Restaurants in Genoa and Bologna

For Bologna, La Traviata (make reservations) and also Alice da Oscar.

We loved Restaurante San Pietro Trattoria-Pizzaria in Bologna. I did get a friendly scolding from Roberto for “almost” adding cheese to my pasta with fish. Good thing he caught me in time! 🙂

https://www.ristorantesanpietrobologna.it/

I spent a month (September 2022) in Genoa and I remember two places that were quite good: Trattoria Rosmarino..
( in the Piazza de Ferrari) and a little place on a small side street...Le Piastre di Emma. There is also a food market (Mercato Orientale or MOG) that has a large food court upstairs...a great selection....it's on Via Settembre. Enjoy!

I haven’t been recently but when in Genoa I always used to go to this restaurant “Da Rina”
It was the favorite of the former President of Italy, Sandro Pertini, and once I happened to be there when he also came with all his entourage. Hopefully it is still great as it used to be.

I always hesitate to name restaurants because what my husband and I look for in a restaurant may not be what other people look for. We are always eating lunch, not dinner, for instance, and greatly dislike fancy places. We were just in Bologna for two weeks in December and enjoyed Osteria Broccaindosso for the third time and also Osteria La Traviata, Pizzium, and Trattoria Nonna Gigia partly because they were near our apartment. I could look up restaurants in Genoa for you, but the one I never have to look up is Sa Pesta --- it's kind of like street food but with indoor tables and I love a place with savory vegetarian quiche-like "pies." And pasta with pesto is possibly my favorite food. Order all the house antipasti to get a good selection.

We recently did a great food tour in Genoa with Enrica Monzani: https://www.asmallkitcheningenoa.com/food-experiences/genoa-food-tour/. She also arranged for us a tour of some greenhouses in Genoa where basil is grown and this was one of our favorite things we've done in Italy in 22 years of visits.