Ranking · Italy
The 25 Must-Eat Places in Italy, Ranked
The 25 must-eat places in Italy, ranked. From the lasagna verde at Al Sangiovese in Bologna to the margherita at Da Michele in Naples, this is where to eat across Italy.
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Italy doesn’t do shortcuts. The 25 tables on this list run from a Bologna trattoria’s lasagna verde to the Naples pizzeria that defined the margherita, from three-star dining rooms to counters where dinner costs less than a cocktail. We ate across the country, from the Alps to Sicily, and ranked the 25 places you must eat, in the order you should visit them. Our ranking, our rules.
25. Da Michele, Naples
Official site · Walk-in only, numbered-ticket queue · +39 081 553 9204
Photo: Google Maps
Margherita
The margherita lands wider than the plate: thin, blistered, San Marzano and fior di latte, the cornicione puffed and leopard-spotted, the part you tear off first. The crust shatters, then gives. Sweet tomato, salt, heat. It costs less than the taxi that brought you.
Two pizzas. The Condurro family has made pizza since 1870; Michele opened this pizzeria in 1906, and it moved to Via Cesare Sersale in 1930. Two pizzas, margherita and marinara, and the room hasn’t changed because it never needed to. Marble tables, wood fire, a queue that starts before the doors open. Every Neapolitan pizza on earth gets measured against this one. Most of them lose.
Photo: MakingWavess (listing for Via Cesare Sersale 1, Napoli)
What to order: the margherita, the one that defined the form, and the marinara if someone at the table insists. Two pizzas on the menu, nothing to overthink. When to go: off-hours. The queue on Via Cesare Sersale is real at lunch and dinner; mid-afternoon is the sweet spot. Price: a few euros a pizza. No catch. Pro tip: the ticket system moves fast, so don’t let the line scare you. Eat standing at the counter like a local if the tables are full.
24. Pashà, Polignano a Mare
Official site · Book through the site
The Masseria Mancini tasting
The move is the tasting: red prawns and vegetables in the kitchen’s sleight of hand, the land trusted as much as the sea. Then the hay ice cream, burnt grain, peas, strawberries: the dessert that tells you who’s cooking now. You taste the heel of the boot before you see it.
Michele Spadaro runs the kitchen now, and in July 2026 the table moved from Conversano to Masseria Mancini, the stone masseria outside Polignano a Mare, and the cooking followed the landscape. One Michelin star, rooted, seasonal, unmistakably Pugliese. The heel of the boot’s strongest fine-dining voice, and it’s not close.
Photo: @ristorantepasha via Instagram
What to order: the tasting menu, the kitchen thinks in sequences, then the red prawns with vegetables and the hay ice cream with burnt grain, peas, and strawberries for dessert. The move is the full sequence. When to go: dinner, when the masseria’s stone rooms earn their keep. Price: tastings at €140 and €160, about €120 average (July 2026). The splurge end of the list. Pro tip: Polignano is a summer crush. Book the table and the town on a shoulder-season night, and confirm the Masseria Mancini address, Contrada Torre Catena, when you reserve.
23. La Nuova Piazzetta Navona, Rome
No official website. Book by phone: +39 06 6922 4081
Carbonara
The carbonara. Pasta slicked in glossy pecorino-and-egg silk, guanciale crisped hard, black pepper doing real work. No cream, no shortcuts: the Roman canon executed at a level that embarrasses the tourist-trap versions around the corner. On the record: one of the best carbonaras we’ve ever had.
La Nuova Piazzetta sits on Via della Posta Vecchia, tucked off Piazza Navona, a room that never went tourist-trap. Generous portions, the 4.9-star consensus of thirteen thousand reviews, and a carbonara carrying the whole list’s Roman hopes.
Photo: Il Gusto (editorial)
What to order: the carbonara, one of the best we’ve ever had, and the amatriciana if the table wants a second Roman classic. When to go: lunch or dinner, long hours, but go before the piazza crowds peak. Price: good value for steps from Navona. Trattoria-fair. Pro tip: order the carbonara first and build around it.
22. Me Cumpari Turiddu, Catania
Official site · Book: online request form or +39 095 715 0142
Photo: Passione Gourmet
Spaghetti alla Turiddu
Spaghetti alla Turiddu. Anchovies, olive oil, salt: Sicilian-grandmother cooking in the truest sense, the kind that doesn’t need a philosophy because somebody’s nonna already figured it out. Twirl it. Around it: macco di fava, involtini di spatola, the island’s greatest hits played straight.
