Italy food and drink holidays

Italian food and drink by region

Piedmont | Sicily | Puglia | Tuscany | Campania | Sardinia | Lombardy | Lazio & Umbria | Emilia-Romagna | Veneto

Discover Italy through its celebrated cuisine

Beloved the world over, Italian cuisine is perhaps the nation’s greatest export. But if you want authenticity – recipes ‘come lo cucina la nonna’, or ‘how grandma cooks it’ – you must travel to the source.

Our Italy holidays weave in opportunities to sample both national and regional cuisine. We take you to street-food vendors, artisanal producers, and tucked-away trattorias to try authentic dishes how the locals like them. You also visit vineyards for DOC wines straight from vine to glass, and rustic estates that produce extra-virgin olive oil – revered by classical writers as ‘liquid gold’ and ‘the great healer’.

Some attribute the long lives of Italians to the Mediterranean diet. Indeed, the island of Sardinia is among the world’s first ‘blue zones’, home to a remarkable number of centenarians. Italy’s culinary traditions offer more than a template for how and what to eat, however: they are a window into the nation’s history.

In Sicily, bite-sized arancini, pistachio-sprinkled cannoli and marzipan sweets reflect the influence of two centuries of Arabian rule. The cuisine of Puglia has been shaped by the sea, and it was along this coast that Spartans arrived with their favourite ingredients and new agricultural methods. Tuscany ushered in the Renaissance, elevating food to an artform, and dishes first perfected in the Medici kitchens enjoy enduring popularity. The Renaissance also elevated the humble truffle onto the menus of nobility, with Piedmont’s truffles especially coveted to this day.

On our Italy food and drink holidays, experienced guides reveal this culinary heritage to you, one tasting at a time. Continue reading for recommended tours, and a regional guide to Italy’s food and drink. Alternatively, speak to our Italy experts by calling or enquiring online.

Why choose a food & drink holiday with Cox & Kings 

Meet specialist guides & culinary experts 

With our food and drink experiences, you have the chance to meet local chefs and artisans with a passion for authentic produce. We also work with specialist guides, including chefs and historians, who both help to design and lead selected tours. 

Stay close to gastronomic centres 

We care about where you stay, and carefully choose properties that balance comfort, convenience and character. In destinations of culinary excellence, you will often be close to restaurants and artisanal producers, and can even stay on site at estates and vineyards.  

Combine regions to broaden your palate 

Many of our food and drink tours take you beyond a single region, allowing you to explore a diversity of culinary traditions and discover the influence of differing geography, history and culture. 

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Piedmont food and drink holidays

Derived from medieval Latin, Piedmont simply means ‘at the foot of the mountains’. As you would want from an Alpine region, the landscape here is a picture of snow-capped peaks, rolling farmland, hilltop towns and glittering lakes. There is plenty to tempt the gourmet, too, from DOC cheeses to prized truffles.

Piedmont is the birthplace of Italy’s Slow Food movement – which tells you something about the place. It all began in the little town of Bra as a reaction against fast-food franchises, seen to be muscling out local producers, replacing regional cuisine, and creating food waste.

Piedmont certainly has food worth preserving. Sniffed out by trained dogs, the truffles in Piedmont are world renowned, especially the rare white truffles of Alba – host of the annual Fiera de Tartufo (Truffle Festival). The cows here are just as celebrated; the native cattle breed of Razza bovina Piemontese produces lean, tender, low-cholesterol beef. For wine drinkers, Piedmont is the place to try authentic, full-bodied Barolo. You can sample all three of these quintessential Piedmontese ingredients in brasato, a local dish in which beef is braised in red wine and often sprinkled with shaved white truffle.

Every region of Italy has its pasta. Piedmont is famous for tajarin (narrow ribbons slimmer than tagliatelle) and agnolotti del plin (pinched ravioli filled with pork, beef, rabbit or vegetables). But in Vercelli and Novara, you will also see vast, verdant, water-steeped fields of rice, grown to make risotto.  

While in Piedmont, be sure to indulge in nutella, first created here using Piedmont’s abundant hazelnuts and featured in numerous cakes, biscuits and desserts.  

Recommended holidays:

Piedmont with Valentina Harris 
Led by Italian chef and author Valentina Harris, this tour of Piedmont features market visits, wine tasting, a trip to a chocolate factory, and a truffle hunting demonstration. 

Sicily food and drink holidays

Sicily is proud to be different. The largest island in the Mediterranean has a distinct heritage, partly shaped by periods of Arab, Norman, Byzantine and Spanish rule. On holiday here, you’ll discover this influence extends to the delicacies served on your plate and poured in your glass.  

