Culinary Travel Chronicles. Volume I: Italy

From Sorrento to Rome to Palermo back to Sorrento to Napoli and finally back to Rome. Here are some of my food highlights of my time in Italy, entirely influenced by Mr Tucci.

As indicated by my compartmentalisation of my website, it is evident that I categorise my food endeavours in distinct themes. Within this particular series I will converge Food Away with Food with Friends or Food With Lewis as I divulge the eating highlights of various countries and places I have had the pleasure of visiting. My first entry is entirely inspired by my recent read, Taste by Stanley Tucci. If you are familiar with the Tucc you will understand why so many are fascinated by him. Particularly, his episode of Dish by Waitrose is up there with the most relaxing 30 an half of content I have ever consumed. Not only is he a particularly wholesome man, who is a very successful actor but he adores his Italian heritage. This is indicated by a memoir entirely dedicated to just that, and other food adventures. 

I have been very lucky to visit Italy four times, once with my family when I was around 11, although I must admit I do not remember much of this holiday. We spent a few nights in Sorrento and one in Rome, and something that still sticks with me from the trip was my mum saying that the best restaurants will be hidden in the backstreets not thrust onto you in the bustling square, and the best food on the menu will be the most simple. For example, a Margherita, an Arrabbiata. The first day we arrived in Sorrento we went for lunch in one of those unassuming small restaurants and myself and my mum shared a Margherita and a Parmigiana di Melanzane, which she described as layered aubergine with cheese and tomato sauce. Even though I was sceptical I trusted her judgement and to this day I am very grateful that I pushed my scepticism aside because it remains one of my favourite Italian dishes. She was right, the simplest dishes were the most enjoyable by a mile. My brother has a Spaghetti Bolognese, or Ragu, in Positano that he was blown away by and sometimes still gets referenced a decade on. And finally, my mum, once again chasing correctly, had a Vongole on our last night in Sorrento which is essentially, Spaghetti or Linguine, Garlic, Oil, Parsley and Clams. It is incredibly fresh with tons of garlic, which is perfect for my family as we consume way more of the stuff than the average family.  Not to mention, Angela Hartnett served it up to Stanley Tucci on Dish and he was elated so that tells you all you need to know. 

The second time I went to Italy was again with my family, I would estimate that I was around 15 at this point, and we went to the beautiful city of Palermo. A city with a gritty exterior but beautiful scenery, hilarious locals and most importantly a strong food scene. As my visit to Palermo was significantly more recent than the city break before I can vividly remember some of the dishes. The first being the unctuous arancini balls, which are essentially breaded and fried risotto. Most traditionally filled with Rags but this place we went to at least 2 or 3 times had the works. My mum also loved the local sweet treat, Cannolis, which are fried pastry dough filled with flavoured ricotta cream often stuffed with chocolate or pistachios and sprinkled with icing sugar. For me, 90% of the time I will opt for savoury over sweet but I must admit they are delicious. However, the star of the show for me, out of all these delights was the 6€ Carbonara I had in a family run restaurant that was always full. The portions, even considering the price, were gargantuan and I was never able to finish the portion but it was so indulgent and entirely memorable. I can easily envisage it now, and it probably does my waistline a whole world of good that I am not able to acquire that comfortably or that I have tried on multiple occasions to recreate it and it has never gone how I had hoped. 

Now, my third and fourth trips to Italy are more exciting, mainly because they were within the past two years so my recollection of the food is undoubtedly an improvement. Firstly, in 2023, myself and my oldest friend Molly decided we wanted to change the tone of our summer holiday this year. Instead of jetting off the Albufeira for a week like we did the year prior, we settled on 3 or 4 nights in an AirBnB that looked out onto the Sorrento harbour. Now, this plan slightly changed because Molly called me a week before leaving for Italy to tell me she had in fact booked the flight home two days after we agreed, and with dwindling budgets after a summer term at our respective universities we decided to book two nights in a hostel in Naples. It was a gamble, but it was 15€ a night so it was a gamble we could afford to take. We took this new plan in our stride and were excited about the addition of a new city onto our girls holiday. What followed was beautiful Bruschettas, luscious Limoncello Spritz’s and mounds of Mussels and Melanzane. We certainly ate our way through Italy, as you will be able to see from the pictures down below. 

