The best way to eat well in Italy is to ask an Italian.  Ask the hotel clerk, stop someone on the street, ask a bus or taxi driver.  (You may not want to ask a tour guide as they are possibly getting paid a “commission” for referrals.) Unlike many of our undiscriminating diners who are content to grab the fastest and cheapest food for lunch most Italians are much fussier about their cuisine, and those workers who are not privileged enough to be able to eat at home for lunch tend to know where to get cooking almost as good as Mamma’s.  Once on a road trip from Florence to Rome we were looking for somewhere to eat and my husband, while stopped for gas, asked a truck driver for his recommendation.  The rest of us in the car, all Americans, were politely silent but had little faith when we pulled up to Le Capannine, in Barberino di Mugello (near Florence).  It turned out to be one of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had in Italy (okay, there’ve been more than a few), so much so that I included it in my blog of favorite restaurants, and if you are ever on the A1 autostrada between Florence and Rome, I highly recommend you plan your trip around it.

Moving on…

• Pizza:  I have to act like an Italian and be a regionalist about this; even Northerners will admit that the best pizza is in Naples.  My humble opinion is that as you move farther north, the pizza depreciates in value.  Rome has a great thin-crusted pizza, and in Tuscany I prefer their focaccia to the pizza, which is still decent, but I got a hold of some pretty bad pizza in Milan.  Sorry, Milan, but pizza is not your thing.

• Still pizza:  During the day you can get pizza al taglio, or pizza by the slice on a take-out basis, but the individual, round, whole pizzas are meant to be eaten at dinner. (You can, however, get these all day at some touristy restaurants that serve bad pizza, but don’t.) This is because authentic pizzerias have wood fired ovens that are not lit during the day.  I once got a really intense eyeball roll in Trastevere when I tried to order pizza at lunch.

  

• One more pizza thing: This is tricky, so pay close attention; you can order appetizers, pasta, meat dishes, etc. at a pizzeria, but for the most part, you can’t get pizza at a fancier ristorante.  A trattoria is a more casual, usually family-operated restaurant, but again, no pizza.  If you want pizza, get thee to a pizzeria.

• Gelato:  This is serious stuff in Italy as we all know, but you have to know a few guidelines:
• Stay away from neon-colored gelato:  The brightly-hued gelati that are dramatically piled in mountain-high peaks and covered with slices of the fruit with which it is flavored are not made organically and are probably not made in-house – you will see the same type of colorful gelati in shops all over the country, mostly in tourist areas, near main piazzas.  It’s not bad, it’s just not very good.
• Look for gelato made in-house:  Most good gelaterias will proudly display a sign in the window: “Produzione Propria” or “Produzione Artigianale.”  There are no artificial colors or flavorings; coffee gelato will not be a chocolate brown color but a light tan color, gelato flavored with strawberries will be pink rather than bright red.
• When ordering gelato, you pick a cone or a cup, in varying sizes,  then, (and here’s the good part), you get to choose several different flavors that will be generously piled high on the chosen container.  A small cup or cone may get you three flavors, a medium cup or cones may allow you four flavors, or a larger quantity of three flavors, and so on.  Don’t worry about mispronouncing the names of the gusti when you read the signs – just point to the ones you want and keep going until they cut you off.  Also very important:  Listen for Con panna? the question the gelato guy will ask you when he’s finished piling up your cone or cup.  This translates to with whipped cream? after which you respond sì.  Watch him dollop the top with hand-whipped cream and enjoy.

  

• Wine: Save the fancy wines that you’ve been dying to try for special occasion meals or wine tasting ventures in the appropriate region.  If you’re like me, a wine appreciator rather than a wine snob, order the house wine at restaurants.  You will save money and be able to taste many different varieties that you will find to be quite superior in quality.  I promise you, no respectable Italian restaurateur is going to feature a bad wine as his house brand.

Bonus:  Gelaterias with Produzione Artigianale:                                         Rome:                                                                                                                       Giolitti, Via degli Uffici del Vicario, 40   (near Pantheon)                                 San Crispino, Via della Panetteria, 42 (near Trevi Fountain)                       Gelateria Fatamorgana, Via Roma Libera, 11 (Trastevere)

Florence:                                                                                                                Vivoli, Via Isole delle Stinche, 7r (Santa Croce)                              Grom, Via del Campanile (Duomo)