Food suggestions welcomed for multi-city trip

As a solo female traveler for my sojourns in Italy I
walked away from the tourist centers. I’d find cafes and restaurants that were used by workers, members of the clergy, drs and nurses, etc. If I saw men in hard hats and orange vests I’d follow them. If I discovered a cafe where no English was spoken, I sat down. Best coffee I ever had was served at a 2 table cafe down a side street in Florence.

When I travel I adore finding non touristy neighborhoods. Never been disappointed in discovering dining options.

Hi, Giangilberto from Milan, one aspect of my country that I particularly love is the variety of dishes and ingredients unique to each region; whenever I travel, whether within Italy or abroad, I place great importance on the culinary experience, so I try never to miss out on traditional lunches and dinners in the places I visit.
Below is a list of my favorite iconic dishes for some of the cities you mentioned, specifically the ones I know best and visit most often, plus a few bonus picks:

Venice: this is definitely the city of cicchetti, small, traditional bites similar to Spanish tapas. The absolute best is baccalà mantecato (creamed salt cod), you should also try moeche (soft-shell crabs found only in the Venetian Lagoon) and sarde in saor (sweet-and-sour sardines). Finally, there’s fegato alla veneziana (Venetian-style liver), personally, I’m not a huge fan, but it is a very typical dish.

Padua: Bigoli (a type of pasta) with duck ragù.

Genoa: this is home turf for me, I have a house in Rapallo. You absolutely must try trofie with pesto, pansoti with walnut sauce (delicious but not good for your allergy), and traditional focaccia, either plain or with onions (my personal favorite). You can also try coniglio alla ligure (Ligurian-style rabbit).

Turin: here, I recommend eating at the traditional "Piole", typical Turinese trattorias. You simply must try vitello tonnato (veal with tuna sauce), which originated in this city, and agnolotti del plin (small egg-pasta ravioli with a meat filling).
However, my absolute favorite remains bagna cauda, a dish made from anchovies, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil cooked slowly together. It is served hot in an earthenware pot for dipping raw and cooked vegetables, as a garlic lover, I adore it, below the link of my favorite piola in town:

https://lapioladle2surele.it/

a bit far from the city center but definitely worth a visit.

Florence, my favorite one, ribollita, a dish I eat every time I visit the city, it is a rustic soup made with stale bread, Tuscan kale, and cannellini beans, then sautéed in a pan. Then there is lampredotto, the king of Florentine street food: a sandwich filled with boiled beef abomasum (the fourth stomach), served with salt, pepper, and either salsa verde or a spicy sauce.

Bologna is the Italian home of fresh pasta, and you are spoiled for choice here: tagliatelle al ragù, agnolini in broth, and absolutely, a mortadella sandwich (which we in Italy also call "panino con la Bologna").

This is a good list of good gelaterie in Florence. I have not tasted all of them over the years of my life living in Florence (or visiting), some are new, and others I would have included are not in this list, but it’s a good list..
https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/gallery/firenze-gelaterie-migliori/
Below is a good list of restaurants where to eat Florentine steak. I usually go to Perseus.
I like to use “la cucina italiana” website to discover restaurants in Italian cities I don’t know. The website is only in Italian and there is no danger of getting reviews from foreign visitors who may not know what they are talking about. That is a danger you run with TripAdvisor, and TheFork, although I do use TheFork occasionally (there are few fake reviews there since you must have been to the restaurant to write a review).

https://www.lacucinaitaliana.it/storie/ristoranti/migliore-bistecca-fiorentina-a-firenze/

The only change you need to do to your plan is to postpone dinner time by one hour. Itslians eat late (after 8:30pm in Florence and after 9:30pm in Rome), therefore most Italian restaurants open at 7:30pm, or 7pm at the earliest. The only restaurants that open before 7pm are tourist traps that cater to foreign tourists and are not generally good. So try to resist until 7:30pm and then go to dinner. The restaurant will be empty, although they might tell you they are booked because people have tables booked for later. Sometimes they still accommodate you if you promise you will be out by 9pm (when the Italians who have booked the tables arrive). In any case if you travel solo they can generally accommodate you without reservations. My wife and I rarely book tables but they can always accommodate us even if after a short wait.

To see the typical dishes of each city Google PIATTI TIPICI DI (name of city) and you have plenty of hits.

In Verona Al Grottino - Osteria e Sbecoleria is a great hole-in-the-wall place off Piazza Erbe for a drink and cicchetti. Cafe Monte Baldo nearby also has great cicchetti and more serious food if you want that. Right near the cafe there is Arcivio a super small, super hip cocktail bar. Osteria del Bugiardo is funky place nearish Piazza Erbe that is wine centric and also has super local food.
The Veronetta neighborhood across the river has a bunch of good neighborhood places stashed away. Specifically Forkette is really good pizza restaurant and the Gelateria Ballini Verona nearby has amazing gelato. These places are right across Ponte Nuovo from downtown but there many places if you want to browse. Terracotta - gastronomia vegetariana on Via Gaetano Trezza is a great, tiny, vegetarian place with great food and soup.
There is no lack of good restaurants in Verona but read the menu carefully at the older places because the cuisine can be very "traditional".

