9 Best Foods and Drinks to Try in Italy on Vacation

Discover the birthplace of the world's most beloved dish. Pizza embodies the transformation of simple, everyday ingredients into a dish that captures the essence of Italian creativity, regional pride, and the democratic spirit that makes exceptional food accessible to everyone. Pizza has become a cornerstone of Italian culture, forever linked to a historic moment when Neapolitan chef Raffaele Esposito created Pizza Margherita on June 11, 1889. This combination of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil honored Queen Margherita of Savoy, transforming humble ingredients into royal cuisine. Pizza remained relatively unknown beyond Naples until the 1940s, when its popularity spread worldwide.

• Royal Heritage Experiences: Visit the exact location of Pizzeria Brandi in Naples where Pizza Margherita was born, dining in the same historic rooms where royalty first tasted this legendary creation.
• Ancient Technique Workshops: Learn traditional wood-fired oven methods from Neapolitan pizzaioli, whose families have perfected dough hydration and fermentation techniques for generations.
• Regional Variation Discovery: Compare Sicilian sfincione with Roman pizza al taglio and Milanese interpretations, understanding how local ingredients create distinct regional identities.

A Journey Through History

Before modern pizza emerged, similar flatbreads existed throughout the Italian Peninsula, with references dating back to the 10th century. These everyday ingredients combine to create rich, sweet, and complex tastes that reflect centuries of culinary evolution and cultural exchange.

• Medieval Foundations: Ancient flatbreads served as edible plates for working classes, evolving into sophisticated dishes as tomatoes arrived from the New World in the 16th century.
• Cultural Revolution: Pizza's democratization transformed Italian dining, creating gathering places where all social classes could enjoy exceptional food together.

What to Expect

Authentic pizza experiences engage all senses through traditional preparation methods and carefully sourced ingredients. There is no shortage of restaurants, cafés, or hidden street vendors serving unforgettable types of pizza specific to local, seasonal flavors, with the best remaining authentic to regional traditions.

• Perfect Wood-Fired Pizzas:: Experience temperatures exceeding 900°F in traditional ovens where pizzas cook in 90 seconds, creating characteristic leopard-spotted crusts and perfectly melted toppings.
• Ingredient Sourcing Tours: Visit buffalo mozzarella farms in Campania and San Marzano tomato fields, where protected designation ingredients maintain authentic flavors.

Where to Visit for Pizza

• Naples: The birthplace of pizza offers historic pizzerias where traditional methods have remained unchanged since 1870
• Milan: Northern interpretations feature creative toppings while respecting traditional techniques, with innovative pizzerias pushing culinary boundaries
• Florence: Tuscan pizza variations incorporate local ingredients like wild boar and pecorino cheese, creating unique regional specialties
• Caiazzo: The small Campanian town preserves ancient grain varieties used in traditional pizza dough, offering authentic rural pizza experiences
• Sicily: Sfincione represents the island's unique interpretation with thick crusts, anchovy-rich sauces, and aged cheese reflecting Arabic influences

On Zicasso’s 7-Day Italian Culinary, Wine, and Gelato-Making Tour, enjoy a traditional wood-fired pizza-making class.

Pasta represents the heart of Italian cuisine, where simple ingredients are transformed into countless shapes that reflect regional identity and family traditions. The name "pasta" references the dough, while maccheroni means the noodle. Italy's warm climate has fostered the growth of fresh vegetables and herbs, with tomatoes becoming a beloved complement to pasta, especially in southern regions like those around Rome. Although archaeologists point to Asia as the origin of pasta, evidence suggests that pasta existed on the Italian Peninsula before Marco Polo's 13th-century travels. For a taste of the varieties you can savor, take a look at our 10 Popular Types of Pasta to Try in Italy on Vacation.

• Traditional Hand-Rolled Pasta: Learn traditional techniques from Emilian grandmothers who roll sfoglia paper-thin using only wooden pins, creating perfect pasta sheets without machinery.
• Discovery Regional Shapes: Master distinctive preparations like Puglia's orecchiette, Liguria's trofie, and Sardinia's malloreddus, each reflecting local ingredients and cultural influences.
• The Importance of Saude: Understand classical combinations where pasta shapes complement specific sauces, from delicate cacio e pepe to robust amatriciana.

A Journey Through History

Once pasta reached the Mediterranean, its preparation was refined and became deeply rooted in Italian culture. Rather than discovering traditional dishes by chance, hands-on cooking classes teach authentic techniques specific to each region, providing skills you can recreate at home.