No place is the pairing of Sicilian history and gastronomy better appreciated than in Palermo, the island’s grand capital. Lively markets lie a stroll away from Arab domes, Byzantine mosaics and Norman walls, and are piled high with staples of Sicilian cuisine: pasta, bread, ricotta, citrus fruits, aubergines, almonds, pistachios, and a variety of fresh fish. Palermitan street food is especially renowned, and this city is just the place to try arancini. These bite-sized, breaded balls are named for their resemblance to little oranges, and inspired by the Arabian dish, kibbeh.  

Those with a sweet tooth are spoilt in Sicily. During Arab rule, snow from Mount Etna – a dominant figure on the island’s horizon – was used to create a sorbet-like progenitor to today’s enticing gelato. This is also the home of cannoli, ricotta-stuffed tubes of pastry; and cassata, a dome-shaped cake draped in green icing and also stuffed with ricotta. Marzipan is another prominent feature of Sicilian confectionary, and you’ll find it in the island’s iconic frutta martorana – sweets shaped to resemble all manner of fruit.   

When it comes to wine, Sicily specialises in full-bodied reds, the dry, lemony white wine called grillo (‘grasshopper’ in Italian), and classic dessert wines. You can visit wineries across the island, especially in the fertile foothills of Mount Etna. 

Recommended holidays:

Sicily: Normans in the South 
Features a street-food lunch and bakery visit in Palermo. 

Classic Sicily 
Features a street-food experience in Palermo, and marzipan and biscuit tasting in Erice. 

Puglia food and drink holidays

Puglia (or Apulia) is the rustic heel of Italy, as well as an agricultural powerhouse. While perhaps more famous for its idyllic trullo roundhouses, Puglia’s cuisine is equally worth travelling for.  

The sun-soaked olive groves here are responsible for a sizeable amount of Italy’s olive oil production, especially the unrefined, cold-pressed gold standard: extra-virgin olive oil. Visitors can meander between celebrated olive farms on Puglia’s gastronomic Strada dell'Olio (Olive Oil Road) to see the magic behind the making of this ‘liquid gold’.  

Olive farming goes hand in hand with wine production, including in Puglia. The region is especially associated with black-skinned zinfandel grapes, known here as primitivo and used to make full-bodied reds. 

Puglia has the longest stretch of coastline in mainland Italy, and its age-old fishing traditions continue to supply seafront restaurants with a bountiful catch. Locals favour unfussy cuisine, even eating fresh seafood raw with just a squeeze of lemon. 

Inland, sheep graze the ample green pastures and are an emblem of the region. Their milk is used throughout local cheese production, especially to make pecorino and ricotta, while lamb is the go-to meat.  

The region is also a major producer of durum wheat, used in its iconic pasta, orecchiette – translating to ‘little ears’. Be sure to try this handmade, ear-shaped pasta in an authentic local dish such as orecchiette alle cime di rapa. 

Recommended holidays: 

Puglia & Basilicata 
Features tastings of Puglian wine, a visit to an oil mill and dairy to try local cheese, olive oil and antipasti, and a stop at a bakery for freshly baked focaccia.  

Tuscany food and drink holidays

The birthplace of Europe’s Renaissance has more than the art hanging in the Uffizi Gallery to tempt you. Tuscany is a region of refined rusticity, and this extends to its wonderful food.

Tuscans favour a frill-free and sparingly seasoned approach to gastronomy, where the raw, naked ingredients are expected to shine. Beans are a staple of traditional recipes here, especially borlotti and cannellini beans, leading to locals being nicknamed ‘mangiafagioli’ (‘bean eaters’). Bread, too, isn’t the preserve of the side plate; panzanella (bread salad) is an old favourite, as is ribollita (bread soup).

During the Renaissance, the discerning palates of Florentine nobility had a lasting impact on the cuisine of Tuscany, and beyond. It’s thought that the Tuscan chefs who accompanied Catherine de Medici to France following her marriage to King Henry II may have influenced French cooking traditions, including the development of pâté and vinaigrettes.

Carnivores are well catered for in Tuscany. Beef, pork, and game meats such as wild boar feature prominently. In Florence, be sure to try the famous bistecca alla fiorentina – grilled T-bone steak traditionally made with Chianina beef. It pairs well with another Tuscan classic: a glass of deep red Chianti.

Chianti wine is Tuscany’s best-known tipple, made in the region of its namesake from ripe, glaucous bunches of sangiovese grapes. For a Tuscan pudding wine both honey sweet and honey coloured, try vin santo (‘holy wine’), ideally paired with biscotti for dunking. On holidays to Tuscany, a vineyard visit is a must.

