#travel #italy #italianfood
I started traveling to Italy long before I met my Italian wife, Eva. Boy, did I make a LOT of mistakes as a tourist!
In today’s video, I’m sharing some of the biggest goofs I’ve made while trying to eat well in Italy, and Eva is sharing her travel tips and tricks as an Italian to avoid the many tourist traps I used to (and sometimes still) fall for.
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00:00 Italy Travel Tips
01:09 The Worst Time of the Year to Visit Italy
04:17 What You SHOULD Eat in Italy
07:25 How to Find a Good Restaurant in Italy
10:37 Foods You Should AVOID in Italy
16:45 How to Find the Best Gelato in Italy
19:40 Pasta Grammarian in Action!
42 Comments
Do tourists (like me) make any big mistakes when they visit where YOU live? Let us know! Seriously, I don't want to mess up if I ever make it there… 😂
Biggest mistake, walking from hotel to the sites. Wore out my legs, had serious muscle pain. Use transit system to get to sites. Plenty of walking at the sites.
Since you've mentioned tiramisu and panna cotta, why don't you make an episode about italian desserts? There are plenty of them. You've already shown to us, how to make tiramisu and canolli. Please show us how to make panna cotta with toppings – berries/chocolate/caramel, zabaione, zuppa inglese and profiterole. Please Eva, it would be one sweet episode. 😊 Greetings to both of you. 😀
This reminded me of wandering all over Florence with my parents trying to find a caprese salad because my mom REALLY wanted one, but that's a specialty of Campania
Loved this and agree 100%. I was born in Sicily and that’s all I’ve known. Two years ago I took a trip to Roma and
Venezia. Unfortunately I only had a week so basically rushed through it. While in Venezia, I found a little sandwich shop and was so excited to have either a prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich or mortadella even. I walked in and all they had was Turkey and provolone. I asked for what I was looking for and the woman at the counter said, nope we only have the “traditional” sandwich to Venezia. I was very surprised to hear this because turkey and cheese sounds more American to
me then Italian. What are your thoughts on this?
Big tip if you go to Venice: avoid bars in piazza San Marco, they are the most expensive in Italy, they will charge you 12€ for an espresso and ask you to leave right after you finished driknig.
OMG. So true, even in France. Never trust Google … especially in English….and August…it's closed. We're all on vacation.
Where ever there are lots of tourists, there are traps as well. USA are a big food trap, but for americans…
I suppose the equivalent in the U.S. is that you would go to Texas or some other deep southern state for the best BBQ. You wouldn't go to Michigan for some authentic Mexican food actually cooked by Mexicans (i.e. chimichangas aren't on the menu). I lived in LA for 17 years and when we wanted Chinese or Thai we would go to those suburbs and find where the restaurants had lines outside. The thing is, however, the reason why there were lines outside is because the food is super cheap and the customers are just looking for a deal. The food was horrible. Some people have different priorities when they dine out. Italians, from what you all describe make a priority of QUALITY food, not quantity or price. Good to know.
If all goes to plan, I'll be traveling with you guys next year!!! So excited!!! Being adopted has caused a bit of a glitch in obtaining a passport, post-9/11, but I'm not giving up!!! They can't keep me in the USA forever!!! I'll be a geriatric stowaway!!! Whatever it takes!!!
Harper pronounces Tiramisu in such an unusual way, I had to listen to him say it 5 times, Eva doesn’t say it the way Harper does, so I’m curious why.
Massachusett If you decide to come please don't mock the way we talk
Glossy pictures of the dishes on the menu is a big red flag for me. It just reminds me of Denny's. I found the most amazing restaurant while getting very lost in the back streets of Venice (highly recommended), not a tourist in sight.
Tourists that come to Utah might think that green Jello is on every menu, and it probably was in the 1950s but as of 2023 I only know of one restaurant that has jello on the menu, that’s the all-you-can-eat buffet, Chuck-a-rama.
Iit’s not my style.
Love this topic for a video! Informed travelers are good travelers ❤
So sad you never got your granita! What about going at 6:45am??
The tips are universal. thx
I generally find that if I'm walking by a restaurant (especially if I'm in a touristy area) and there is someone trying to pull you in and seat you at a table, walk away! It's always better to get a recommendation from a trusted local, a friend, or a trusted web recommendation!
You two have most gorgeous hair in this episode! This vacation has agreed with you both, you two are just glowing!
A tip that is true everywhere: NEVER eat at any restaurant that has a waiter standing in front with the meny, trying to get people to go inside.
Venice! I had one great meal and one horrible meal in Venice. Since the ratio of tourists to locals is about 4:1 most restaurants are tourist traps.