My Venice recommendations are specific but here goes. My recommendation from March is Wine Bar 5000 - we had previously made fun of the name but it is a lovely spot on a side canal that looks way more upscale than its prices. The 5000 in the name is just the address number BTW.
I also enjoyed OZIO on Campiello Santa Maria Formosa. They stress organic and artisanal beers along with wine and the usual drinks and their cicchetti are tiny works of art. This recommendation comes with an asterix because it is in a very busy spot and the owner is fiercely Venice local and actively hostile to tourist shenanigans, but he keeps a close eye on his operation and takes it seriously. If I lived in this section of Venice I can tell by the vibe that this would be on my list of regular places. Grab a table inside if there is one and watch the tourist flood roll past in all its glory.
If you want a serious restaurant I really enjoyed Ai Mercanti. Upscale casual vibe but not expensive (for upscale Venice) and forward looking Italian food. Also had a good everyday meal at Ristorante Agli Artisti. It family owned and straightforward and perhaps a bit expensive for what it is (hey, it's Venice) but enjoyed the food and the whole experience.

If you haven't heard the gelato testing criteria here it is.
1) Look at the pistacchio (there is always pistacchio) and if it is green walk out. Natural pistacchio is a dull brown so green is artifical.
2) If they fluff up the gelato and put items in it - whole oreos - for the tourists approach with caution. Gelato is best packed and kept flat and bonus points for a pull down screen to keep the case colder. In fact the hardcore places now keep metal lids on them so you can't see the gelato itself - bad for sales but better for the gelato. If you see a place listing gelato artigianale with metal lids on their gelato order with confidence.

I would print out a card in Italian listing your specific nut allergies to show to waiters - there are places on-line that have these you can download. Italian menus routinely list allergens, ingredients and gluten status. Waiters are a professional job so you can usually count on your waiter to already know ingredients and cooking processes when asked.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

with your nut allergy I'd be very cautious about gelato. All the products will be made in the same place as nut based gelati. Just because Bacio is not near Strawberry Sorbet doesn't mean that nut dust has never been near it. Be sure to have a pen.

Real Pesto has pine nuts in the (very brief) recipe.

Hi, Here’s what I did in Torino last time, and I highly recommend it!

The I Eat Food Tours’ “StreetFood D’luxe Experience” was a fantastic choice! Michelin chef & Cecilia whose husband is a chef have paired up to provide an extraordinary food tour. This is one I highly recommend, especially if you’re a foodie! Cecilia had an engaging, fun personality. The last stop was the famous Bicerin - delicious! : )

For dinner, that’s much too early to have a traditional meal. The good restaurants aren’t open, yet, or they’re just serving the apertivo social time. Since you’re switching your time zone, give yourself the opportunity to switch to the Italian dinner time.

I travel solo often, and I’m still able to have a nice meal. I also eat quick stuff, purchase something from a grocery store, or other options. When I want a nice meal, I walk away from any tourist neighborhood and ask the waiter what is the local dish. That’s never been a bad meal! Another option is having something nice for lunch & then just picking up a grocery store salad for dinner.

For nut allergies, you will probably need to skip the gelato. The flavors are made in a progression, so there could easily be a cross contamination of a slight nut residue.

My favorite deli meat in Bologna is sliced Mortadella, but unfortunately, it contains pistachio pieces.

For Bologna gelato, on our first stay, we discovered Cremaria D’ Azeglio, on Via Massimo D’ Azeglio, and it’s just inside the Porta San Mamolo gate, at the south end of the old town. It’s fantastic, especially their Fresa (strawberry). They do have lots of non-nut flavors.

On our next trip, we stayed a bit farther east, in the southeast part of the old town, and discovered what’s become our favorite Bologna gelateria, La Sorbetteria Castiglione, on Via Castiglione. They had a several chocolate flavors, ranging from rich chocolate to intense, super-dark chocolate. We went there several times, even getting a large take-out container with lots of scoops, but we still made a trip to Azeglio, for more of theirs.

The traditional mortadella di Bologna does not have pistachio. Pistachio is a modern addition but you can buy the one without.

Maybe that’s why some mortadella seemed to have less pistachios, and just the round dots of fat in the meat, but I didn’t look that closely for pistachios, if they weren’t obvious in the slices.

That’s really good to know, and NoNegativeVibes, I suggest you find the nearest Salumeria in Bologna and get a few etti of Mortadella!

Our favorite spot in Venice for cicchetti is "El Refolo"; high top tables filled with the locals. If you enjoy octopus, then I recommend
"I Compari Pulperia" which is a hole in the wall located close to the Rialto Market.

Our favorite spot in Venice for cicchetti is "El Refolo"

Bonus: It's in Castello (a charming district many don't explore) on a lively strip. When we ate dinner a few doors down at Nevodi this past summer, there was a lively karaoke scene down that way. It might have been Refolo.