One fact about Italian food is that it varies by region.
Almost every eatery will have a menu posted outside so you can check not only what’s available but what it’ll cost. Here's what the different eateries mean:
Ristorante – A ristorante is where you can expect the most full-service eating experience in Italy, although there are different levels of ristorante as well. An Italian ristorante is, in general, going to have the most high-end service of any of the kinds of eateries on this list.
Bar – The Italian bar (with a rolled “R” on the end) is like the corner cafe you may have down the street from you, where you’d go to get a quick cup of Italian coffee and pastry in the morning or grab a snack and quick drink between work and home in the evening. You may stop there for lunch, too, although the selection isn’t always extensive. Italian bars are often the cornerstone of their neighborhoods, the perfect meeting place. And breakfast is generally consumed standing up.
Trattoria – It’s hard to tell the difference sometimes between a ristorante and a trattoria, because in many cases they’re almost identical. The differences are likely to come in the form of location (a trattoria is less apt to be on a main street or a high-trafficked area and more apt to be on a side-street), and formality. Although many food establishments in Italy are family-run, a trattoria is where you’re likely to find the family matriarch or patriach in the kitchen actually cooking what’s on the menu that night. A trattoria is also likely to be a smaller establishment than a ristorante, too.
Osteria – If you think of a trattoria as one step down from a ristorante, you can think of an osteria as one step down from a trattoria in a formality/price sense. An osteria is most often going to be a neighborhood joint rather than a place people would travel to visit or a place tourists would stop. It will have elements of a bar, but will have more restaurant-style services than a typical bar.
Taverna – Like the English word it resembles, a taverna is a small eatery that may focus more on the stuff behind the bar than a ristorante or a trattoria, and is more likely to be rustic in its interior. If the focus of the taverna you come across is more toward a place people stop to drink than eat, then you can think of the taverna as the evening equivalent of the bar where people go every day for breakfast. Menu offerings aren’t likely to be extensive in a taverna, but they’re likely to be inexpensive.
Tavola Calda – Literally “hot table,” this is the closest thing there is to Italian fast food. In a tavola calda, you’ll find a counter full of pre-made dishes which you order by the piece or by weight and which are re-heated for you. They’re popular with business people who don’t have the luxury of a long lunch break, and are also an option for bringing home dinner when you don’t want to cook. If you eat your food at the tavola calda, chances are good you’ll be doing it standing up.
Pizzeria – a pizza place, but what you may not know is that by adding the ending -eria onto lots of other food-related words, Italians indicate all kinds of different specialty eateries. In a pizzeria, you’re likely to find other things on the menu besides pizza, but generally speaking you go to any of the -eria places to eat what’s in the name. In a gelateria, for instance, there are bound to be other dessert items.
Rosticceria (roh-stee-cheh-REE-ah) – A rosticceria will usually have roast chicken or other meats available, but these places usually also have a pretty good selection of all kinds of other pre-made meals. For lunchtime, there are often smaller portions you can buy and, tavola calda style, have re-heated to eat on the premises for a quick meal.
A tip for eating out in Italy: YOU MUST ASK FOR YOUR CHECK "il conto, per favore!” and sometimes even hunt down the waiter to get it. To the Italians it would be rude for them to interrupt your after-meal conversation with the bill – once you have that table, it’s yours for the night. Bringing you the check would imply that they’re trying to hurry you out, which they would never try to do. But if you are interested in getting out of the restaurant faster than the other diners might be and you don’t see your waiter anywhere, you can usually just pay at the cashier on your way out. Often they’ll just ask what you ate and tally up the total right there, though sometimes they’ll get the check from your waiter. In either case, you shouldn’t feel like you’re tied to your table until you get the check – you can take matters into your own hands, operate on your schedule and not leave thinking the Italian waiters are being rude.
Since our travels take us to Rome first, I'll start with what I'm interested in eating there. This post is moving beyond the gelato and pizza (of which we plan on enjoying immensely), but I'm illustrating what the specialties are in the regions that we're visiting.
ROME
(Roma) in the provence of Lazia
There are many Roman pasta specialties:
Bucatini all'amatriciana with tomato, onion, bacon and a dash of cognac sounds amazing.