Me Cumpari Turiddu is a Slow Food Chef Alliance room in Catania’s Piazza Turi Ferro, and it wears the badge honestly, tradition first, nothing precious. The founder sent us here on his word alone. The word held.
Photo: Me Cumpari Turiddu (official site)
What to order: the spaghetti alla Turiddu with masculina da magghia, the macco di fava larga di Leonforte, the involtini di spatola with verdurine alla stimpirata, the palermitana di asino ragusano, and the biancomangiare alla mandorle to finish. In that order. When to go: dinner, when the room is at full grandmother volume. Price: trattoria-fair. Excellent value for this level of cooking. Pro tip: go hungry. The portions are grandmother-scale.
21. Dal Pescatore, Canneto sull’Oglio
Official site · Book: +39 0376 723001 or the site’s form
Photo: Fine Dining Explorer
Tortelli di zucca
The tortelli di zucca is the reason for the pilgrimage: pumpkin-gold pasta, the filling sweet and savory at once, butter and sage doing what they’ve done in Lombardy forever. A recipe that has barely moved in generations, because it was right the first time.
The Santini family’s room in Canneto sull’Oglio. Three Michelin stars, held by a family, with Nadia Santini’s cooking at the center: the countryside table that never wavers and never postures. River fish, the tortelli, and a dining room that has seen everything and changed almost nothing. That’s the whole trick.
Photo: Reporter Gourmet
What to order: the tortelli di zucca and the river fish. The two pillars, and the menu turns daily on the market, so ask what the Santinis are proudest of that day. When to go: a long lunch or dinner. This is a destination, not a stop. Price: fine-dining money. The tasting menus are the move. Pro tip: book well ahead and make a day of the Lombardy countryside. The room rewards the unhurried.
20. Trippa, Milan
Official site · Book via the site
Photo: ristorazioneitalianamagazine.it
Trippa fritta
Trippa fritta. Honeycomb tripe, fried crisp at the edges and tender within, herb salt, aioli for dragging. The dish that made Milan care about offal: crunchy, rich, gone in minutes. Beside it: vitello tonnato done properly, bone marrow with grilled bread. Humble cuts, total conviction.
Diego Rossi and Pietro Caroli opened Trippa in 2015 on a bet: that the city wanted its trattoria back. Rossi walked away from starred kitchens to fry tripe in Porta Romana. A decade on, it’s the hardest table in Milan and the template every modern trattoria in Italy now copies. The student became the school.
Photo: reportergourmet.com
What to order: the trippa fritta, the vitello tonnato done properly, the bone marrow with grilled bread, and whatever the offal special is that day. The menu changes daily, and the offal board is where Rossi shows off. When to go: dinner. The room’s energy is a dinner energy. Price: trattoria pricing: roughly €50 a person with wine. Cooking this good has no business costing this little. Pro tip: reservations open monthly and vanish in minutes. Set the alarm.
19. Condividere, Turin
Official site · Book via the site’s form
Photo: Condividere (official site)
Sharing-plate tasting
Dinner here is a contact sport played with sharing plates. The elBulli spherical olive that bursts in your mouth. The Mulassano sandwich on savory meringue. The Piedmontese katsu sando. ‘Condividere’ means to share, and the food is built for the middle of the table, technical cooking that plays, Piedmontese to the bone even when it wanders to Japan.
Federico Zanasi’s room sits inside Lavazza’s Nuvola headquarters on Via Bologna, born from an idea by the late Turin photographer and food critic Bob Noto, with Ferran Adrià’s consultancy behind it. A Michelin star, and a meal with architecture: it moves you to the lounge for dessert and coffee at the end. Let it take its three hours.
Photo: altissimoceto.com
What to order: the elBulli spherical olive, the Mulassano sandwich on savory meringue, the Piedmontese katsu sando, and the Festival or Gran Festival tasting to meet them all. The Classici is the greatest-hits version. When to go: dinner Tuesday to Friday, Saturday lunch and dinner, Sunday lunch. Closed Mondays. Price: tasting-menu money. Worth it for the inventiveness. Pro tip: book far ahead. The room is small and the demand is not.
