Travelers visit Italy, a food lover's paradise, with high culinary expectations.
There's hardly a place in the boot that doesn't have a plethora of pizza shops and Italian restaurants. Most of these eateries are pretty good, or at least half way decent. But, not every Italy food trip is a success.
We've heard more than our sad share of stories from travelers who didn't have great Italy food experiences. Some of these disappointed diners relied on tour guides and concierges for restaurant recommendations. Others failed to do advance research or neglected to make necessary reservations.
We've visited Italy dozens of times, eating amazing food from Trentino in the north all the way to Matera in the south. We've also sipped wine in Sicily and eaten our weight in pizza in Naples. And guess what? We can't wait to return again, both to personal favorite Italian food cities like Rome and Naples and new-to-us Italian destinations like Milan and Palermo.
With this in mind, we're sharing our favorite Italian foods, plus a few drinks, that we adore eating and drinking in Italy. These are the items we can't wait to eat again at the home of the Renaissance, Galileo . and pizza.
Italy's long and circuitous history dates well before its 20 regions merged to become the country that we know and love today. This history includes empires and emperors as well as conquerors and concubines. It also includes a culinary trail that began before pizza ovens and meat slicers made life easier.
While Italy's ancient residents ate plenty of proteins and produce, they didn't have access to tomatoes. Tomatoes, like a myriad of popular modern-day Italian ingredients, wouldn't arrive in Italy until around the 15th century and wouldn't become popular until the 1800s.
Some ingredients, like honey and garlic, arrived via the Spice Road while iconic Italian ingredients like tomatoes, peppers, chocolate and coffee were 'discovered' in the Americas. Arabs brought almonds to Sicily and may have introduced noodles. And then there are French and Austrian chefs who influenced many of the country's best dishes and desserts.
Modern Italian cuisine didn't develop overnight or in one place. It's the sum of Italy's 20 parts (i.e. regions) and continues to evolve with the times. Italian food never bores us and we always find new things to sample since food is one of Italy's greatest treasures.
Although we've eaten hundreds of dishes in Italy and almost as many desserts, we decided to keep our list of must-eat Italian foods at a manageable limit of 75 entries. And, for ease of use, we've grouped all of the entries into the following categories:
Visit 2foodtrippers for the full list of delicious Italian dishes including fun facts and photos.
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