Rick Steves Italy for Food Lovers

by Rick Steves, Fred Plotkin

Overview

Sip, savor, and get the most out of every bite with Rick Steves! With this fun and practical guide to eating well in Italy, you’ll:

• Indulge in the best of Italy’s cuisine, from tantalizing antipasti and saucy pastas to luxurious gelato
• Get a taste of the coffee culture and vibrant wine scene
• Discover what to eat where with food and wine specialties from the country’s 20 regions
• Find lists of Rick's favorite restaurants in every region
• Follow Rick’s tips to find restaurants for any budget, smartly navigate the menu, and decipher the check
• Hurdle the language barrier with the ultimate Italian food glossary
• Enjoy full-color, inspiring photos throughout
• Commemorate your culinary adventures with a foldout souvenir poster map

Rick Steves and co-author Fred Plotkin have devoted decades to traveling through Italy. In this book, they pass along those lessons to you. Appreciate good food the way Italians do with Rick Steves Italy for Food Lovers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641715119
Publisher:	Avalon Publishing
Publication date:	01/03/2023
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	126,115
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Since 1973, Rick Steves has spent about four months a year exploring Europe. His mission: to empower Americans to have European trips that are fun, affordable, and culturally broadening. Rick produces a best-selling guidebook series, a public television series, and a public radio show, and organizes small-group tours that take over 30,000 travelers to Europe annually. He does all of this with the help of more than 100 well-traveled staff members at Rick Steves' Europe in Edmonds, WA (near Seattle). When not on the road, Rick is active in his church and with advocacy groups focused on economic and social justice, drug policy reform, and ending hunger. To recharge, Rick plays piano, relaxes at his family cabin in the Cascade Mountains, and spends time with his son Andy, daughter Jackie, and his new grandson...baby Atlas. Find out more about Rick at www.ricksteves.com and on Facebook.

Connect with Rick:
facebook.com/RickSteves
twitter: @RickSteves
instagram: ricksteveseurope
 

Having written five definitive books on Italian food and wine, Fred Plotkin is an expert on Italy. He writes for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Opera News, Das Opernglas, and Gourmet and lectures on music for leading institutions, including Columbia University, the Juilliard School, and the Smithsonian. Plotkin is a popular guest on the intermission features of the Chevron Texaco-Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, and many shows on National Public Radio. He is also the author of the bestselling and acclaimed Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera, which is the standard text in North American for discovering the glories of opera.

Table of Contents

Part I The Basics

Introduction 6

Garibaldi with a Fork 6

About This Book 8

Why Is Italian Food So Great? 12

Dining Out 20

Finding a Place to Eat 20

At the Restaurant 22

Special Concerns 26

Types of Eateries 32

Take-Your-Time, Sit-Down Meals 32

Fast & Casual 36

Food Tours & Cooking Classes 39

Bars 40

Food Shopping 42

Food Shops 42

// Mercato (The Market) 45

Picnic Tips 48

Part II Italian Food 101

Italian Meals & Courses 52

Breakfast (Prima Colazione) 52

Lunch (Pranzo) & Dinner (Cena) 53

Courses 56

Antipasti (Appetizers) 60

Salumi (Cold Cuts) 60

Formaggi (Cheeses) 62

Verdure (Vegetables) 64

Pane (Bread) 65

More Antipasti 66

Primi (First Courses) 68

Pasta 68

Riso (Rice) 75

Polenta 76

Minestra (Soup) 77

Secondi (Main Courses) 78

Secondi (Main Courses) 78

Contorni (Side Dishes) 83

Insalate (Salads) 83

Dolci (Desserts) 86

Frutta (Fruit) 86

Gelato 88

Other Desserts 90

Bevande (Drinks) 92

Italian Coffee Culture 92

Acqua (Water) & Soft Drinks 96

Birra (Beer) & Hard Drinks 97

Italian Wine 102

Italian Wine 101 102

Ordering & Tasting Wine 112

Wine Tourism 116

Part III Italy, Region by Region

Northern Italy 124

Piedmont & the Valle d'Aosta 124

Milan & Lombardy 140

The Italian Riviera: Liguria 154

The Dolomites: Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol 166

Venice & Veneto 178

Friuli-Venezia Giulia 192

Central Italy 202

Emilia-Romagna 202

Tuscany 216

Umbria 232

Marche 240

Rome & Lazio 248

Southern Italy 260

Naples & Campania 260

Abruzzo 274

Molise 284

Puglia 294

Basilicata 306

Calabria 316

The Islands 328

Sicily 328

Sardinia 346

Part IV The Details

100 Favorite Eateries in Italy 360

Rick's 50 Favorites 364

Fred's 50 Favorites 378

Italian Food Glossary 390

Appendix 423

Travel Smart 423

Conversions 424

Pronouncing Italian Words 426

Italian Survival Phrases 429

Index 432

Map Index 450

Editorial Reviews

"As a treasured accessory for novice travelers, it will be second only to a passport; more experienced hands will value the authors’ suggested restaurants, mostly insider tips that don’t make the usual lists."—Florence Fabricant, The New York Times

"Part-travel guidebook, part-food encyclopedia... the book covers it all, like getting into the history of Italian wine, the intricacies of antipasti in Florence and the units of measurement you’ll need at a market." —The Washington Post

"The country's foremost expert in European travel for Americans."—Forbes

"Steves is an absolute master at unlocking the hidden gems of the world's greatest cities, towns, and monuments."—USA Today

“Every country-specific travel guidebook from the Rick Steves publishing empire can be counted upon for clear organization, specificity and timeliness."—Society of American Travel Writers

"Pick the best accommodations and restaurants from Rick Steves…and a traveler searching for good values will seldom go wrong or be blindsided."—NBC News

"His guidebooks are approachable, silly, and even subtly provocative in their insistence that Americans show respect for the people and places they are visiting and not the other way around."—The New Yorker

"Travel, to Steves, is not some frivolous luxury—it is an engine for improving humankind, for connecting people and removing their prejudices, for knocking distant cultures together to make unlikely sparks of joy and insight. Given that millions of people have encountered the work of Steves over the last 40 years, on TV or online or in his guidebooks, and that they have carried those lessons to untold other millions of people, it is fair to say that his life’s work has had a real effect on the collective life of our planet."
 —The New York Times Magazine

"[Rick Steves] laces his guides with short and vivid histories and a scholar's appreciation for Renaissance art yet knows the best place to start an early tapas crawl in Madrid if you have kids. His clear, hand-drawn maps are Pentagon-worthy; his hints about how to go directly to the best stuff at the Uffizi, avoid the crowds at Versailles and save money everywhere are guilt-free."
 —TIME Magazine

"Steves is a walking, talking European encyclopedia who yearns to inspire Americans to venture 'beyond Orlando.'"—Forbes

“…he’s become the unofficial guide for entire generations of North American travelers, beloved for his earnest attitude and dad jeans."
 —Outside Magazine

"His books offer the equivalent of a bus tour without the bus, with boiled-down itineraries and step-by-step instructions on where to go and how to get there, but adding a dash of humor and an element of choice that his travelers find empowering."—The New York Times

"His penchant for creating meaningful experiences for travelers to Europe is as passionate as his inclination for making ethical choices his guiding light."—Forbes

"[Rick Steves'] neighborhood walks are always fun and informative. His museum guides, complete with commentary about historic sculpture and storied artworks are wonderful and add another dimension to sometimes stodgy, hard-to-comprehend museums."—NBC News

From the Publisher