• Ancient Techniques: Roman lagane and medieval vermicelli established foundations for contemporary pasta varieties, with some shapes unchanged for centuries.
• Regional Evolution: Northern egg pastas developed differently from southern semolina varieties, reflecting local grain cultivation and climate differences.

What to Expect

Pasta experiences provide tactile learning through traditional preparation methods and authentic ingredient sourcing. The physical sensation of working with fresh dough reveals the precise hydration and gluten development that creates the perfect texture and flavor.

• Market-to-Kitchen Classes: Shop for ingredients in historic markets before preparing fresh pasta, understanding seasonal ingredient selection and quality assessment.
• Family Recipe Preservation: Learn closely guarded family recipes from local cooks who share techniques never written down, only transmitted through demonstration.

Where to Visit for Pasta

• Verona: Venetian pasta traditions feature unique shapes like bigoli, creating rough textures that hold sauces perfectly
• Tuscany: Rustic preparations include hand-rolled pici and herb-filled tortelli, reflecting countryside ingredients and farming traditions
• Rome: Classic preparations like carbonara, cacio e pepe, and amatriciana represent the pinnacle of simplicity and technique
• Bologna: Emilia-Romagna's pasta capital offers intensive workshops in tortellini making and fresh egg pasta preparation
• Genoa: Ligurian specialties include trofie with pesto and focaccia col formaggio, reflecting maritime trading influences

On our Italy Culture and Gastronomy Itinerary: Rome, Florence, and the Amalfi Coast, join a hands-on cooking workshop with local grandmothers to master regional pasta shapes and techniques.

It is impossible to discuss Italy's famous culinary traditions without mentioning gelato. This beloved ice cream dates back thousands of years, beginning around 3,000 BC when Asian cultures discovered that crushed ice and flavorings made pleasurable treats. The technique arrived in Italy during Roman times, with traditions of topping honey on ice from Mounts Etna and Mount Vesuvius. Gelato is the pinnacle of frozen dessert craftsmanship, where traditional techniques, premium ingredients, and passionate artistry combine to create intensely flavored treats that embody Italian dedication to quality and the pursuit of culinary perfection through simplicity.

Why This Activity is Unmissable

• Renaissance Heritage Tours: Visit Medici palaces in Florence where gelato competitions were first held, learning how aristocratic patronage elevated frozen desserts to art forms.
• Master Gelato Workshops: Train with third-generation gelatieri who guard family recipes and reveal techniques for achieving perfect texture and intense flavors.
• Seasonal Ingredient Sourcing: Experience gelato making with ingredients at peak freshness, from Sicilian pistachios to Piedmont hazelnuts harvested at optimal moments.

A Journey Through History

The Medici family played a crucial role in the Renaissance rise of gelato, sponsoring contests that sought great frozen desserts. A chicken farmer won with fruit juice and ice creations, later brought to France by Catherine de Medici for her wedding. By the late 1500s, artist Bernardo Buontalenti created the creamy frozen dessert we call gelato today.

• Artistic Innovation: Renaissance court culture transformed simple frozen treats into sophisticated desserts reflecting seasonal availability and artistic presentation.
• Technical Evolution: Traditional techniques calling for less butterfat than ice cream and minimal air incorporation create more intense flavors and creamier textures.

What to Expect

Traditional gelato techniques create superior products through quality ingredients and proper serving temperatures. It's easy to sample gelato everywhere in Italy, but true appreciation comes through deeper exploration, including workshops and guided tastings across regions.

• Temperature Science: Experience how gelato served at warmer temperatures than ice cream reveals complex flavor profiles and achieves a signature creamy texture.
• Ingredient Quality Tours: Visit suppliers providing premium ingredients, from vanilla orchards to chocolate producers, understanding how sourcing affects final products.

Where to Visit for Gelato

• Bologna: Emilia-Romagna's food capital offers innovative gelato flavors incorporating regional specialties like Parmigiano-Reggiano and balsamic vinegar
• Turin: Piedmont's chocolate capital features gelato incorporating local hazelnuts and premium cocoa, creating sophisticated frozen desserts
• Naples: Southern traditions emphasize fruit-based gelatos reflecting Mediterranean ingredients like lemons, figs, and almonds
• Milan: The fashion capital's gelato scene balances traditional techniques with contemporary presentation and innovative flavor combinations
• Modena: Balsamic vinegar region offers unique gelato incorporating aged vinegars and local fruit varieties in sophisticated preparations

Take a gelato-making course with master gelatieri when you embark on a Flavors of Amalfi Coast Tour: Handcrafting Gelato, Mozzarella Cheese, and More.

