Italy
The further south you go, the fewer reservations you need.
The north is booked out two months ahead. Sicily and the deep south still run on turning up, and the food is better.
Places in Italy
Bologna
Italy's food capital by local consensus, with none of Florence's or Rome's crowds to get between you and dinner.
Corvara
A Ladin-speaking village in the Dolomites, sitting on the Sella Ronda circuit with the whole of Dolomiti Superski on one pass.
Florence
Small enough to walk end to end, and small enough that the Duomo crowd never quite thins out.
Gagliano del Capo
A quiet town at the heel of Puglia, closer to the Grecìa Salentina coast than to anywhere tourists usually stop.
Milan
A working fashion-and-finance city that treats lunch as sacred and tourists mostly as an afterthought.
Naples
Loud, chaotic, and the reason pizza exists — better eaten standing up than at a table with a view.
Palermo
A port city that never tidied itself up for visitors, with the best fried food in the Mediterranean sold from hatches.
Panicale
A walled Umbrian hill town above Lake Trasimeno, small enough to see whole in an afternoon.
Rome
The ruins are free to walk past at any hour; the queues are only for the ones you walk into.
Venice
No cars, no exceptions — everything moves on foot or by water, and the crowds thin out one bridge from San Marco.
Logged in Italy
Al Garghet
Milan, ItalyA 1950s farmhouse-on-stilts restaurant on Milan's rural southern edge, over a canal, serving Milanese classics.
Bacareto da Lele
Venice, ItalyA student-favourite bacaro near Piazzale Roma, selling cheap ombre and simple panini standing up.
Baths of Caracalla
Rome, ItalyThe colossal ruins of Rome's imperial bathing complex, marble halls bigger than most basilicas, open to the sky.
Enoteca e Trattoria La Cantinetta
Naples, ItalyA tumbling Naples wine-cellar trattoria known for slow Sunday ragù, well outside the historic center.
Harry's Bar
Venice, ItalyGiuseppe Cipriani's 1931 bar by the San Marco waterfront, a Hemingway favourite and the place the Bellini was invented.
Le Mossacce
Florence, ItalyA four-generation family trattoria a block from Florence's Duomo, serving ribollita and bistecca at shared tables.
Osteria del Sole
Bologna, ItalyA wine-only Bologna osteria dating to 1465, no kitchen, bring your own food.
Osteria Manì
Florence, ItalyA neighbourhood osteria south of the Arno, off Florence's tourist map, making fresh pasta for locals.
Palazzo Daniele
Gagliano del Capo, ItalyA 19th-century Puglian aristocratic palazzo at the tip of Salento, converted by two brothers into a small art-filled guesthouse.
Rastrello Boutique Hotel
Panicale, ItalyA restored medieval palazzo hotel above Lake Trasimeno, inside the walls of the Umbrian hill town of Panicale.
Trattoria Pennestri
Rome, ItalyA modern Roman trattoria on the quiet Ostiense edge, doing gricia and pajata far from the tourist crowd.
Trattoria Trippa
Milan, ItalyA Milan trattoria built around offal, run for regulars rather than visitors.
