This book, by Faith Heller Willinger, was an invaluable guide for my husband and me when we were planning our honeymoon. We love to eat, and we knew we wanted to spend our three week honeymoon in Italy. We also ascribe to a style of traveling that holds that less is more. That is, we wanted to spend more time in fewer places, getting to know a couple of regions in depth rather than flitting from one major city to the next. This book gave us all the information we needed to choose two regions for exploration and guided us unerringly to the culinary highlights within those two regions.

The book begins with an introductory chapter entitled Eating in Italy, just like the title of the whole book. In this chapter all the basics of visiting and eating in Italy are covered. Italian courses and menus are explained and there are guides for tipping, hours of business, travel within Italy and the weather. A quick-and-dirty phrase book provides you with the essentials for ordering meals. This includes a very good phonetic transliteration of the Italian. Boxed text thematic vocabulary lists include: gelato, bread, wine terms, fish and shellfish, pizza and picnic supplies. There is also a map of the entire country at the very beginning of the book.

The remaining chapters discuss each northern region in depth. The first page of each chapter shows a map of the region with the major roads, rivers, lakes and each town for which there is an entry. Next there are 4-5 pages about the particular cuisine of the region, with some discussion of how geography and climate contribute to what is grown in the region. Any other specialties of the region, such as festivals, crafts or cooking utensils are also listed. The wines of each region are briefly described and there is a menu which lists and explains the typical salumi (cold cuts), antipasti (hors d'oeuvres), primi (appetizers), secondi (main courses), formaggi (cheeses), and dolce (desserts) of each region. The remainder of each chapter contains recommendations and short reviews for restaurants, cafes, enotecas (wine bars), hotels and other business pertaining to food or dining, organized by city.

The number of towns or cities mentioned varies from chapter to chapter, but on average there are about 25 towns in each region. Each of these towns may have as few as one or two recommended businesses, to more than fifty in the case of major cities like Venice. As a rule, no town or city entry contains a recommendation for a hotel alone. The book is organized around food and dining, so hotels will be recommended only when there is someplace worth eating in that town.

The eleven regions covered in this book are: Piemonte, Valle d'Aosta, Liguria, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Umbria and Le Marche. Also included are a short list of recommended Italian cuisine cookbooks and wine guides, a glossary of culinary terms (Italian to English only) and an index. There are a few well chosen and evocative black and white photos scattered throughout this book. The book contains 404 pages.

Though it succeeds in being informative, the book never devolves into dry regurgitation of facts. Ms. Willinger includes many of her own personal opinions and observations in this book. Perhaps no text on a topic as subjective as gustatory pleasure could ever hope to be objective; as her opinions are so sensible and well-informed, I considered it a privilege to read them.

Although this book was published in 1998, it is still an extremely useful guide. There are very few prices mentioned in the book, so neither inflation nor the conversion to the Euro will lessen its usefulness.

In closing, I highly recommend this book if you are looking for advice on where to travel in Italy, or on where to go and dine if you have already selected your destination. The book is well researched, well written, easy to use and very informative. Faith Heller Willinger never steered us wrong.


Planning a trip to Italy? These reviews may be of some help to you:
• Umbria - Italy's Green Heart, with links for lodging, etc.
• Florence - another one of Italy's big three
• Venice - the good, the bad and the gorgeous of La Serenissima
• Venicescapes - an excellent small-group day-tour operator
• Bassano del Grappa - an excellent choice for a daytrip or side trip from Venice

Flying into Rome? Try these cheap hotels for a decent room near the train station:
• 69 Manin Street
• Le Real de Luxe

For more detail on regional Italian food:
• Umbrian cuisine - quite possibly the best in the world
• cuisine of Veneto - what to expect and where to eat in the Veneto




Recommended: Yes