specific food guide written about the city you’re visiting, written by a journalist or food writer. Look into it.
As I mentioned, use this as a basic starting point and the following will help you delve more deeply.
Cookbooks
For me, cookbooks are a great resource for researching regional cuisine. You can take them out from the library if you don’t want to invest in them. Good authors often include some local history, will describe local products from the area and some have restaurant recommendations. Look for region-specific books to get the most detail about the area you are visiting. The list below cites some of the authors specializing in Italian cuisine whose work I enjoy:
- Lidia Bastianich
- Giuliano Bugialli
- Biba Caggiano
- Anna del Conte
- Rosetta Costantino
- Julia della Croce
- David Downie
- Mary Ann Esposito
- Maureen Fant
- Carol Field
- Melissa Forti
- Joyce Goldstein
- Marcella Hazan
- Marisa Huff
- Nancy Harmon Jenkins
- Lynne Rossetto Kasper
- Giorgio Locatelli
- Domenica Marchetti
- Katie Parla
- Fred Plotkin
- Giulia Scarpaleggia
- Arthur Schwartz
- Michele Scicolone
- Clifford Wright
- Oretta de Zanini de Vita
- Paola Bacchia
- Emiko Davies
A few books you might want to check out are:
- La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy by The Italian Academy of Cuisine
- Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini de Vita
- The Oxford Companion to Italian Food by Gillian Riley
- Why Italians Love to Talk About Food by Elena Kostioukovitch
- Pasta, Pane, Vino by Matt Goulding
Italian Food Guides
Italian travelers need to know where to eat as well and there are many guides on the market. Below are some of the publishers that put out guides available in Italian (some in English). Even if you don’t speak Italian, reading an address is easy! Google translate can help. It’s better than going blind!
Some of these publications are available in app form. A few are available in the American iTunes Store and others in the Italian iTunes Store. (To use the Italian iTunes Store, you have to create an Apple ID for the Italian iTunes Store and buy an iTunes gift card while you’re here and use that as your Italian payment method which will be the only way you can buy things and set up your account.)
- Slow Food Editore – they have not only dining guides, but also books on artisan beer makers, where to shop for good regional products, books regarding local specialties, and regional desserts, to name a few.
- Mangiarozzo – I use this dining guide the most out of this bunch because the author, Carlo Cambi, hasn’t steered me wrong yet. He focuses on local, traditional eateries that aren’t too terribly expensive, which is what I prefer. (Update 2023 – this publication seems to be no more. However, old editions could still be useful since so many Italian establishments have been around for hundreds of years!)
- Gambero Rosso guides – this publisher puts out guides for everything – wine, bars, pastry shops, restaurants, street food, and pizzerias. Some guides are available on Amazon in Kindle format in the US, others not. They have some apps as well.
- Le Guide de L’Espresso – I have used their guides in the past and their guide I Ristoranti d’Italia is for those who want to go to more elegant restaurants vs. local trattorie and osterie which usually are more informal.
Dining Guide Apps
As I mentioned above, there are dining guide apps. The one that I use the most is Eat Italy by Elizabeth Minchilli, who is an expat food writer based in Rome. Her preferences for dining out are similar to mine, in that she prefers local, authentic eateries vs. extra fancy but she has some of those thrown in as well. (Update 2023 – her app is no more but she apparently has a PDF available for your newsletter subscribers with all of the same info.)
Another app written by an expat is called Taste Chianti by Judy Witts Francini. It focuses on the Chianti area in Tuscany. Who doesn’t want to go there? (Update 2023 – unfortunately, this app is no more as well. Luckily, Judy is still writing and gives tours as well.)
Update 2023: I am sorry that the old apps that I recommended are no longer available. However, there are still plenty of dining-out apps out there. You just need to do some research. I still have access to my old Slow Food apps for example.
Italian Food Blogs
There are many wonderful Italy-focused blogs out there. Many are written by knowledgeable expats. Some focus on recipes alone, but others write a lot about travel and dining. Many native Italian bloggers also have sister sites in English. I would seek their sites out to help you guide the way. Some blogs that I follow are:
- Elizabeth Minchilli
- Katie Parla
- Jul’s Kitchen
- Italian Food Forever
- Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino
- Emiko Davies
- Divina Cucina
- My Corner of Italy
- Italy On My Mind
- Memorie di Angelina
Many of these bloggers are published writers with books on either travel or cuisine.
Culinary Tours
For those of you who simply don’t want to read up and do research, you can always book a high-quality tour! You can then be sure to eat well, without the time and work invested in research. I happen to like that part of trip planning, but others, not so much.
Many of the bloggers and cookbook authors that I mentioned above, also give food tours in a variety of locations.
Update 2023. Please note, I do not give tours of Bologna at this time. Many of you have seen the videos that I did with Vincenzo’s Plate on YouTube and consequently, have asked for me to give a tour. I will update you in the future if this is something that I offer. In the meantime, you can follow me on Instagram for tips, read any articles I post on my blog, and also, watch the videos that I did with Vincenzo. Here are the links:
In addition, I have never taken a tour in Bologna so do not have recommendations to offer. Seeing as I have no personal experience, I hesitate to provide you with unresearched information. I hope you understand.
Last But Not Least
Ask the locals!! Ask baristas, taxi drivers, hotel staff, shopkeepers, and everyone you can get your hands on, where they think the best local food is served. Most Italians love to talk about food and do so all the time! If you get your heart set on a place you’ve read about, make sure to book in advance so that you don’t lose an opportunity to dine there.
Notes on Vlogs and TripAdvisor
I find both vlogs (YouTube travel videos) and TripAdvisor reviews to be useful at times, but not always. Both platforms have people who aren’t necessarily experts on whatever topic they are talking about, producing videos or leaving reviews. You could be misled. On YouTube, I seek out travel videos put out by locals, tour guides, or food professionals, if I can find them. My Spain research has led me to videos with tons of views but very little knowledge to warrant their popularity. Be wary.
Happy Travels!
I hope this helps you find better food on your vacation in Italy, that you eat the best meals, have memorable experiences, and find delicious products! If you are coming to Bologna, please take a look at my Bologna section for tips. Happy travels and eating!
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