My favorite places to eat & explore in Italy: Spilled Milk #7
From Palermo's open-air markets to seafood in Positano, I can't wait to return to Italy.
I keep weird little notes and ideas about travel on my laptop, incomplete lists, not rated preferentially at all, simply things I tried, enjoyed, drove past, had a coffee at. I send them to friends who are traveling to a certain part of the world, so I thought I would share with you all. I just picked some random Italian cities, some of my favorites.
*PLEASE if you are headed there always make sure a place is open, some of these are seasonal operations.*
A Sicilian adventure for people who love to eat.
Hot Tip: Try a drive from Palermo to Marzamemi, then on to Ragusa.
In Palermo, hit the open-air markets, Vucciria, Ballarò and Mercato del Capo. You can shop for seasonal fruits and vegetables and eat arancini (fried rice balls), pane e panelle (sandwiches stuffed with chickpea fritters) and thick slices of sfincione (a type of focaccia usually topped with a sweet tomato sauce, onions and caciocavallo cheese). Another great place to try Palermo’s famous fritti is Francu ’U Vastiddaru down by the port.
For lunch, try Osteria Pane e Alivi for spaghetti made with sun-dried tomatoes, olives, capers and sprinkled with breadcrumbs. Hit nearby Cappello for a taste of Sicilian pastries including cannoli, cassate and other delicacies. I also like lunch at Antica Focacceria San Francesco. Try the baked anelli pasta with ragù.
In the evening, go to CiCala, a popular hangout with a great wine list. You can stick around for artisanal pizzas and fresh pastas or walk around the block to Osteria Mangia e Bevi, a cute place with a unique version of Pasta alla Norma, spaghetti with tomato sauce, eggplant and cheese fried and served directly in the pan.
Hit the road early one morning and drive to Ragusa. On the way, stop for a nice swim in the small town of Marzamemi. An ancient fishing village famous for its old “tonnara,” or tuna fishery, and oceanfront views, I love this place. When you arrive in Ragusa, check in to your accommodation and take a walk around the beautiful Ibla neighborhood, which is the older and lower region of town.
Spend the day at Vendicari Nature Reserve, famous for the white sand beach of Calamosche, considered one of the most beautiful in Italy. This region is a UNESCO site that was mentioned by the poet Virgil in the Aeneid so you know its good. I mean, if it’s good enough for Virgil ….
Eating (and cooking) on the Amalfi Coast
Hot Tips: Don’t forget to head up to the hills above Ravello to Agerola, or take a cooking class at Mama Agata’s!
I have travelled all over this stunning coastline, eating my way through as many restaurants as I could manage, and speaking in my terrible Italian to the locals. This is the pick of my favorite places where the cooking is particularly special and the local/regional dishes are inspiring.
You must try Da Adolfo in Positano. To reach it you have to get a little boat from the port in Positano. The restaurant serves local fish in the most stunning location right on the beach. Bring a towel.
Maria Grazia in Nerano is outside of Sorrento. This ramshackle little place on the beach is famous for their courgette pasta — they were supposedly the first to create the dish before the rest of the coast began making similar versions. The antipasti of stuffed peppers, parmigiana and tiny shrimp are on almost every table.
In Praiano, between Positano and Amalfi, stop by La Brace. A wood fired pizzeria with the view of heaven you always wanted.
In Sorrento at the Marina Grande is Da Emilia. If it’s good enough for Sophia Loren, it’s good enough for me. Casual, blue-and-white-checked cloths, the view of the port, and perfect seafood served with oil and local lemons.
In Ravello, go to Jackie O’s fave spots (mine too) Mama Agata’s for a day of cooking and eating on an ancient and meticulously kept farmhouse. Cumpa’ Cosimo just off the main plaza, serves a plate of five handmade pastas that is beyond sublime. La Tagliata in Montepertuso doesn’t have a menu. They make the pasta by hand every morning, the grilled meats and fish are without peer and the pistachio profiteroles are the stuff of legend … and you can’t beat the view. The town also boasts Il Ritrovo, a superb casual fish house with a highly recommended acqua pazza filled with local bass and chiles.