Spaghetti alIa carbonara with a creamy egg and cheese sauce dusted with black pepper is delish. Another pasta specialty is Gnocchi alla Romana and Rigatoni alla Pagliata (rigatoni with calf's intestine). Not sure I'm going there though...
Meat dishes include Abbacchio al forno (roast lamb) or alla cacciatora (lamb with an anchovy and rosemary sauce) and
Saltimbocca - a fillet of veal rolled in ham and flavored and served in a Marsala sauce. LOVE!
Favorite vegetable dishes include
artichokes (carciofi) done either alIa Giudia or alla Romana - cooked in oil with garlic and parsley. Devine!
The white wines of Montefiascone and the Castelii (Frascati).
Perhaps the most well known Roman specialty is
Bruschetta. Bruschetta is very simple : take a fingerthick slice of home made bread, toast it and then rub a clove of garlic over the surface and sprinkle some good olive oil and salt. ( You can aslo add tomatoes pieces on top).
Panzanella is another simple to prepare bread dish. Not quite as well known as the bruschetta. Panzanella: Take a slice of home made bread, moisten ligthly with some water, split open a ripe tomato, and rub it over the bread until the juice is absorbed. Season with some olive oil, salt, a few drops of vinegar and a few basil leaves.
FLORENCE
172 miles north of Rome is Florence (Firenze) - sitting right in the middle of Tuscany.
Tuscan cuisine is world renowned for simple combinations of absolutely fresh ingredients. I've mentioned in an earlier post the Florentine T-Bone bistecca alla fiorentina. Tripe is also a specialty (not going to eat a cow's stomach however). Tuscan starters include crostini and bruschetta.
The region is home to excellent olive oils, sheep milk cheeses and delicious roasted meat dishes. Other specialties that include: Ribollita, a thick vegatable soup, Fagioli all'uccelletto (beans sauted in Garlic and Sage with tomatoes) and Fagioli al Fiasco with oil, onions and herbs cooked in a round bottle (fiasco) on a coal fire.
Seafood cooking includes
triglie (red mullet)
A delicious fish soup is known as
Cacciucco alla Livornese.
Siena offers
Panforte, a cake containing almonds, honey and candied fruit.
Tuscan wines are known worldwide, including
Chianti, which comes in both red and white.
Brunello di Montalcino is praised as well as the
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The DOCG protected
Vernaccia di San Gimignano is the most well-known Tuscan white wine.
CINQUE TERRE
Cinque Terre is in the Liguria region. The most famous culinary masterpiece from Liguria is its
basil Pesto sauce, served with Trofie
pasta. YUM!!!
The olive oil of the region is an exception to most of Northern Italian cooking. It's easy to purchase and take home a sample of the local fare.
Seafood plays a large role in the local diet (what with Cinque Terre being located right on the Mediterranean) with fresh caught
anchovies being a favorite
Also wonderful in the region are:
Swordfish, Tuna, Sardines and Sea Bass.
Zuppa di Datteri is a shellfish soup made in the port of La Spezia.
Focaccia is a particularly common locally baked bread product.
Farinata is also a typical snack found in bakeries and pizzerias- essentially it is a savoury and crunchy pancake made from a base of chick-pea flour
Popular meat dishes including
Tomaxelle (Veal rolls) and Coniglio in Umbido (Rabbit stew).
Ligurian desserts include Pandolce Genovese, a sweet bread made with candied fruit, raisins and nuts, and sweet pizzas made with walnuts, chestnuts and candied fruit.
Red wines include
Rossese di Dolceacqua,
Ormeasco, and the dessert wine Sciacchetra Rosso. The white wines of Liguria are ideal for seafood and include
Cinque Terre, Sciacchetra and Colline di Levanto. Sprits range from
Grappa to the citrus based
Limoncello Ligure to walnut-infused Nocino.
On to
Venice (Venezia)...
Venice is located in the northeastern coast of Italy (on the Adriatic Sea), part of the Veneto region. Therefore it's no surprise that they specialize in seafood.
Cooking in the Veneto incorporates
polenta
and rice in their dishes along with wild fowl, mushrooms, or seafood. Traditional courses include Risi e Bisi (rice and peas), and Fegato alla Veneziana (calf's liver fried with onions).