18. Daní Maison, Ischia
Official site · Book via TheFork
Photo: passionegourmet.it
Seafood and citrus
Ischia, plated. Seafood and citrus, the vegetable-first openings, desserts that close like theater: Il Circo among them. Nino Di Costanzo cooks the island the way it actually tastes: lemons, the catch, the garden. Nothing flown in for effect. Nothing needed.
Daní Maison is Di Costanzo’s house on Via Montetignuso, two Michelin stars in an enchanting garden, a handful of tables inside and out, dinner that feels like being a guest instead of a customer. The island’s flagship. The most transporting room in Campania.
Photo: scattidigusto.it
What to order: the ‘Ci pensa lo chef’ tasting, the seafood and citrus courses, the vegetable-first openings, and Il Circo for dessert. Surrender. The kitchen knows the island better than you do. When to go: dinner, in the garden when the season allows. Price: €280 a person before wine. The splurge, priced like one. Pro tip: book early. A handful of tables means weeks out, not days. Closed Mondays.
17. Atelier Moessmer, Brunico, Südtirol
Official site · Book via TheFork
Photo: olevlight.com
“Cook the Mountain” tasting
Altitude, cooked. High-valley herbs and alpine produce under ‘Cook the Mountain’: everything sourced from the mountains themselves. The courses taste like the height they come from: clean, precise, impossible anywhere lower. Nothing on the plate the valleys below could have supplied.
Norbert Niederkofler’s three-star temple in the high valleys. He spent a career proving the mountain is a complete pantry. This is the proof, served course by course.
Photo: eatgosee.com
What to order: the ‘Cook the Mountain’ tasting, the only way to eat here and the right one. The mountain sets the sequence. When to go: dinner. The room follows the mountain seasons. Price: three-star money. A serious commitment. Pro tip: plan the Dolomites trip around the table, not the other way around.
16. Qafiz, Calabria
Official site · Book: +39 0966 878800 or the site
Photo: scattidigusto.it (ph. Alberto Blasetti)
Aspromonte tasting
The Aspromonte tasting runs sea to woods to mountain in one sitting: ‘nduja where you’d never expect it, lamb with mint and aubergine. The Calabrian pantry, cooked with a modern hand and zero apology. Every course argues the toe of the boot belongs on the national map. Every course wins.
Nino Rossi cooked abroad, then came home and set his table in an 18th-century farmhouse and former olive mill at Località Calabretto, in the wildest heart of the Aspromonte. A Michelin star, one seating’s worth of conviction. He came back to put Calabria on the map. Done.
Photo: reportergourmet.com (ph. Alberto Blasetti)
What to order: the Aspromonte tasting, the lamb with mint and aubergine, and the ‘nduja course where you’d never expect it. It’s essentially the only way to eat here, and the right one. When to go: dinner. Check the weekly calendar before planning the drive. Price: fine-dining money. Real value for this cooking. Pro tip: a pilgrimage: Lamezia Terme or Reggio Calabria, about an hour each. The Ilici grill bistro on the estate is your second night.
15. Oasis Sapori Antichi, Vallesaccarda, Campania
Official site · Book via the site
Photo: Google Maps
The Irpinia table
Campania’s countryside on a plate. Seasonal, market-driven, the produce doing the talking and the technique staying quiet. Food with dirt still on its shoes, in the best way. The strongest voice on this list from outside the big cities.
The Fischetti family’s dining room in Vallesaccarda, deep in Irpinia. Years spent proving the region’s finest cooking happens far from the coast. The table that makes the case for driving inland.
Photo: lucianopignataro.it
What to order: the ravioli di ricotta with burnt-garlic walnut sauce (on the menu since 1988), the ravioli di burrata with wild herbs and Irpinian truffle, the fusillone with ragù bianco, the coniglio di fattoria, and il ricordo del tiramisù to close. The tasting menu if you’re going all in. When to go: book ahead and confirm hours. The room is a destination, not a detour. Price: fine-dining money. The cooking justifies it. Pro tip: drive it. Don’t try to day-trip it from Naples.
14. La Focaccia, Taormina
No official website. Walk-in only.