However, the highlight of our trip, I would say was our final night in Naples. We were a bit unsure of the city, our first night in the hostel was a bit shaky to say the least and we could not quite grasp where the ‘areas to be’ were. Thankfully, one of the ladies in our room, a Radiologist from Morocco who was travelling alone for three weeks directed us towards the action and we certainly found it. If you’re thinking of going, which I would recommend now, I do not think I would have initially, the best instructions I can give you is head to the Marina then find the biggest set of steps you can, scale those and you are well and truly in the centre of Naples. During the day we had Pistachio, Hazelnut and Coffee Gelato and Aperol Spritzes on the go. Then in the evening, we split a Pizza, Fritto di Mare and White Wine and after this meal came across a strip of bars in the backstreets that all served 1€ Aperol, Limoncello & Meloncello Spritzes. It was great fun, until we had to vacate and get an emergency Tiramisu, which didn’t touch the sides, and then had a bit of a fraught journey back to the hostel. Nevertheless, it was perfect. And I think me and Molly need to give it another go but with more carbs in preparation. 

Lastly, but certainly not least, is my most recent visit to Italy. A last minute holiday to Rome with some of my gorgeous and very fun uni friends Elin, Freya and Charlotte. We had gone to Majorca a couple of months before with a bigger group for 3 nights but encountered a lot of rain than we had signed up for. Charlotte, a previous Travel and Tourism student and full time airport dad, located a great deal, and sprung the idea on all of us. In hindsight, I probably would not rush back to Rome in middle of August with temperatures of 30.C but we completely rallied, not to mention the hilarious revelation that we would have to wear swimming caps in our pool. Ironically, myself, Charlotte and two other uni girls, Holly and Hales, would often lie to people in the Cardiff Student Union that we were part of the Synchronised Swimming Society so it felt as if karma was coming back to bite us. However, what followed was the most hilarious 6 nights, where we packed in delirious sightseeing during the day, scammed bus drivers, tracked down an Irish Bar and of course some great grub. The most wholesome part of the holiday was always when our food arrived and the next 3 minutes would consist of everyone trying their food and then forcing everyone else to try theirs, it felt like pure girlhood and I really miss it in all honesty. There are far too many food highlights to mention them all but a couple certainly stick out in my mind. 

We left for Stanstead Airport at around 3am, most of us having only slept for 4 hours, and Charlotte very kindly drove us to the airport. We turned up to the most hectic and disorganised security queue I have ever encountered, which was most likely made worse by the slept deprivation. Moving on, we got through and plonked ourselves in Spoons, classic, all ordered and ate food and Freya started to shut down, sleep mask on at 6am in Stanstead Spoons. It was quite a sight. Moving on, we landed in Rome, tried to figure out buses to the hotel, gave up after 5 minutes and ordered an Uber. Looking back, it felt as if we walked around Rome like four zombies all day. Nonetheless, it got to dinner time and we were eager to go into the centre, for context we stayed around 30 minutes outside of Central Rome and got the bus and Metro in everyday, we had a few Aperol Spritzes, got ready altogether, took a few pictures and were ready to go… To find that most places in the area we pulled into were either no longer in business, or shut because it was a Sunday. Gutted. Panic, fatigue and hunger set in and luckily after a while we found ourselves in a cute, very quiet restaurant. Myself and Elin chose Puttanesca, tomato sauce with guanciale. To this day I do not think I have ever been as content as I was when the pasta arrived. The aforementioned factors most likely contributed to this but it was happiness in a bowl. I cannot say the same for Charlotte, however, who ordered a pizza and to be honest I do not know what happened to that thing. 

I could write am entire entry dedicated to my time in Rome, it was one of my favourite cities I have ever visited helped only by the company. There are few people I could spend that much time with, in that heat, with that little sleep over a week but we had the best time. 

The most incredible part of excavating any country for its national delicacies and local treats is its sheer scale. I have had the privilege of visiting Italy on four separate occasions, with 3/4 overlapping. Therein lies the fascination with food and cultures, the sheer scale and infinite possibility. That being said, my experiences in Italy have always been nothing but positive and enriching and I cannot wait for more adventures in the years to come.