Italy for the Gourmet Traveler

If you are at all serious about Italian food, this book is worth its weight in gold on your next trip to Italy. Yes, its big (aprox. 700 pgs), but thats because its a real book, and incredibly thorough. This isn't just some run of the mill pocket guide book thats going to tell you "go here" "do this". It details the history and culture of each region in detail, so you don't just eat, you understand what and why you're eating what you are. For each major city (and plenty of small villages also!) he will detail the best places to eat, drink, and shop to get the best true local experience. And because you know the author takes food seriously, you know that you're eating at true, authentic places where locals eat, and you won't fall into the trap of eating at run of the mill tourist driven places (especially if you're in cities like Florence, Venice, or Rome!) One reviewer complained this book didn't let you know where to go within Italy. Well that's not really its point. The point is that each region has its own unique flair and flavor, and one is not "better" than the other. To try and judge them as so is missing the point. The joy of italy is discovering those unique flavors that each region has unique to itself. (Though he does point out a "Classic City" for each region. That is, the city to go to if you want to experience the most authentic food culture of the region, such as Treviso in the Veneto, Siena in Tuscany, and Rome in Lazio) What this book WILL do is compliment your trip to any of these regions. Pointing out exactly where to go to find these authentic and unique local dishes. I'm writing this from Trieste right now, and without this book I would be totally lost as to where to go. The city has tons of run of the mill pizza places but very few places to find authentic local cuisne (and this isn't even a tourist driven city!). As a non-local, wIthout this book to help me find these hidden gems, I would be in a lot of trouble. A book you will keep with you for the rest of your life. It even has recipes at the end so you can attempt to replicate what you tasted when you get back home!

I kept buying travel books for Italy, looking for something but not quite knowing what -- until I discovered this book. It's not just a list of restaurants or a list of hotels -- you can get that in any travel book, and feel uneasy, because you can't help wondering if anyone really stayed at the place or ate the place. Plotkin's book is about the whole experience of going to Italy, with details about the specialties of each region, so that if you go into ANY restaurant anywhere in Italy, you will know what to look for. At the same time, everything is put into a historical and cultural context, so you know what you're eating and where it's from. So many travel books feel like they were written for the sake of writing a travel book. That is, they give the impression of a squad of writers dispatched to a location, with an expense account and a limited number of days, who have to inspect so many hotels and restaurants and write up a summary. Recommendations seem arbitrary. THIS book seems more like a sincere journey of exploration that happened to turn into a travel book. And Plotkin is the ideal guide, because he lives there, knows the country, loves it . . . and yet he's American, so he has an American perspective. He's just one guy, so you'll inevitably, in practice, find that you disagree with some of his choices. So what? That's part of learning how to use the book. At least with this book, you know they really ARE his choices. And they're informed choices.

I wouldn't travel to Italy without consulting this book! The approach is comprehensive and the information invaluable if you take Italian culture and eating seriously. My husband and I have taken 2 recent trips to Italy. One traveling through the Veneto & Emilia/Romagna (we added Bologna on Fred's recommendation & weren't disappointed!) and the second to Tuscany & Umbria. As helpful as the specifc restaurant, cafe, market & other recommendations were, I found the explanations of regional specialities the most important part of the book. Armed with this information, I could read a restaurant menu and know if it was the generic tourist fare or really represented the cooking of the area. In traveling, I felt both more comfortable in these restaurants (knowing I knew what the menu items were) but also more comfortable with staff ordering from their specialities and not just the tried-and-true. A can't miss!

My husband and I have had, along with friends, four month-long trips to Italy in the last ten years. In the spring of '97 and in the fall of '99, we designed our trips around Italy for the Gourmet Traveller. I had read the book cover to cover when first purchased and couldn't wait to use it. The amount of regional information in it is staggering, the promise of "authentic experiences" such a lure to us. We not only never had a bad meal, all were memorable in some way, our experiences enriched by the wealth of background provided by Fred. We were so blown away by the '97 trip, I wrote a lengthy letter to Fred via his publisher. His response was a polite and friendly phone call, and we have corresponded occasionally ever since. We have eaten our way from Venice to the Emiglia-Romagna to Liguria to Tuscany to Umbria to the Amalfi Coast and throughout Sicily. We have even made special side trips just to look up one of the recommendations. Because most of the places are small, we have often had some of our most precious experiences with Italian people at the most remote restaurants. Our experiences at the restaurants mentioned above in Norcia and Venice were great, but it might have been the time of year, as we don't travel in high season. When you "study" Italian cuisine with Fred Plotkin, you come away with more than a dining experience. You gain an understanding of the regional differences, not just of the food, but the people as well. Sure, there might be a few mistakes in the book, or some things that have changed since it was written, but overall, you couldn't travel with a better companion than this learned man. There is a 'style' of travel being taught here, a style that speaks to quality, openmindedness, a willingness to learn, a sense of adventure in seeking out the unusual. Even if you're not going to Italy, it's a great read. I would give it a sixth star if I could.

This book is simply outstanding. I have travelled throughout Italy over a period of 20 years and enjoyed many of the restaurants and bars mentioned in Mr Plotkin's book, before and after its publication. This book carries with it an incredible amount of research for which Mr Plotkin should be hugely commended. He covers the whole of the country and deals in appropriate length with restaurants, markets, food store and book shops in hundreds of towns and cities small and large. No other book even attempts this formidable task. Mr Plotkin makes clear in his preface the objective of his book, to assist the reader to discover the places that Italians like to eat. He achieves his objective wonderfully. I respectfully suggest that some of the reviewers of this book who found it less than outstanding should have given greater thought to the implications of Mr Plotkin's objective before they bought the book and lumbered around Italy with it under their arm (it is weighty).Sometimes, in following one of Mr Plotkin's recommendations one may have a forgettable meal - but, that is part of travel and exploration. Those reviewers of this book who seem to think that each restaurant mentioned in the book should provide the big risk-free Italian night out for the free-wheeling tourist will occasionally be disappointed. They should therefore stick to Frommers and dine with those other tourists seeking the anaemic off-the-shelf dining experience.