Food in Italy (Venice, Florence, cinque terre and Rome)

Florence - the Mercato Centrale building at/near the San Lorenzo street market has a lot of food stalls. Lots to good options there for local foods. Buy some salumi, cheese, fruit, bread & make a picnic in the piazza or dine at one of the eateries.

Do not eat in places that offer a tourist menu! Walk a block or 2 and find smaller places where the locals go. This goes for all the cities.

Na, that is false advice but frequently given. Multi-language menus are common in many restaurant - not just tourist oriented restaurant. Maybe the sign of a smart owner. Good restaurants come in all colors and shape and sometimes it takes a little luck.

Avoid restaurants in the main Piazzas and streets. I like the smaller obscure restaurants where the locals eat. Ask your hotel concierge for advise. Definitely RS tour books are a great resource. I have used them many times and have not been disappointed.

Lorieann

Rather than focus on the "where" (which is always a contentious subject), I'll give you my impression of the "what" in a few of the locations.

Venice - In my experience, sea food is the highlight. You can watch the chefs and restaurant owners picking out their menu fare each morning at the Rialto market. (In Venice, it is doubly important to get away from the main piazzas to find a restaurant.) I also liked the multitude of cichetti places in Venice. I would highly recommend booking a cichetti-crawl (there are several to be found via google or do a search here).

Florence - The local favorite is the Bistecca alla Fiorentina or Florentine Steak. A favorite of mine is Tagliata di manzo con rucola e pomodorini or Florentine Steak in a bed of fresh arugula with cherry tomatoes and parmesan dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

While in Florence, you must stop at Edoardo il Gelato for the BEST gelato I have ever tasted. (OK, that was my one and only pitch as to where to go.)

In Rome, my (admittedly very short) experience was that local favorites are what some of us might consider, for lack of a better term, peasant food. Although almost every restaurant we encountered had a broad menu of all the stereotypical Italian favorites, they also had one of more dishes consisting of the less popular cuts of meat (organ meat, etc.). Don't worry, if you're not that adventurous, seafood, beef, lamb and chicken are well represented on the menus.

Sorry but I haven't been to the Cinque Terre but I would imagine seafood rules.

One other thing, consider what is currently in season at the local farms. We saw a lot of squash and pumpkin on the menus in our two October trips to Italy. The Italians are famous for their 'farm to table' philosophy. If you see it as the chef's/house special in several restaurants, it's a fair bet it just came into season.

Hi there! I asked a question similar to this recently and got some really great answers from people on this forum...hope this helps!
Here's the link
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/favorite-pasta-dishes-to-order-in-italy
Cheers,
Amanda

This is a "broad" question. It helps to know which neighborhoods you are staying in. The hotel desk clerks can be good advisors, RS book, also read reviews on tripadvisor. For example, if Tripadvisor ranks the restaurant #1,770 out of 2,000 places - you know to avoid it. I have enjoyed many good meals and had a few regrettable ones and learned later on tripadvisor about the ranking. For Rome - Cul-Du-Sac on the SW side of Piazza Navona, just a short walk down a lane away from P. Navona is very good all the way around. For Florence, we enjoyed grilled meats and more at La Spada. Florence has lots of great places - it would help to know your neighborhood. Generally, avoid restaurants on the major piazzas. Italy means eating at places that don't open until 7 pm. (For the good ones)

Roman Pizzas are a delight.
However contrary to Naples and pizzas, Roman pizzas are very very thin and crispy.
Pizzas are generally nicer in Rome or Naples than in Florence or Venice.

I like barbnrob's suggestion of asking the hotel reception person. First night in Rome after an exceedingly long trip from the US West Coast, the guy sent us to a neighborhood restaurant in the Termini area. It was a Friday night, the place was filled with families and while we were there at least 3 different kinds of police/Carabinieri/law enforcement uniforms came in to take away stacks of pizza. We heard no other English. It was a perfect introduction to Italy.

I also love Cantina di Miky in Monterosso. I do recommend you not have the Prosecco drink for lunch if you intend to function afterward. Or, you might have a better head for sparkling wine than I do!

Look for Squid lnk pasta in Cinque de Terre!

I'm not 100% on most different cuisines, but if you are in Campania, you 100% MUST eat Mozzarella di Bufala! THAT, I know is the best.....

In Venice, one of my favorite restaurants is Osteria da Fiore. Be careful, one "daFiore" is a more upscale Michelin star restaurant in Campo San Polo neighborhood. I'm sure it's excellent but I never went there. The one I am familiar with is off the Campo Morosini on a street called: calle d Botteghe, not too far off Accademia bridge on San Marco side

If you have cell phone data available, it might be easiest to just search Yelp/TripAdvisor to see which restaurants near you have the best reviews wherever you happen to be when you get hungry. I looked up the best restaurants ahead of time and found that when we were hungry, we weren't anywhere near those places. And sometimes we walked to the places only to find them closed.

That being said, we enjoyed:
Rome: We didn't have the fanciest food here because we were too busy sight-seeing, but Pastificio in the Spanish Steps neighborhood offers yummy affordable take-out pasta. There is also a famous Tiramisu shop (Pompi) nearby. We enjoyed getting a chocolate tartufo from Bar Tre Scalini's take-out window in Piazza Navona as well (dinner at Da Francesco nearby was decent).

Florence: our tour guide recommended Osteria Santo Spirito, and we really enjoyed it. The Mercato Centrale, as others have mentioned, is a good option for a cheaper bite to eat. Eduardo gelato was great.

Venice: we were just there for a day (Sunday , when many places were closed), so we didn't eat much, but I hear that Dal Moro's is delicious.

Cinque Terre: In Vernazza, Il Pirata at the top of the street is great. They have yummy pastries in the morning, and delicious pasta later on (I especially enjoyed their seafood pasta). I hear that the fancy restaurant in the watchtower is also good. We really enjoyed the pesto pizza at Bar Baia down by the water too - you can take it to go and eat it on the waterfront.

Rick has some good sections in his guidebooks highlighting the most popular dishes to try in each region.

For a fun and inexpensive lunch of sandwiches and wine in Venice, try Bacareto da Lele. You can find it on Trip Advisor.
Cynthia

We were just in Rome last week. I highly recommend eating at "Marco G" in the Trastevere neighborhood. It was our best meal so far. The service was great and it was inexpensive compared to what you could pay for the same experience. If you search this site you will see other's like it too.