Balsamic vinegar represents the apex of Italian condiment craftsmanship, where patience, tradition, and meticulous attention to detail transform grape must into liquid treasures that embody centuries of artisanal knowledge and regional pride. Balsamic vinegar is a quintessential Italian condiment, renowned for its rich flavor and versatility. Originating from the Emilia-Romagna region, traditional balsamic vinegar is produced through a meticulous process involving the fermentation of grape must. This process can take several years, resulting in a thick, dark syrup with complex flavors that represent tradition and craftsmanship through strictly regulated production methods. To experience all that goes into its production, embark on Zicasso’s Immersive Balsamic Vinegar Tour of Emilia-Romagna.

• Ancient Acetaia Tours: Explore family vinegar houses where wooden barrels age balsamic for decades, with some operations maintaining continuous production for over 200 years.
• Tasting Progressions: Sample balsamic aged from 12 to 25-plus years, experiencing how time transforms sweetness, acidity, and complexity in remarkable ways.
• Master Craftsman Encounters: Meet acetaisti who tend barrel batteries with techniques passed down through generations, understanding the art of patient perfection.

A Journey Through History

Balsamic vinegar production embodies tradition and heritage, where production methods maintain historical significance and culinary applications spanning centuries of refinement.

• Noble Origins: Este family court records from 1046 document balsamic vinegar as precious gifts, establishing traditions of excellence that continue today.
• Generational Commitment: Traditional production requires decades of patience, with families passing down barrel batteries as precious heirlooms through inheritance.

What to Expect

In Modena, you can participate in tours showcasing aging processes, offering insights into historical significance and culinary applications. Balsamic vinegar's versatility extends from salads and marinades to glazes and desserts, embodying Italy's rich culinary heritage.

• Barrel Room: Experience the unique microclimate of traditional acetaie, where wooden barrels create specific temperature and humidity conditions for proper aging.
• Food Pairing: Discover how different ages and styles complement various dishes, from young balsamics enhancing salads to aged varieties finishing steaks.

Where to Visit for Balsamic Vinegar

• Modena: The world capital of traditional balsamic vinegar offers prestigious acetaie tours and tasting experiences in historic family operations
• Reggio Emilia: Protected designation region features traditional producers maintaining centuries-old techniques and quality standards
• Spilamberto: Historic town hosts annual balsamic vinegar festivals and maintains traditional production cooperatives
• Castelvetro di Modena: The countryside location offers intimate acetaia visits in family properties surrounded by vineyards
• Nonantola: Medieval abbey town preserves monastic traditions of vinegar production alongside contemporary artisanal operations

Visit a traditional acetaia in Modena for guided tastings of aged balsamic vinegars spanning decades.

On a Luxury Italy Wine Tour of the Top Regions, you will find out why Italian wine culture represents the world's most diverse and historically significant viticultural tradition. Over 2,000 grape varieties and numerous terroirs produce flavors that reflect regional identity, family heritage, and the intimate connection between land and human creativity. Wine plays an essential role in culture, with Italians consuming nearly 42 liters per capita annually. Greeks introduced wine to Italy when they landed in Sicily around 800 BC, and after defeating the master wine-makers of Carthage, production escalated to approximately 350 official Italian wine varieties.

• Ancient Vineyard Experiences: Walk among 2,000-year-old vine roots in Sicily, where Greek colonists first planted grapes, understanding how historical cultivation shaped modern wine.
• Family Estate Intimacy: Share meals with winemaking families in their private homes, learning generational techniques while tasting wines never commercially available.
• Terroir Discovery Tours: Experience how soil, climate, and elevation create distinct characteristics in neighboring vineyards, revealing wine's connection to place.

A Journey Through History

Wine tasting in Italy provides unique opportunities for you to experience heritage that shapes and is shaped by wine culture. Greeks established foundational techniques, while Roman expansion spread viticultural knowledge throughout the empire, creating traditions that continue today.

• Monastic Preservation: Medieval monasteries preserved grape varieties and winemaking knowledge through dark periods, with many contemporary wines tracing lineage to monastic innovation.
• Renaissance Innovation: Italian Renaissance courts elevated wine appreciation to artistic levels, establishing quality standards and aesthetic principles still followed today.

