Traveling to Italy - General Suggestions & Tips Italian Travel and Tourism: Life In Italy is not a comprehensive travel and tourism site. We offer two general categories of Italian travel information. First we provide useful general information foreigners traveling to Italy including many helpful points not always offered by the normal tourism web site. For example we have pointers to help you use you American telephone in Italy as well as how to drive on an Italy. Another article describes the summer festivals put on by many Italian cities such as the Estate Romana that includes free concerts and other festivity held in historic locations and parks in the warm summer evening. The second category is growing collection of articles about specific Italian locations. This section is growing and we are continually adding articles but recognize that our task of covering Italian tourist locations can never be completed. If you have visited an out of the way location and wish to contribute with an article please use the contact us form and inform us. Italy General Travel Suggestions and Tips to Travelers: Get Tour Brochures: Italy Travel - Order FREE Brochure! * Map of Italy * Hotels reservation Paolo Nascimbeni I moved to the US in 1987 to finish my studies in computer science in upstate New York ( Ithaca). After graduation, in 1989, I moved to the Washington DC area. I have go back to Italy five times a year and I constantly talk with Italians and Italian companies for my business. As a result, even though I left Italy several years ago, I am up to date on the life styles in both countries. A disclaimer: since I was born in Italy, my views are somewhat biased toward Italy! I am in the picture on the left behind my cool yellow BMW motorcycle. About Italian Food Italian Food: The Italian food section of Life In Italy is divided into several categories: First we have our Italian food Ratings database, a rating of Italian food by selected Italian and American consumers. Second we provide recipes by Venetian chef Francesco the co-owner and chef at award winning restaurant Remi in New York City. Third we provide some general articles about Italian cooking like how to make Italian Pizza at home, bread, and articles about Italian foods such as olives, cheeses, herbs used in Italian cooking. First some good news: I just found a large bucket of 500gr real Mozzarella di Bufala at Costco for under 10 dollars see Mozzarella di Bufala NOTE ABOUT ITALIAN FOOD FOR AMERICANS traveling TO ITALY FOR FIRST TIME While in New York city and in my area (Washington DC) - there are few real Italian restaurants, my subjective, but experienced, opinion is that 90% of the Italian restaurants in the US are not Italian at all. If "Italian food" conjures up thoughts of Italian American restaurant chains or pizza with a red-purple sauce and lots of garlic powder this is simply not Italian! I personally hate that type of cooking -Italian American food is loaded with too many strange tasting "additives". One might even call them "addictives" because these strong flavors cultivate consumer taste for heavy style foods, to the detriment of the much more delicate and healthier authentic Italian cooking. As an example of this altered taste are things like Italian dressing - Italian style bread crumbs - Italian seasoning are all things with 'oversaturated' taste that you will never find in Italy . funny comic italian food In the minds of many in the US, Italian food continues to be associated with the image of a pretty large guy eating spaghetti with meat-ball sauce - the reality is that in Italy practically no one eats spaghetti with meat ball sauce. Italians do have some meat sauce recipes that require long and laborious preparation (including marinating the meat for 3-4 days in aged red wine), but they also have an incredible number of variations of pasta dishes cooked with vegetables or seafood. prosciutto And when I say pasta, this is not equivalent to only spaghetti. Again there is an amazing range of forms, shapes, sizes of pastas, many of which are unique to specific regions. The variety in the Italian diet, the continued widespread reliance on fresh ingredients cooked on the spot, and the extensive use of vegetables, fruit and olive oil all contribute to the generally healthy state of Italians that on average appear to be much thinner than Americans, especially in middle and later years. In my opinion, there is a direct relationship between being overweight and heavy consumption of industrial and chain foods, widespread soda drinking and avoidance of fruits, vegetables and reasonable amounts of wine, not only in the US but also among younger generations in Italy that love to imitate the American life style. A lot has been written about the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Without going deeper into the matter, I would like to tell you that Italian food - that found in Italy - is not only good for you but it really tastes great! Enjoy the adventure of exploring authentic Italian food, not only a delight for the senses but also an expression of the cultural and traditional heritage of the country.