Seafood ranges from prawns, shrimp and clams to fresh fish.
Wild game such as rabbit, duck, pigeon and guinea fowl are also favorites.
Radicchio di Treviso is a bitter red chicory served as a salad but more often grilled and served with salt and olive oil.
Asparagi di Bassano are white asparagus that are boiled and served with vinaigrette or eggs.
Asiago is the best and most popular cheese that comes from the Veneto.
Pandoro, a star-shaped cake delicately flavored with orange-flower is a specialty of Verona.
The region is known for some of Italy's best known red wines such as
Valpolicella and Bardolino. The whites include
Soave, Gambellara, Bianco di Custoza and Vigne Alte.
In addition, Venice is famous for bisàto (marinated eel), for oval-shaped cookies called baicoli, and for different types of sweets such as: pan del pescatore (bread of the fisherman); cookies with almonds and pistachio nuts; cookies with fried Venetian cream; the fregolotta (a crumbly cake with almonds); milk pudding called rosada; and cookies called zaléti.
Venetians are known for the integrity and simplicity of the fresh fish preparation. A bit of butter or oil, a splash of lemon, the added crunch of a handful of bread crumbs, some fragrant fresh herbs, are all it takes to glorify these items such as: anchovies, razor clams, black muscles, gray oysters, and canocie, shrimp, octopuses, tuna, striped marmore fish, silver sardines, spotted sharks, inky cuddlefish, scallops and squid.
A fishmonger preparing scampi:
Fresh, delicious scallops:
One Final Note on Dining:
Tipping
In most sit-down restaurants, especially the nicer ones which have no counter service, you may find both “il coperto” and “servizio incluso” written on the menu. “Il coperto” is the cover charge, which is generally one or two Euro, and which takes care of things like bread before the meal and a glass of tap water. “Servizio incluso” means that service is included, meaning they’ve already figured in a tip for you – it’s usually around 15% – so the total due on your final bill is all you’ll owe. If the service has been particularly outstanding or you’ve had an exceptional experience, leaving a couple Euro on the table is a lovely gesture to let the waiter know.
If you don’t see “servizio incluso” on the menu, you may still see some kind of automatic tip or cover charge on your bill, so just because you don’t see “servizio incluso” doesn’t mean you need to leave a tip. And even if you see “servizio non incluso” (service not included), you still shouldn’t feel compelled to leave a tip. Why not? It primarily has to do with the way restaurant workers are paid in Italy as opposed to, say, the U.S.
A waiter in Italy isn’t the underpaid part-time employee you might expect a waiter to be so a tip isn’t making up the difference between their salary and a living wage. Instead, the waitstaff in Italy not only makes a living wage to begin with, they also get government health benefits and probably more paid vacation time than you do.
But does that mean you should never tip in Italy? Not exactly.
Most of the time when you’re in a foreign place and you don’t know what to do in a given situation, your best bet is going to be following the lead of the locals. In Italy, when it comes to tipping, this still holds true. But what you’ll notice when you watch the Italians is that they will often leave a small coin or two as they leave the table, and even when they’re getting their morning coffee standing up at the bar. You could also give the barista a small token
before they serve you and you’ll get better service.
The idea of a “standard” tip of 15-20%, like most Americans are familiar with when they go out to eat, doesn’t exist in Italy. Italians don’t tip that much, even when they do leave a small token, and Italian waiters don’t expect that much.
Still, if you feel like you just can’t get up from the table without leaving something, you can leave a few coins on the table before you go. Even if you’re paying with a credit card, don’t worry about putting a tip on the card – just a few spare coins on the table will do. And if you’re paying cash, you can just round up to the next euro and call that your tip if you’d like.
This same rule applies with
taxi drivers in Italy, too, by the way. A tip isn’t necessary and (in most cases) it’s not expected, but if you want to thank a driver for dealing with your heavy or plentiful luggage, or if you’ve had a nice chat, or whatever, you can just do a “keep the change” routine (in Italian, this is “
tiene il resto,” pronounced tee|EH|neh eel RES|toh) to not get the leftover coins back from your euro notes.