What to Expect

Winetasting tours can occur through multiple vineyard visits or within private winery comfort. Each experience is unique, providing different perspectives on landscape, culture, architecture, and characteristics of specific locations through carefully curated encounters.

• Harvest Participation: Join grape picking during the autumn harvest, experiencing the physical labor and timing precision required for quality wine production.
• Underground Cellar Tours: Explore ancient caves and modern facilities where wines age, understanding how controlled environments develop complexity over time.

Where to Visit for Wine

• Sicily: Ancient Greek heritage combines with volcanic soils to create unique wines, from Etna's elegant reds to Marsala's fortified traditions
• Tuscany: Rolling hills produce world-renowned Chianti, Brunello, and Super Tuscans in Renaissance settings with medieval castles and cypress groves
• Piedmont: Barolo and Barbaresco represent Italian wine aristocracy, with steep hillside vineyards producing complex, age-worthy wines
• Umbria: Central Italian region offers intimate family wineries producing Sagrantino and other indigenous varieties in peaceful countryside settings
• Lazio: Rome's surrounding region combines ancient history with modern winemaking, featuring Frascati and other traditional white wines

Reserve a private vineyard tour with wine family estates for exclusive tastings and harvest experiences.

Olives are produced in many Italian regions, with local mills located within orchards for quick pressing. Patience is key to cultivating great olives and creating stunning oil, turning production into an art form. The Greek diaspora around 800 BC introduced olive trees to Italy, with olive oil permeating culture from Roman historian Pliny's assertions to its importance in Catholic ritual. The ingredient represents the essence of Mediterranean cuisine and culture, where ancient trees, traditional pressing methods, and passionate dedication create liquid gold that embodies Italian values of quality, patience, and respect for natural processes perfected over millennia.

• Harvest Season Experiences: Participate in October olive harvests as families gather to hand-pick fruit at perfect ripeness, preserving traditions that span generations.
• Traditional Pressing Workshops: Witness ancient stone mills crushing olives and hydraulic presses extracting first-press oil using techniques unchanged for centuries.
• Expert Tasting Sessions: Learn to identify quality indicators including color, aroma, and flavor profiles that distinguish exceptional oils from ordinary products.

A Journey Through History

In Roman times, olive trees reached Sardinia and spread across the peninsula in the 13th century with eager Basilian monks. Olive oil’s rich flavor and healthy attributes make it a kitchen favorite worldwide.

• Monastic Cultivation: Medieval monasteries refined cultivation techniques and established high-quality standards, with many contemporary estates tracing their olive groves back to monastic origins.
• Trade Route Importance: Olive oil served as currency and diplomatic gifts throughout Mediterranean civilizations, establishing Italy's reputation for premium quality.

What to Expect

On an Immersive Olive Oil Tour Through Tuscany, you can explore historic estates continuing traditional olive oil production or those adopting newer methods while maintaining cultural authenticity. Guides introduce the layered flavors that olive oil should hold and what makes each distinctive through its production processes and character.

• Estate Tour Experiences: Walk through ancient olive groves where trees over 1,000 years old still produce fruit, gaining insight into how age and terroir impact oil quality.
• Sensory Education: Develop palates to detect peppery notes, fruity characteristics, and bitter elements that indicate fresh, high-quality extra virgin olive oil.

Where to Visit for Olive Oil

• Puglia: Southern Italy's largest olive oil region features ancient groves with massive thousand-year-old trees producing distinctive peppery oils
• Tuscany: Rolling hills dotted with silver-leafed olive trees create premium oils with balanced flavor profiles and elegant characteristics
• Umbria: The central Italian region produces award-winning oils from indigenous olive varieties in family estates maintaining traditional methods
• Liguria: Coastal region's steep terraced groves produce precious Taggiasca olives yielding sweet, delicate oils perfect for seafood preparations
• Sicily: The Mediterranean island's diverse microclimates create complex oils ranging from robust and peppery to mild and fruity

Participate in an October olive harvest and traditional pressing workshop at a historic estate.

Italian cheese is one of the world's most sophisticated dairy traditions, where regional milk varieties, traditional aging techniques, and passionate artisans create an incredible diversity of flavors and textures that reflect local terroir and centuries of perfected craftsmanship. High-quality cheeses originate from small-scale farms throughout Piedmont to Puglia, with many medieval Italian monasteries serving as key cheese-making hubs, tying production to centuries-old church traditions. Smaller operations offer various techniques, like feeding goats special grain mixtures that happy herds eagerly consume, as content goats produce more milk. The longer cheese ages, the stronger the flavor becomes, allowing sampling at different stages to experience distinct flavors and textures aging creates.

