Italy Food & Wine Travel Guide

Sicily is a melting pot of gastronomic heritage, found in the best Sicilian cheese and street food that you can sample during your Italy vacation.

The exceptional cuisine of Sicily uses local ingredients to create flavors for a culinary adventure featured in surprising spices or indulgent textures. Whether enjoying authentic Sicilian cheese with wine or sampling street food at stalls in popular marketplaces, the cuisine represents the island’s eclectic heritage.

The following list focuses on the best cheese and street food you will discover as you wander the streets of Sicily to find cannoli, arancini, capers, ricotta cheese, and more.

Southern Italian food features the delicious Mediterranean flavors many visitors associate with the country’s traditional cuisine that you can discover in the fives best cities for southern Italian food.

Cooking is a way in which northern, central, and southern Italian regions showcase their diversity. The food of southern Italy is often referred to as Cucina Povera, with frugal cooks relying on the sea’s bounty or the hard-fought harvest from tenacious farmers.

The warm Mediterranean climate supports a history of trade and conquest, revealing distinctive characteristics of unforgettable gastronomy, from Bari to Campobasso.

The characteristics of Campania’s terrain provide sensational ingredients you can discover in the region’s top three culinary cities during your trip to Italy.

The region’s gastronomic history acts as a crossroads of civilizations along the Mediterranean Sea, its diverse landscape bringing life to vibrant produce found in nutrient-rich volcanic soil. The greater region of Campania has a variety of provinces that enjoy different types of cuisine.

You can celebrate the cucina povera as you uncover how the cuisine provides ultimate flavor with minimal ingredients.

The three best culinary cities in Lazio demonstrate distinct elements of the local cuisine, and you can savor the regional flavors on your next trip to Italy.

The diverse landscapes spread from the seaside in the west to the eastern mountains, with the region’s rich culinary history embodied in traditions that were at the heart of Etruscan settlements, the Roman Empire, the cradle of Christianity, and the Baroque movement. The mountain slopes and plains allow farmers to cultivate unique ingredients, bringing culturally significant flavors to life.

Exploring the food of Lazio can be a fantastic lens through which to view Italian culture, whether dining in Rome or enjoying unique delicacies in Frascati.

The four best dishes to try during your trip to Lazio reflect the customs created when Rome acted as the heart of the ancient empire. The conquered landscapes of antiquity stretched over the hills and reached the western seas to create impressive ports from which Rome could reach the hidden corners of the known world, now embodied in the gastronomic traditions that were left behind. The food of Lazio takes the shape of simple dishes with quick and easy cooking techniques based on the ideas of fresh and readily available ingredients.

The regional cuisine of Lazio is characterized by Cucina Povera, the traditions of poor cooking that embody the tastes of farmers over the centuries who used the entirety of ingredients and ingredients that were easily accessed during the changing seasons. The increased standard of living in Lazio has resulted in home and commercial chefs creating flavors with ingredients that were once unheard of outside of regional cooking. You can sample the following dishes during your next trip to Lazio.

The cuisine of Umbria is all about simple yet delicious seasonal ingredients you can find during your Italian food tour.

Olive groves and flocks of sheep overtake the hills of Italy’s only region that does not border the sea or another country. The mountainous heart of Umbria abounds with medieval towns and castles that have been untouched by time and burst with gastronomic traditions. Recipes have been handed down through generations and pay homage to the region’s heritage.

From Perugia to Assisi and Orvieto, here are the best cities in Umbria for an Italian food tour highlighting the region’s signature dishes.

The best cities in which to explore the food of Italy’s Islands are vibrant repositories of cultural and culinary traditions. Their kitchens have been shaped by millennia of diverse influences to offer a captivating journey through history and taste. From the sun-drenched coasts to the rugged interiors, the food of these islands tells a story of adaptation, resourcefulness, and an appreciation for simple, high-quality ingredients.

The unique blend of Mediterranean heritages found on these islands, including Greek, Spanish, French, and Arab, has resulted in an astonishing array of cooking techniques and flavors. These many influences make exploring the islands’ cuisine an unforgettable experience, revealing how ancient pastoral customs and a deep connection to the land and sea have sculpted some of Italy’s most distinctive gastronomic delights. Prepare to embark on a culinary adventure that transcends mere dining, delving into the very soul of these captivating destinations.

Extraordinary travel begins with a human touch. Our destination specialists design every journey with care, insight, and personal attention. As you consider a visit to Italy’s islands for their food, use the following information as a guide before connecting with our travel experts to help you plan your trip.

Modena’s unique position in the Po Valley influences the soil amid the rugged foothills of the Apennine Mountains, responsible for the diversity of meats, hams, salumi, pasta, cheeses, and treasured balsamic vinegar that you can taste during your trip to Italy. Seasonal ingredients define the flavors of the Modenese cooking tradition, from growing produce to the presence of game and fish. Many of the traditional recipes popular in the province have emerged from a heritage of the peasant kitchen or small landowners that incorporates the flavor of a wealthier lifestyle that influences contemporary life.

The four dishes you can try in Parma on your Italy trip are less about satiation and more about taking pleasure in a meal, an ingredient, and a local delicacy.

Small villages in the Bronze Age gave way to Celtic and Etruscan settlements before the ancient Roman road connected the peninsula. The city became famous throughout medieval Europe as a center for great art, science, and philosophy, resulting in an influx of nobility whose tastes for a good meal refined local palates.

By focusing on regional and seasonal ingredients, home and professional chefs develop bolder, more nuanced flavors, and these are four dishes that highlight those efforts.

You can discover and embrace the five best dishes of Veneto as you explore the culinary landscape that encompasses mountains and lagoons, the customary richness of the Venetian Empire and the open-minded cultural influence of kingdoms from across the Mediterranean.

The region of Veneto thrives with distinguished gastronomy changing from villages in the Dolomites to towns along the coast of Lake Garda, prestigious villas looking over the Brenta Canal to the renowned banquets filling the palaces of Venice.

A wealth of culinary influences and cultural inspiration, from techniques to flavor profiles, have helped develop these 5 transformational delicacies that are unique to Veneto.

Journey through the historic provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, where the art of traditional balsamic vinegar production has been perfected over generations. On our immersive balsamic vinegar tour in Emilia-Romagna, you will discover the centuries-old craft behind this precious condiment, known locally as "black gold."

During your luxury tour, passionate artisans who maintain this time-honored tradition will welcome you into historic vinegar houses known as acetaie. Explore the atmospheric aging rooms, where wooden barrels house vinegar through its years-long transformation from simple grape must into one of Italy's most prized culinary treasures. Learn about the process and participate in balsamic tastings that reveal the complex flavors and aromas developed over decades of aging.

Extraordinary travel begins with a human touch. Our destination specialists design every journey with care, insight, and personal attention. When considering a balsamic vinegar tour in Emilia-Romagna, use the following information as a guide to discovering the region before connecting with our travel experts to help you plan your trip.

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Our primary goal is to make the planning, booking, and traveling process easy and enjoyable as you create the vacation experience you want most. No matter where you go and what you do, Zicasso can help you experience the best of travel without the stress.

Working with our destination experts, you can plan a trip to anywhere in the world and suit your travel style. Using insider knowledge of your chosen destination, itinerary ideas, and planning strategies, your Zicasso travel specialist can guide you through the following four steps.

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Your interests and preferences on a couple’s trip will differ from a family-friendly vacation, while a highlights tour will result in wildly different experiences than one designed to take you off the beaten path.

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