Food in Italy

Traditional Italian cuisine includes pizza, spaghetti, lasagne and pasta, bites of which slip through between hearty doses of great wine. Wind up your Italian dream meal with Italy’s contribution to mankind – ice cream (gelato).

Your full meal would include an appetizer (antipasto), pasta or soup (primo), meat or fish (secondo), with a vegetable occasionally (contorno), and salad, fruit or cheese. Butter and cream are primary flavours in the north, whereas farther south, it is tomatoes all the way. In central Italy and in Rome they like their dish hot and spicy!

Pastries seem to become sweeter as you go down southwards. Coffee is rich and different. Cappuccino is the breakfast drink. Caffe macchiato is espresso coffee with a touch of milk and latte macchiato is the other way around – milk with a dash of coffee.

North Italian wines are quite heavy and full-bodied. Southern Italy, on the other hand, offers fruitier and stronger wines. Italian cheeses include Bel Paese, La Fontina, provolone or mozzarella.