Some friends went to Italy in late June. They said they were so disappointed in the food that they started ordering from the "American" menus. American menus? They said at each restaurant they were offered the Italian menu or the American menu. OBVIOUSLY they were going to the wrong restaurants!!! 🤦🏻♀️
Harper needs a haircut
Eat where the menu is in Italian and there are Italian people eating in it
You can have good tiramisù here in Italy even in restaurants, but you need to ask locals. They definitely know where it is worth it.
No. First mistake was in mispronouncing Taormina. Ta or mi na.
I think you pointed out very good examples which are actually universal:) I wanted to add one more thing from my experience of my honeymoon in Italy (3 wonderfull weeks)- ask local people (if you can) about local shops/supermarkets, restaurants and attractions. We had the most amazing host in Florence (small hostel 15 min from downtown) and he gave us a map of Florence and for the next hour was talking and drawing EVERYTHING worth mentioning on this map. We had an amazing time there as well as the food he recommended:) 8 years later I still have that map and I want to frame it:)
Greetings from Poland! 🙂
This discussion is the manifestation of ignorance and arrogance. What they are talking about Italy, is common for every European country!!! It is very funny to see all the typical stereotypes about Americans (ignorant) and Italians (arrogant) at once… Bless you guys!!!
I really learned the Cannolo thing. I ate one in Milano and I thought, it was great. 2 or 3 years later we went to Sicily and I ate one and oh my god, one of the best things I ever ate in my life.
Restaurants in Italy are getting worst and worst. Almost impossible to find good food in Italy in the most touristic places. Few good restaurant left are always busy… and in south Italy is full of owner that are there just to scam their host… another sign of the deep decline of this country
Try to get gelato on the Ponte Vecchio
I want to see the part where she yells at you in Italian about how much of an idiot you are!!! My wife is Italian American and that’s all she ever does so I’m ready to be amazed at what an authentic Italian woman can do!!!
True! After trying And trying Tiramissu in restaurants anywhere, even in Italy … thé best is mine… after Eva 🥵 Bien sûr !!!🥰
Tourists coming to Berlin and expecting Bavarian food because they think it is "German food". TBH, Berlin cuisine is not too popular (I mean real cuisine and not street food like Currywurst and Döner), but still, if you want to eat authentic Bavarian dishes, don't look for them here in Berlin.
The biggest mistake people visiting the Netherlands make is that they expect the country without food culture to have a good food.
Usually the best gelato places do not even show the product on display, instead they keep it in closed containers and only open it when they serve it. Looking for "covered gelato" can be a good rule of thumb.
Advice from an Italian-American New Yorker on visiting NYC – skip Manhattan's little Italy for shopping and food and head up to the Bronx and visit Arthur Avenue! That's the city's real little Italy. If you're looking for Italian food imports, fresh groceries, or restaurants that serve dishes that are prepared in an Italian (rather than an Italian-American) style, that's where you'll find it. It's also close to the New York Botanical Gardens, paired together they make for a nice day trip 🙂
When I visited Roma with my mother, 10yrs ago, we visited her cousin Alida, and she showed us the real Roma and where to eat.
We had just one day as common tourists, the usually places, crowded, too noicy and expensive. Alida guided us through her best places to visit, eat and drink… and was way cheaper than the tourist-traps we visited that one day. Much calmer, well… with just italians around… 😂 It was calmer in a no-stress-way. The food was really good, and the local wines was extraordinaire. We had a real ITALIAN vacation! ❤
In Malta we have "normal" bars and classic bars; Normal bars are like what you'd expect anywhere in the US or UK etc; But our classic bars will bring out "small" plates of food for free throughout the night, a mix of traditional maltese things ranging from dips to pastries to baked pastas etc and then some more western finger foods like chicken wings etc. This is totaly a hospitality thing they do that they arent obligated to do, obviously it ends up being calculated into their cost of running and eventually the drinks prices etc. But like, it isn't you're entitled to X amount of food, if they bring food to your table and you don't want it (you're full, or dont like the thing etc) you just politely tell em and they take it to a diff table instead, if they see you're woolfing down the food they'll get you more sooner and it'll keep flowing till you decide you're done.
I was genuinley SHOCKED when I found out that its very common for turists to like, just stuff their bags with the food they bring to the table if its more on the fingerfood side??? To the point where a lotta places have had to kick out a lotta people. I feel like it should be common sense that if you're in a place with a strong "home food culture" like Italy or Malta and they start bringing you foods you didnt ask for / arent paying for etc that its a hospitality thing, being given out of a kindness, not a thing for you to take advantage of…
I am in Italy now and taking your advice. So far so good.
Sensacional!!!!! Congrats!
If I got served microwaved pasta in Italy, I would blow my lid so hard Vesuvius would look like a spring shower.