• Monastery Cheese Heritage: Visit ancient abbeys where monks continue thousand-year-old cheese-making traditions, using recipes preserved in medieval manuscripts.
• Alpine Pasture Tours: Experience high-altitude cheese production in mountain huts where cattle graze aromatic alpine herbs, creating unique milk flavors.
• Aging Cave Explorations: Descend into natural limestone caves where Gorgonzola and other blue cheeses develop their characteristic flavors through controlled mold cultivation.

A Journey Through History

You can experience the artisan craft of Sicilian cheese or the perseverance of traditional culinary arts across Italian regions when visiting dairy farms or cheese factories. Traditional farm-to-kitchen skills gained prominence since the publication of the first Italian cookbook in the late 19th century, while the 1986 Slow Food Movement highlighted Italy's ancient and lesser-known culinary culture.

• Pastoral Traditions: Seasonal migrations between valley floors and mountain pastures created diverse cheese varieties reflecting changing terroir and grazing patterns.
• Regional Specialization: Each region developed signature cheeses reflecting local milk sources, climate conditions, and cultural preferences passed through generations.

What to Expect

Cheese experiences on Zicasso’s Gastronomic Traditions of Italy Tour offer insights into the artistry of serious dairy production through visits to working farms and aging facilities. Understanding how animal diets, seasonal variations, and environmental aging affect final products reveals the complexity behind seemingly simple cheese production.

• Hands-On Production: Participate in mozzarella making using traditional techniques, feeling curds transform into smooth, elastic cheese through careful temperature and timing control.
• Expert-Led Tastings: Learn to identify texture, aroma, and flavor characteristics that distinguish artisanal cheeses from mass-produced alternatives.

Where to Visit for Cheese

• Milan: Lombardy's cheese capital offers experiences with Gorgonzola, Taleggio, and other regional specialties in historic aging facilities
• Val d'Aosta: The alpine region produces fontina and other mountain cheeses in traditional cooperatives maintaining centuries-old techniques
• Naples: Campania region features buffalo mozzarella production in farms where ancient techniques create Italy's most prized fresh cheese
• Rome: Lazio's pecorino romano production continues Roman traditions, with shepherds maintaining ancestral sheep breeds and salt-aging methods
• Parma: Emilia-Romagna's Parmigiano-Reggiano production represents the pinnacle of Italian cheese craftsmanship in historic cooperative dairies

Tour working dairy farms and aging caves to witness artisanal cheese-making from farm to table.

Italians are known for delicious desserts, including decadent chocolates showcased in delightful cafés and confectionaries filling villages, towns, and cities across the peninsula. Artisan chocolates in Italy will surprise you, especially in cities like Modica in Sicily, Pontedera in Tuscany, Turin in Piedmont, and Perugia in Umbria, where regional flavors inform delicious combinations invented in unique chocolate shops. Italian chocolate represents the perfect marriage of New World cacao with Old World artisanal traditions.

• Ancient Technique Preservation: Experience Modica's Aztec-inspired chocolate making, where cold-processing methods create granular textures and preserve pure cacao flavors.
• Master Chocolatier Workshops: Learn tempering techniques from Turin artisans whose families pioneered Italian chocolate traditions, creating glossy surfaces and perfect snap.
• Regional Ingredient Integration: Discover how local specialties like Sicilian pistachios, Umbrian hazelnuts, and Ligurian honey enhance chocolate creations.

A Journey Through History

Confectioners adapt their techniques based on desired outcomes, from using low temperatures to heat cacao with sugar and spices to sourcing high-quality cocoa from coveted South American regions. Regional variations reflect local ingredient availability and cultural preferences developed over centuries.

• Spanish Colonial Legacy: Sicily's chocolate traditions date back to Spanish rule, when New World cacao first entered Italian culinary culture through the Mediterranean trade routes.
• Industrial Innovation: Turin's 19th-century chocolate houses pioneered industrial techniques while maintaining artisanal quality, thereby establishing Italy's global chocolate reputation.

What to Expect

Visiting artisan chocolate makers offers insight into the serious business of chocolate, where creative and indulgent flavors are produced through various crafting and tempering methods. Private tours reveal different techniques while offering tastings that develop an understanding of flavor profiles and textures.