Photo: The Pass
Sicilian sandwiches and focaccia
The move: Sicilian sandwich, stacked warm. Focaccia split and loaded, mortadella, burrata, pesto, cut open so you see the layers. The island’s flavors pressed between warm bread. Simple, rich, exactly what midday in Taormina should taste like.
La Focaccia is the town’s focacceria, no ceremony. The photos here are our own, taken on the visit: the cut-open sandwich, the arched stone storefront. Exactly as we found it.
Photo: The Pass
What to order: the mortadella, burrata, and pesto build, the signature stack, and the Sicilian sandwich loaded warm. The island’s flavors pressed between warm bread. When to go: lunch, or a midday stop between the sights. Price: cheap eats. The bargain of the list’s upper half. Pro tip: no booking, no ceremony. Order at the counter, eat it warm, keep walking.
13. Le Nicchie, Bari
No official website. Book on Quandoo · +39 080 883 5025
Photo: Google Maps user photo via Mycia.it
Orecchiette and the day’s seafood
The orecchiette are made fresh and twirled through cime di rapa: the little ear-shaped pasta, bitter greens, the Bari canon. Our verdict, on the record: the best orecchiette of your life. And the seafood is the day’s catch: some of the best mussels you’ll ever eat.
Le Nicchie is Bari tradition on Vico Corsioli. The founder sent us on his word alone. The word held. Fresh pasta, the day’s catch, and cooking that never reaches past what the day brought in.
Photo: @lenicchie_bari (official)
What to order: the orecchiette alle cime di rapa, the mussels, and whatever the day’s catch brought in. The three orders that matter. When to go: lunch or dinner, earlier is safer for the seafood. Price: trattoria-fair. Bari prices, not Milan prices. Pro tip: eat here, then walk it off in Bari Vecchia. The old town is the digestivo.
12. Venissa, Mazzorbo, Venice
Official site · Book via the site
Photo: magazine.winerist.com
Lagoon cuisine
The lagoon, as cuisine. Fish from the water, vegetables from the estate’s gardens, wild herbs. Meat barely appears. Dishes move from raw to cooked to just-picked, and the walled garden fills the gaps. The plate tastes like the place because the place is the pantry.
Inside the walled vineyard on Mazzorbo, where the Bisol family revived the Dorona grape, nearly wiped out by the 1966 acqua alta, behind old monastery walls. A Michelin star and a Green Star, chefs Chiara Pavan and Francesco Brutto. Venice’s most of-the-place restaurant: the vineyard, the lagoon, and the table, one project.
Photo: grantourismotravels.com (ph. Terence Carter)
What to order: the seven- or ten-course lagoon tasting, the fish from the water and the vegetables from the estate gardens. Meat barely appears, and that’s the point. When to go: dinner. The light over the vineyard at golden hour is part of the meal. Price: fine-dining money. A special-occasion table. Pro tip: take the vaporetto out to Mazzorbo. The crossing is half the experience.
11. Regina Bistecca, Florence
Official website · Book: OpenTable · +39 055 269 3772
Photo: Eating Around Italy
Bistecca alla fiorentina
The bistecca alla fiorentina is the whole argument. Aged a minimum of 21 days, cooked over ardent embers, and served al sangue, the T-bone arrives standing on its bone and is carved to order for the table: charred outside, cherry red inside, nothing but salt, fire, and beef. The staff bring the raw cuts to your table first so you choose your breed, Chianina at €9.80 the 100 grams, Angus, or the house selection. You order it for how many are eating, never by the person. The menu says servite al sangue, and that is the only way it comes.
The room is the old Gonnelli antiquarian bookshop on Via Ricasoli, a couple of minutes on foot from the Duomo, where the same family sold rare books for more than 140 years before the grills moved in. The shelves gave way to a knife wall, white tablecloths, and a dessert trolley, and the place earned its spot on the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants list for 2024. This is the elegant end of the Florentine steakhouse: the antipasto tower of Antica Macelleria Falorni salumi lands first, the dolci al carrello roll last, and the whole meal runs on that old-school, big-red-wine confidence.
