What is Italian cuisine like?
Italy is home to perhaps the world's most famous cuisine, with delicacies and dishes popular with people from millionaires to children and grad students. The dishes that you might be familiar with from Italian restaurants abroad (especially chains like Olive Garden!) are a poor introduction to Italian food, however, as it varies greatly from region to region. Until Italy unified 150 years ago, it was a bewildering hodgepodge of kingdoms, democracies, and a theocracy, speaking different languages. This is reflected in the local foods. Trieste has excellent pastries, but a decent pizza is rare up there, while you'll be hard-pressed to find a perfect risotto in Sicily. In each region or destination you visit, we'll provide dining suggestions to help you explore local traditions via food and drink. Italy's food and wine traditions are an important part of the culture so we prepared a guide to some dos and don'ts when dining in Italy.