It took a lot longer than I expected when I started down this path of “traveling” to every region of Italy through food. When this began, I had this notion I would start in the North West and move through the regions in a logical fashion as if we were actually traveling. Obviously that didn’t happen. If you have been following, you know that I veered back to a few regions before getting to others, and I detoured out of Italy numerous times along the way. Now that I have done at least one post per region, here they all are, organized relatively logically geographically.
Valle D’Aosta – in this small, Alpine region bordering France and Switzerland, the food is heavy on meat and cheese. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-valle-daosta/
Piedmont – my wish list of future trips to Italy is long, and fall in Piedmont has been on that list for many years. One day. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-piedmont/
Lombardy– https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-lombardy/; https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-milan/
Trentino-Alto Adige – with a bit of its border touching each of Austria and Switzerland, and with about 30% of its population German-speaking, the food feels more Swiss/German than what we traditionally think of as Italian. Think beer and spaetzle. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-trentino-alto-adige/
Veneto – for Veneto we have Venice https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-veneto/ and skiing (and eating speck) in Cortina https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-cortina-dampezzo/.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia – virtual travels through some seriously addictive fried cheese and potato – frico caldo – https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-friuli/
Liguria – I need to get back to my Liguria cookbook, particularly the focaccia. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-liguria/
Emilia-Romagna – I am completely obsessed with a restaurant in Manhattan that focuses on the food of Emilia Romagna – https://www.rezdora.nyc/. Rezdora consistently serves some of the best pasta I have ever had, and I have eaten a lot of pasta. I’ve also spent considerable effort trying to perfect my own Bolognese. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-emilia-romagna/
Tuscany – at some point I’ll go back and write more about Tuscany. Years ago I tried to re-create an intense gelled tomato dish that I had in Montepulciano one sweltering July. Of course, I could spend years just posting about the food in Florence, https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-florence/, or my love of Siena, https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-siena/.
It’s possible I’ve purchased a few Tuscan cookbooks over the years.
Umbria – the origin of one of my signature dishes and of my lifetime love of light, fluffy gnocchi. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-umbria/
Le Marche – https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-le-marche/
Lazio – Rome obviously has amazing sights from the ancient to Renaissance art and architecture. The food gives the amazing sights a run for their money as a reason to visit. Just try to avoid the most touristy restaurants, and don’t miss out on the gelato. https://auntastasia.blog/roman-pasta/; https://auntastasia.blog/returning-to-rome/
Abruzzo – known for chitarra, among other things, and high on my list of places to visit so that I can visit a friend’s home and meet her family’s dogs. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-abruzzo-chitarra/; https://auntastasia.blog/pulled-pork-inspired-by-cif-e-ciaf-travels-in-abruzzo/
Molise – this ended up being the last post, after I found a tiny, region-specific cookbook. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-molise/
Campania – the world owes Campania a debt for what I consider one of the basic food groups – pizza. While I do sometimes make pizza at home, I usually leave it those with professional ovens. The recipe in the Campania post is for another of my favorites, Italian wedding soup. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-campania/
Puglia – this region is another one near the top on my long list of places to visit. I bumped it up after reading Pasta Pane Vino. I can almost taste the Dicecca brothers’ burrata. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-puglia/
Basilicata – almost anyone who has been to a restaurant with me has heard me suggest that we get Aglianico del Vulture. It fits perfectly with my preference for big, tannic reds, and good quality Aglianico is usually a lot less expensive than the better known wines from the north. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-basilicata/
Calabria – we start with the Homer references here, with the rock that is Scylla. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-calabria/
Sicily – Homer wrote about the swordfish. There’s really no need to say anything else, although there is an incredible array of diverse flavors in Sicily. A friend was posting travel pictures from Palermo recently, including lots of pictures of amazing food, particularly some gelati that had my mouth watering. https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-sicily/
Sardinia (Sardegna) – https://auntastasia.blog/travels-in-sardinia-sardegna/
As a reminder, if you are looking for some of the regional cookbooks that I have mentioned, most are from Kitchen Arts & Letters. https://www.kitchenartsandletters.com/ I am in no way affiliated with Kitchen Arts & Letters, and I get nothing for repeatedly mentioning them, other than the satisfaction of trying to promote an independent bookstore I love and trust.
Buon appetito.