Photo: Regina Bistecca
What to order: the bistecca alla fiorentina for the table, Chianina if you are going all in, then the Gran piatto Toscano antipasto tower, the verticale di lampredotto, the tagliatelle di pasta fresca al ragù di Bistecca, and the tagliolini al tartufo. When to go: dinner for the full occasion, lunch for the calmer room. Open daily, midday and evening. Price: the steak is priced by weight, roughly €7 to €10 per 100 grams, so a proper 1.2kg Chianina for two runs past €110 before anything else. Pane e coperto is €5. Pro tip: book on OpenTable well ahead, let them bring the raw cuts to your table and pick your breed, and save room for the dessert trolley.
10. Maria Grammatico, Erice, Sicily
Official site · Walk-in · +39 0923 869390
Photo: followingtherivera.com
Cannoli and genovesi
The cannoli ends the argument. Crisp shell, fresh sheep’s-milk ricotta: the Sicilian canon at its peak. Then the genovesi, custard in two bites, and the almond pastries behind them. The consensus best cannoli in Sicily. The consensus is right.
Maria Grammatico learned these recipes in a convent. The pasticceria has run on them since the 1960s in the hill town of Erice. Six decades, same discipline: ricotta fresh, shells crisp. Tradition is the whole business model. It works.
Photo: Pasticceria Maria Grammatico (official site)
What to order: the cannoli with fresh sheep’s-milk ricotta, a genovese, and the almond pastries. The full Erice set. When to go: morning or afternoon. The pasticceria is daytime territory. Price: pastry prices. The cheapest legend on this list. Pro tip: Erice sits above the clouds: go for the sweets, stay for the view, take a box down the mountain.
9. Taverna Estia, Brusciano, Naples
Official site · Book via the Relais & Châteaux page or +39 081 519 9633
Photo: sworld.co.uk
Campanian classics and tasting menus
The Campanian canon at two-star level. Ricciola with scarola, cauliflower, truffle: the coast’s classics in formal dress, the accent intact. The kitchen speaks Naples fluently and dresses it up, but the ricciola still tastes like the sea off the coast and the scarola still tastes like scarola.
The Sposito family’s room in Brusciano, chef Francesco Sposito’s two-Michelin-star dining room on Via Guido De Ruggiero. The coast’s voice, rewarded again and again.
Photo: lucianopignataro.it
What to order: the ricciola with scarola, the cauliflower with truffle, and the tasting menu. The classics are the point; the tasting is how you meet them all. When to go: dinner. The room is small and the evening is the main event. Price: fine-dining money. Two-star pricing, two-star cooking. Pro tip: book ahead. Small room, real stars, weekends go first.
8. Villa Maiella, Guardiagrele, Abruzzo
Official site · Book: +39 0871 809319
Photo: Villa Maiella (official site gallery)
The Majella on the plate
The chitarra, the porcini ravioli, the lumache: mountain cooking with altitude, hearty, precise, deeply of the place. This is what Abruzzo tastes like when a family has been cooking it for decades.
The Tinari family’s multi-generational restaurant in Guardiagrele, at the foot of the Majella massif. The region’s flagship table. The best mountain restaurant in Italy, and it’s not close.
Photo: Luciano Pignataro
What to order: the chitarra, the porcini ravioli, the lumache, and the tasting menu if you’re going all in. Mountain cooking with altitude. When to go: dinner. The mountains reward an overnight, not a drive-by. Price: fine-dining money. Earned. Pro tip: make a night of it in Guardiagrele. The room deserves the unhurried evening.
7. La Brinca, Ne, Liguria
Official site · Book: WhatsApp +39 348 405 9487
Photo: La Brinca (official site gallery)
Pesto, mountain vegetables
The pesto is the argument for the trip. Basil pounded in the marble mortar: bright green, fiercely aromatic, the inland Ligurian table at its purest. Around it: mountain vegetables, farmhouse cooking, zero pretension. This is what pesto tastes like before the jar.
The Circella family’s converted 19th-century farmhouse in Ne, on the Ligurian hillside. A Bib Gourmand the region cooks from by memory: the terrace with valley views, the hills, the mortar. Liguria’s inland soul, served the way it’s always been served.
Photo: La Brinca (official site gallery)
What to order: the pesto di mortaio, the Prebugiun di Ne, the Tomaxelle, the Tuccu, and the mountain vegetables. The inland canon, straight from the official menu. When to go: lunch on the terrace. The hillside is the seating chart. Price: Bib Gourmand pricing. The value play of the top 10. Pro tip: drive up from the coast and book. Small room, and the word is out.
