{"id":88286,"date":"2012-11-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelstartblg.wpenginepowered.com\/italian-food-in-italy-the-highlights\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T13:50:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T13:50:58","slug":"italian-food-in-italy-the-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/italian-food-in-italy-the-highlights\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian food in Italy: the highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-27128\" src=\"https:\/\/travelstartmu.wpenginepowered.com\/zablog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/10\/italy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"512\" \/><\/p>\n<p>One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Italy, I confess, is so that I could eat the food. I mean, does it get any better than Italian food? I don\u2019t think so\u2026 Here\u2019s my list of the highlights to try next time you pop over to Italy:<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pasta: cacio e peppe<\/strong><br \/>\nAll the pasta you eat in Italy will be wonderful (unless you go to a tourist trap where they microwave the pasta; sadly, they exist!) But you absolutely have to try the cacio e peppe pasta. It\u2019s the simplest of dishes \u2013 spaghetti, pecorino, olive oil and loads of cracked black pepper \u2013 but the result is spectacular.<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pizza: all kinds<\/strong><br \/>\nI can\u2019t say that any one pizza was the best because every slice of pizza we ate was amazing \u2013 thin and crusty or thick and bready, cheesy or tomatoey, every region has its speciality and each was as delicious as the last.<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Parma ham and melon<\/strong><br \/>\nBecause it is the most extraordinary combination \u2013 salty and sweet, cured and juicy.<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Fresh mozzarella<\/strong><br \/>\nPreferably nodini, with fresh cherry tomatoes on the vine, and a few leaves of fresh basil. Wow.<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gelato<\/strong><br \/>\nBe still my beating heart, the gelato! We made a point of getting through as many flavours as was humanly possible in 10 days, and I can confidently say that fruit, cream and chocolate gelato is all delicious. There\u2019s something about <a href=\"https:\/\/travelstartstg.wpenginepowered.com\/the-best-gelato-in-italy-cioccolatitaliani\/\" target=\"_blank\">Italian gelato<\/a> that makes it so much better than normal ice cream\u2026 I don&#8217;t know what it is, but I would eat it every day if I could.<\/p>\n<p>And two drinks:<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Prosecco<\/strong><br \/>\nServed ice cold and extra dry, this Italian bubbly is the perfect way to end off a hot day sightseeing.<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Coffee<\/strong><br \/>\nEspresso shots are the order of the day, but you are occasionally allowed a cappuccino (as long as it\u2019s before lunch!)<\/p>\n<p>I thought I had tasted some pretty special Italian food in South Africa, but you can\u2019t beat authentic Italian. Now if only I could pop over for dinner!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Italy, I confess, is so that I could eat the food. I mean, does it get any better than Italian food?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":88287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_destination_ratings":[],"_destination_review_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,13],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-88286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-drink-lifestyle","category-lifestyle","tag-italy","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Italian food in Italy: the highlights - Travelstart Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.travelstart.co.za\/blog\/italian-food-in-italy-the-highlights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Italian food in Italy: the highlights - Travelstart Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Italy, I confess, is so that I could eat the food. 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