Culinary Vacations in Florence

Having just spent five marvelous weeks in Italy enjoying (a bit too much) cheese, learning how to make pizza, and spending money on olives at the farmers’ market, it comes to no surprise that I talk about visiting the country every chance I get. 

From the beginning to the end, an authentic Italian meal is a culinary specialty, enabling it to become one of the world’s most popular cuisines. Everyone you meet most certainly has had their due share of pizza, tiramisu, pasta and risotto in their lifetime. These foods are so common everywhere you go, that you might miss some of the subtler intricacies of the traditional Italian meal, the antipasto for instance.

Italy is heaven for foodies. However, it is also easy to fall into a tourist restaurant in places like Rome, Florence, or Venice and have a meal that might have been better at an American-Italian restaurant.

If you’re looking to experience authentic traditional food and drink in Italy, there are both well-known and off-the-beaten-path destinations to add to your itinerary. 

The world loves Italian food. With Italian restaurants easily found all over the globe, it's safe to say that Italian is among the most widely eaten cuisines on the planet, and experts say it’s also one of the healthiest! Yet when we think of popular dishes such as pizza and pasta served at restaurants outside Italy, they are often loaded with rich toppings, dripping with heavy sauces, and packed with calories and carbohydrates that it hardly seems like a healthy option! It really got us thinking that perhaps what we recognize as “Italian food” overseas isn’t real Italian food after all?