Stay and eat at Bacco in the village of Furore. The food is stunning, and like almost all the places above, they do cooking classes. The hotel/restaurant is 55 years old and restaurants regulars read like a Hollywood who’s who. Get the linguine with anchovies and chiles.
Where to eat & explore in Rome
Hot Tips: Don’t miss the Testaccio neighborhood and the market there, and Roscioli, which might be my favorite restaurant in the city.
Look, Rome is a sightseer and museum-goer’s dream city, but maybe more so than any other Italian town except Venice, you are better off eating where all the regular people dine. Sure, don’t miss the famous places, grab a coffee at Sant’Eustachio and get a panino at Mordi e Vai because those are rightfully lauded, like Roscioli …. But the places frequented by Romans, places that aren’t in every guidebook are the spots where you will probably eat better. It’s that simple.
Osteria Bonelli is a true Roman eatery run by a former greengrocer and his family. You will find hearty portions of old school food listed on a blackboard easel. The pappardelle with wild-boar ragù is superb, as are Bonelli’s many meat courses like the roasted pork shank with potatoes, and the tris al sugo, a meaty menage à trois of spare ribs, sausage and involtini in tomato sauce.
Al Ceppo is in Parioli and is owned by two sisters from the Marche. The neighborhood is swanky, but the food is a mix of the mountainous Marchigiana and Roman cuisines, prepared with a Michelin aesthetic in a trattoria setting. This is the place to pig out on cured meats, like their blood-red salami and bowls of fried meat-stuffed olives. The spaghetti carbonara arrives with a raw egg yolk on top, and the server grates a black truffle on it while barking at you to stir.
La Fraschetta da Sandro is a small taverna in the former meatpacking-district of Testaccio. It’s a true fraschetta — they only serve their own wine along with salami sandwiches, paper plates of potatoes and marinated eggplant, or hunks of potent pecorino. Testaccio is gentrified, but this is where the grandpas come every day to sit and argue about politics or Sandro’s ability to cook puntarelle.
Sciascia Caffe is just north of the Vatican and serves what some consider the best coffee in Rome, an espresso made from their own blend of beans, as dark as night. This place will redefine what coffee is supposed to taste like for you.
Hostaria Lo Sgobbone hasn’t changed in 50 years, an unadorned temple of home cooking. I always start with artichokes, then spaghetti with clams or rigatoni allo sgobbone, a sauce of tomato, prosciutto, wine and cream, followed by homemade meatballs with mashed potatoes, and a slice of their famous chestnut cake for dessert. The owner (Pippo) is at the door, his wife is in the kitchen, and their daughter runs the dining room, where you definitively won’t get a menu. They tell you what to have and wait to see if you have the stones to argue.
La Matriciana is located right across from the Bank of Italy and the Roman Opera. I love this place for lunch. The dining room is elegant but this place is far from pretentious. They are 150 years old and they are all about food and fun. Bucatini all’Amatriciana is the thing to get. Order it for two, and the thick noodles arrive on a platter, dressed with San Marzano tomatoes and crispy guanciale, tossed table-side by the waiter and finished with a generous cloud of sharp pecorino.
Drinks, dinner, & practical travel advice in Venice
Hot Tips: Go in the shoulder seasons, avoid crowds and don’t miss dinner at Al Covo, after a drink at Harry’s Bar. I suggest eating at Cesare Benelli’s place twice at least. He and his wife Diane run my favorite restaurant, well, maybe anywhere.
Venice isn’t an easy town to eat in. 60,000 residents and 20 million visitors a year. You do the math. Most restaurants feed the tourists. I like to seek out the places where serious chefs use excellent local ingredients, with emphasis on seafood … do that and you will eat like royalty. Most Venetians rarely eat in restaurants. They graze at bacari, traditional wine bars that fill their counters with cicchetti (little snacks). Several plates of these jewels with a glass of wine makes for a good meal too.