• Cacao Source Education: Learn about bean origins and how terroir affects flavor, from Venezuelan Criollo to Ecuadorian Nacional varieties preferred by Italian chocolatiers.
• Sensory Development: Train palates to identify subtle differences in roasting levels, sugar content, and added ingredients that create signature chocolate profiles.

Where to Visit for Chocolate

• Pontedera: Tuscan town hosts Amedei chocolate factory producing single-origin bars considered among the world's finest, with intensive tasting experiences
• Turin: Piedmont capital pioneered gianduja chocolate combining local hazelnuts with cacao, creating Italy's signature chocolate tradition
• Modica: Sicilian town preserves ancient cold-processing techniques creating unique granular chocolates with intense, pure flavors
• Perugia: Umbrian chocolate capital hosts international festivals and houses historic chocolate companies maintaining traditional production methods

Book a master chocolatier workshop to learn tempering techniques and create personalized confections when you take Zicasso’s Italy for Chocoholics! A Unique Tour of Umbria.

Espresso embodies an entire morning ritual that has made Italy a spiritual home for roasted beans first brought to the peninsula in the 16th century. The rise of espresso across Italy didn't stem from delicious flavor or energetic caffeine effects alone. As coffeehouses grew popular across the north, espresso became a drink over which intellectuals, artists, and conspirators shared ideas, eventually helping bring about Italian unification in the 19th century.

• Historic Coffeehouse Tours: Visit legendary cafés like Rome's Antico Caffè Greco where Goethe, Byron, and other luminaries gathered, experiencing settings unchanged for centuries.
• Master Barista Training: Learn proper espresso extraction techniques from experienced baristas who understand grind size, timing, and pressure variables affecting perfect shots.
• Regional Roasting Traditions: Discover how northern and southern Italy developed different roasting preferences, from Milan's lighter roasts to Naples' darker, more intense preparations.

A Journey Through History

Espresso was originally conceived as a drink that could be easily and quickly prepared, but it has become ingrained in culture, enthralling those who are enthralled with flavor and enjoy life's simple pleasures. Taking time for espresso during the day represents Italian cultural ideals, where people enjoy moments out of their day, whether for breakfast, after lunch, or during dessert.

• Coffeehouse Culture: Venice's first European coffeehouses, established in the 17th century, set the stage for traditions of intellectual discourse and social gathering that spread throughout Italy.
• Technical Innovation: Italian inventors perfected espresso machine technology in the 19th and 20th centuries, creating equipment that remains standard worldwide.

What to Expect

It is the simplicity that shines through Italian espresso, giving you the chance to taste classic, high-quality espresso. Whether on food tours, walking tours around cities, or simply enjoying snacks at traditional cafés, you can find drinks that evoke the Italian spirit through authentic preparation and presentation.

• Standing Bar Culture: Experience traditional espresso consumption at zinc bars where Italians quickly enjoy their coffee while engaging in animated conversations with baristas and neighbors.
• Timing Rituals: Understand when Italians drink different coffee preparations, from morning cappuccinos to afternoon espressos, respecting cultural customs and preferences.

Where to Visit for Espresso

• Florence: Renaissance city's historic cafés offer traditional preparations in atmospheric settings where art and coffee culture intersect
• Milan: The fashion capital's sophisticated coffee scene balances traditional techniques with contemporary presentation and innovative brewing methods
• Turin: Piedmont capital pioneered many coffee innovations while maintaining traditional coffeehouse culture in elegant historic settings
• Venice: The floating city's legendary cafés in St. Mark's Square offer historic settings where coffee culture meets an artistic atmosphere
• Rome: The Eternal City's neighborhood bars provide authentic local coffee experiences alongside tourist-oriented establishments near major attractions

Experience authentic coffeehouse culture with barista training at legendary historic cafés.

An Italy tour combines ancient wonders with captivating culinary activities that reveal Italian culture's soul. Whether traveling as a family seeking adventures or as honeymooners pursuing romantic discoveries, Italy specialists possess the knowledge to personalize tours that will transform your dreams into unforgettable realities.

From sampling celebrated wines in centuries-old vineyards to visiting ruins where Roman feasts once celebrated victories, every culinary experience connects you to living traditions that continue to shape contemporary culture. For more inspiration and information on taking a trip to Italy, see our Italy travel guide or our Italy tours and trip packages.