Gastronomy Hotel Emilia Romagna

Food and wine: guide to good eating abroad

Eating well is one of the great pleasures of travel. Often, it is emotive and sensuous – the thing we remember most about a holiday: a delicious breakfast of fresh cornetto and cappuccino in Tuscany; a fragrant lunch of red tomatoes, chalk-white cheese, black olives, cucumber and a boiled egg on a sunny terrace in Bodrum; the briny indulgence of ozone-fresh fruits de mer eaten at a beachfront table in Nice with the setting sun in your eyes, salt in the air and a chilled glass in your hand. We like to feel that we are relishing a cuisine which is rooted into a different landscape, climate and tradition.

These are, perhaps, the moments when we come closest to absorbing a different way of life, to feeling at one with a different culture. But while your chances of finding a family-run taverna, or trattoria, or brasserie serving a decent good-value menu are much higher in the Mediterranean than they are in, say, Cornwall, truly "authentic" local cuisine, can be elusive.

Much depends, of course, by what you think of as authentic. This year, the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards – fast gaining credibility as "the chef's Oscars" – is featuring a new category, Most Authentic Italian Restaurant. Among the criteria are that ingredients must be "of certified origin" (a reference to Italy's byzantine system of DO, DOC and DOCG labelling); that chefs should show a "respect for traditions" even when creating new dishes; that restaurants must be "welcoming, relatively informal, and give space to conviviality and to honest conversation"; and that the chef-patron must be present.

Yet there is an irony. Even as we become more food-literate, weaned on a diet of cookery programmes, exotic supermarket imports and cosmopolitan restaurants back home, mobility, globalisation and the march of identikit fast-food outlets across the Continent have diluted regional cuisine and made it harder to find. More to the point, travel –

the very thing that enabled our pursuit of culturally distinct food in the first place – is largely responsible for the demise.

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A Short Guide To Having Fun In Italy

The best time to go to Italy could well be, well, anytime. In reality the best time is between April and June as the flood of school holidays hasnt yet hit the roads, the countryside is at its fullest bloom and the weather isnt uncomfortably hot yet.

When deciding at which time of the year to go to Italy it may be worth scheduling around a couple of festivals as they are invariably spectacular occasions.

Here is a shortlist of the best on offer:

Festa dei Ceri, Umbria in May Umbria Jazz, Perugia in July

In August prices tend to skyrocket across the country along with the weather, so is best avoided. However Vibram Five Fingers Sprint Black Blue Mens Shoes , that is not true of the whole of the country. In a country such as Italy the weather is incredibly diverse, ranging from stifling heat in the low-lands of Florence to the snow-capped chills of the Alps and the Dolomites.

Overall you can expect long hot summers the further south you are, with Sicily and Sardinia enjoying the best of all, where sea swimming is possible right into mid October.

Italy is a fairly expensive country with accommodation being the single most costly aspect of a trip. You may find cheaper accommodation out of the city centres and in surrounding satellite towns. Expect to pay around 12 to 20 euros for a youth hostel, 25 to 45 euros for a basic pensione or small hotel, and around 70 to 120 euros for a mid-range hotel.

Eating out is an incredible experience throughout Italy. As any Italian will tell you, there really is no such thing as Italian food, as each region tends to be known for its particular specialities. Budget for around 20 to 35 euros for a great full-course meal with a house wine on average.

The delectable Cucina Italiana is never far away in Italy. If youre a bit of a gastronomic connoiseur then id recommend touring around the Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria regions for the quintessential food tour.

Shop for Italian delights to take home in the Mercato delle Erbe in Bologna, then head off to nearby Modena for a bottle of perhaps the worlds finest balsamic vinegar.

Next pick up a delicious antipasto in the most well-known food town of Parma – see Parma ham and Parmesan cheese.

For you first dish perhaps Umbria for some umbricelli (pasta served with shaved truffles). If you can try to get your hands on the ever-elusive tartufo nero or black truffle from Norcia.

Tourism and gastronomy

Bologna and Emilia Romagna

Food and Wine Tourism, Integrating Food, Travel and Territory

Frommer's Italy 2010

Frommer's Italy 2006