6. Bam Bar, Taormina
No official website. Walk-in only.
Photo: A Single Woman Traveling
Granita with brioche col tuppo
The Sicilian breakfast, perfected. Granita: almond, pistachio, caffè, lemon. Coarse and icy, never sorbet-smooth. Brioche col tuppo for dunking. Hand-beaten whipped cream on top. Almond is the classic; pistachio (after 5pm) is the connoisseur’s order; caffè is the wake-up. Nothing on this list costs less or delivers more.
Bam Bar. Via di Giovanni, Taormina, open from 7:30 every morning. The bar from White Lotus and a thousand postcards, and it earns the fame. The granita machine never stops, the brioche never cools, the ritual never changes.
Photo: Once in a Lifetime Journey
What to order: the almond granita, the pistachio granita (the connoisseur’s order, after 5pm), the caffè granita, or the lemon, all with brioche col tuppo and hand-beaten whipped cream. The full Sicilian breakfast. When to go: breakfast. This is a morning ritual. Price: a few euros: about €6 for granita and brioche. The cheapest entry on this list by miles. Pro tip: go early. The queue is part of the ritual. Eat standing at the counter like a local.
5. Trattoria Da Me, Bologna
Official site · Book: +39 051 555486 or the site
Photo: Listing photo (venue storefront signage)
Lasagna verde alla bolognese
Lasagna verde alla bolognese, the Sunday specialty: the form, perfected. Spinach-green layers, chunky ragù, parmigiano, the edges crisped and caramelized. The lasagna every other lasagna is pretending to be. Behind it: tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in brodo, and a cheese ice cream that shouldn’t work and does.
Elisa Rusconi’s room under the porticoes of Via San Felice. The Bolognese canon with a modern hand: classics treated as living things, not museum pieces.
Photo: Food Drink Destinations
What to order: the lasagna verde (Sundays), the tortellini in brodo, the tagliatelle al ragù, and the cheese ice cream that shouldn’t work and does. The full Bolognese canon. When to go: lunch or dinner. The porticoes make both work. Price: €30 to €50 a person. Bologna’s great trattoria value. Pro tip: book ahead. It fills. Save room for the cheese ice cream.
4. Uliassi, Senigallia
Official site · Book: +39 071 65463 or the site
Photo: Uliassi (official site)
Raw and cooked seafood tasting
The sea, plated at three-star level. Raw and cooked, the Adriatic in courses. Smoked spaghetti with clams, and the brodetto the kitchen has refined for years: fish soup as fine dining. Uliassi cooks the sea the way the sea deserves.
The white building on Senigallia’s seafront, between the beach clubs on the Banchina di Levante. Mauro Uliassi’s kitchen, his sister Catia and son Filippo running the room, a family affair since 1990, one of the longest-held three-star runs in Italy. The standard every Adriatic restaurant gets judged against.
Photo: Reporter Gourmet
What to order: the seafood tasting, classic, lab, or game, the smoked spaghetti with clams, and the brodetto the kitchen has refined for years. Book the brodetto when you book the table. When to go: lunch or dinner. The seafront light at lunch is its own course. Price: set menus up to €250. The brodetto runs about €80 and needs advance booking. Pro tip: closed Monday and Tuesday. Plan around it. Book the brodetto when you book the table.
3. La Locanda Gesù Vecchio, Naples
Official site · Book: +39 081 461 3928 or email (no online booking)
Photo: Luciano Pignataro
Ziti alla Genovese
The ziti arrives slicked, not sauced: a Genovese cooked down until the onions surrender completely, collapsing into something dark, sweet, and glossy that clings to every tube. Beef folded through it, falling apart. This is the dish Naples invented patience for: hours of slow heat turning humble onions into the richest thing on the table, and nobody in the historic center cooks it with more conviction.
Via Giovanni Paladino, two streets off Spaccanapoli. A family-style room with white walls, wood tables, and yellow cloths that cooks like somebody’s nonna got a Michelin Bib Gourmand and refused to change a single thing. The fried stuffed paccheri shatter. The rabbit cacciatore gives up the bone. The parmigiana glows. And the bill, this is the Bib working exactly as intended, lands so far below what the cooking deserves that you will check it twice.