Osteria Alle Testiere has a daily menu that depends on availability of fresh fish at the market. The daily seafood dishes from chef and co-founder Bruno Gavagnin are always superb. Locanda Cipriani is stunning, with a shady old-fashioned garden on the beautiful little lagoon island of Torcello, with old-fashioned service and old-fashioned food that verges on the hotel variety. This is a Grande Tour experience shared by everyone from Ernest Hemingway and generations of British royals, to mid-20th-century A-list actors and presidents.
On the flip side is All’Arco, a teeny place with mouth-watering cicchetti; it’s one of the quintessential Venetian bacaro. There are bulging sandwiches and crostini topped with creamed cod, anchovies and onions, salami, or vegetables. You’ll be talked through it all at breakneck speed and sent swiftly on your way with food sufficient enough to stuff you.
Osteria La Perla ai Bisatei is an old-style spit-and-sawdust place in the backstreets of Murano. It’s loud — the voices of locals compete with staff shouting out the unwritten daily menu — and the food (only lunch) is hearty and scrumptious. Try the fava bean and onion salad and the pasta with mussels and clams.
Il Ridotto is located off St. Mark’s, a plaza teeming with tourist traffic, but don’t let that dissuade you. Tasting menus (of five, seven, or nine courses) are the thing to get here, the creations of chef and owner Gianni Bonaccorsi. I once had a risotto with yellow tomatoes and burrata, followed by pork cheek and belly with chamomile-flavored creamed potato and green apple that I remember to this day.
Osteria Alla Frasca, in a quiet campo near the Fondamenta Nuove, serving superb food for 120 years, "cucina tipica Veneziana," and an all-seafood menu stocked with treats like baccalà mantecato (creamed cod) on crispy polenta and cuttlefish stewed in its own ink.
La Palanca is a neighborhood café. Giudecca residents grab coffee at 7 a.m. and the obligatory spritz or ombra at aperitivo hour. It’s closed after that, but lunch is the thing where a whole other clientele materializes as the kitchen gets serious. Go for huge platters of excellent seafood antipasti — raw and cooked — to great pasta with squid and artichokes or simple, grilled Adriatic fish.
Osteria Enoteca Ai Artisti has a few little tables alongside a quiet canal and a handful more in a compact dining room. Old favorites here are reimagined with delicious results, like the secoe (veal knuckle, a Venetian tradition) made into a salad with beans and sesame seeds, and the pasta with sausage and green peppers.
Al Covo is one of my favorite restaurants in the world. Chef Cesare Benelli and his wife, Diane, have been running this beloved Venetian restaurant for 35 years. There are tables outside the simple osteria-style façade, and more in a perfect adult interior with dark brick and cream walls, wooden fittings, and eclectic art. You can order à la carte, but there are also tasting menus for both lunch and dinner. Order anything, the food is THAT good.
Trattoria al Gatto Nero is an institution on the brilliantly colored lagoon island of Burano, stuck in time since 1965. Nothing has changed on Ruggero Bovo’s largely seafood menu in many years. But that’s why people come back. There are no fireworks here, but you know that whatever's on your plate will be fresh. The risotto Buranese, with locally sourced goby fish, is a Gatto Nero classic.
Have you been to Italy? What’s your favorite Italian food city/town? Share in the comments!
Thanks for reading Spilled Milk.
If you enjoyed this content, please click the ‘heart’ at the bottom. Share this with a friend, on your social media, etc., etc., etc., you know the drill. Click the share button to make it happen.
Oh, the Ossa Dei Morti at Pinelli Paticceria in Lucca, Italy is wonderful. Osteria Miranda is amazing, and Pizzeria Da Felice for the cecina, my favorite. The balcony of our neigbor while there also served up some of the best impromtu meals and converstaion I have ever had.
I would love to go to Basque Country in Spain