Photo: La Locanda Gesù Vecchio
What to order: the ziti alla Genovese, the fried stuffed paccheri, the parmigiana, and the rabbit cacciatore if the day has it. When to go: lunch, 12 to 3:30, the room is tiny and the word is out. Closed Monday at the main address; the second room at number 4 keeps the lights on. Price: the average bill runs about €20 to €25 a person; dinner for two with wine, well under what the cooking deserves. Pro tip: book ahead, and do not skip the parmigiana.
2. Osteria Francescana, Modena
Photo: chefwiseguy (visiting food writer)
The tasting menu
Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano. The cheese at five ages, five textures, five temperatures: the most famous plate in Italy, and the one that explains Massimo Bottura’s whole project. The Parmigiano you grew up with, returned to you unrecognizable and better. Emilian memory, remade as art.
The pink house on Via Stella in Modena. Three Michelin stars, twice the best restaurant in the world. Bottura’s laboratory for the Italian canon: Oops I Dropped the Lemon Tart, the Five Ages, tasting menus called Miseria e Nobiltà. This is where tradition goes to get reinvented. It earns the hype, which is rare.
Photo: popEating
What to order: the Miseria e Nobiltà tasting, the Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano, and Oops I Dropped the Lemon Tart. The Five Ages is the centerpiece. When to go: lunch or dinner, Tuesday to Saturday. Price: roughly €290 to €400 before wine. The splurge of the list, priced like one. Pro tip: reservations open online only and vanish fast. Book the moment slots drop, months out.
1. Al Sangiovese, Bologna
Official site · Book: +39 051 583057 or [email protected]
Photo: Google Maps
Lasagna verde
Lasagna verde. Spinach pasta layered thin, ragù and besciamella in the classic Bolognese build, baked until the top crisps and the edges caramelize. This is the dish that explains Emilia-Romagna in one plate. Behind it: tagliatelle al ragù with wide ribbons and slow ragù, tortellini in brodo, cotoletta alla bolognese. Cooked like family, priced like a neighborhood joint.
Al Sangiovese. The wood-lined family room on Vicolo del Falcone, the table the founder kept coming back to in Bologna, and ours too. It’s #1 because if you eat once in Italy, you start here. The ragù that explains the country, at a price that explains the room.
Photo: The Pass
What to order: the lasagna verde first, then the tagliatelle al ragù, the tortellini in brodo, and the cotoletta alla bolognese. The four orders that define the room. When to go: lunch or dinner. It’s a family room, and both work. Price: €30 to €50 a person. The value miracle of the top 10. Pro tip: book. The room fills with locals, who know. Closed Sundays.
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Questions, answered
What is the best restaurant in Italy?
Our #1 pick is Al Sangiovese in Bologna, for the lasagna verde: spinach pasta layered thin with ragù and besciamella, baked until the edges caramelize. Behind it, the tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in brodo, and cotoletta alla bolognese, all at €30 to €50 a person.
Where do locals actually eat in Italy?
Locals eat at rooms like Trattoria Da Me in Bologna (#5), La Brinca in Liguria (#7), Taverna Estia outside Naples (#9), and Bam Bar in Taormina (#6) for the Sicilian breakfast granita. This list favors places Italians eat at regularly, not trophy rooms.
What is Italy known for food-wise?
Pasta in its hundred regional forms, pizza Napoletana, the bistecca alla fiorentina, raw Adriatic seafood, and pastry traditions from Sicilian cannoli to Ligurian focaccia. Every region on this list cooks differently, which is the whole point.
Where should a first-time visitor eat in Italy?
Start at #1 Al Sangiovese in Bologna, then work through Osteria Francescana (#2) in Modena, La Locanda Gesù Vecchio (#3) in Naples, and Uliassi (#4) in Senigallia. The list is ordered by visit priority, so the top ranks are the unmissable first-visit stops.
What is the best pizza in Italy?
Da Michele in Naples (#25): the margherita that defined Neapolitan pizza, thin and blistered with San Marzano and fior di latte, for a few euros. Two pizzas on the menu since 1906, and every Neapolitan pizza on earth gets measured against this one.
What is the best steak in Tuscany?
Regina Bistecca in Florence (#11): the bistecca alla fiorentina aged a minimum of 21 days, cooked over embers and served al sangue, carved tableside. The experts' pick for the Florentine steakhouse, ranked on the World's 101 Best Steak Restaurants list.