Recommended holidays:

Tuscany in style
Visits Pievescola, near the vineyards of Chianti where you can sample local wines.

Treasures of Tuscany
Visits Florence, where you can dine at authentic trattoria and sip espressos at piazza-side cafés. 

Campania food and drink holidays

Campania is southern Italy at its most seductive. On the Amalfi Coast, you’ll find seaside idylls that tumble down steep cliffs to meet golden bays. Nearby, at the foot of Vesuvius, lie the ash-entombed ruins of ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum. More history lies within Naples, one of the longest-inhabited cities in the world. The only thing likely to steal your attention away from the superlative scenery and history is Campania’s food.  

 Naples, the regional capital, is a champion of cucina povera (the ‘food of the peasants’), with dishes that coax the best out of just a few humble ingredients. It’s the birthplace of the modern pizza, which even has UNESCO’s designation as an intangible part of Neapolitan culture. Enjoy it by the slice from one of the many pizzerias here, where it’s typically prepared using locally made buffalo mozzarella and locally grown San Marzano tomatoes. For dessert, be sure to try babà al rum, a boozy sponge cake adopted from Central Europe and adapted to Neapolitan tastes. It is traditionally soaked in rum, but locals also use limoncello – the zesty, syrupy liqueur made with lemons grown in nearby Sorrento, and often served chilled by the glass.

Campania’s long stretch of Mediterranean coast is dotted with pretty fishing towns, so seafood is always on the menu. You can sample fried anchovies from Cetara, clams tangled in spaghetti, steamed and peppered mussels, or a whole melange of shellfish as served in linguine allo scoglio.

Recommended holidays: 

Neapolitan Treasures: Caserta, Sorrento & Amalfi 
Includes time at leisure to sample local delicacies. 

Naples, Sorrento and Capri 
Includes time at leisure to sample local delicacies. 

Exploring Naples & Ischia 
Includes time at leisure to sample local delicacies, and features wine tasting at a winery on Ischia island.  

Sardinia food and drink holidays

Closer to Tunisia than mainland Italy, the island of Sardinia stands apart in the Mediterranean Sea. Its residents, meanwhile, stand together in their reverence for tradition, community, and homegrown, hearty food – which may explain these islanders’ long lifespans.  

Soft, sandy beaches and romantic coves punctuate the island’s rugged edges, tempting sun seekers, bathers and divers. In fact, on holiday in Sardinia, you are never more than 50 kilometres from the sea. Coastal delicacies include spiny lobster and cured fish roe. Yet it’s more often turf over surf on the menu; Sardinian specialities include the celebratory porceddu – suckling pig spit-roasted over aromatic firewood and herbs – and young sheep and goats prepared the same way. 

Sheep outnumber people in Sardinia. The Sarda, an indigenous breed, grazes the central pastures of Campidano. Its milk is used to create pecorino sardo, a firm cheese often grated over pasta and risotto, or eaten with pane carasau – a local flatbread so thin it’s nicknamed ‘carta musica’, or ‘sheet music’. Another more infamous Sardinian pecorino is only recommended for the strong stomached: casu marzu, which is rotten by design and was once outlawed.  

For wine in Sardinia, try the DOC-certified Cannonau di Sardegna, a red consisting of at least 90 per cent grenache. The island is also known for its beer, especially the Ichnusa brand, and for its liqueurs, notably dark red mirto – made from macerated myrtle berries.  

Recommended holidays: 

Sardinian Sojourn 
Journeys across the length of the island, from south to north.  

Lombardy food and drink holidays

Meltwater descends from the Alps, filling Lombardy’s Great Lakes: Como, Garda, Maggiore and Iseo. In turn, visitors fill the lakeside villas here to luxuriate in scenery that has set hearts aflutter since time immemorial. And filling those visitors’ glasses? Perhaps something with Campari – if they want to celebrate a local success story. Though invented just over the border in Piedmont, Campari first established itself in Lombardy’s fashionable capital, Milan, where the brand is still headquartered. Try this bitter, carmine-coloured liqueur in the classic Milanese cocktail Negroni Sbagliato, or in the Negroni’s 19th-century predecessor, the Americano – the first cocktail ever ordered by James Bond.  

Alternatively, consider Lombardy’s plucky rival to Champagne: Franciacorta. Made in the eponymous region, this DOCG sparkling wine is similarly produced using the traditional method and lees aging, resulting in a creamy and finely bubbled glass worth toasting. You can sample it yourself during a visit to the hillside wineries of Franciacorta.  

The culinary traditions of northern Italy differ from the south in more ways than one. In the south, pasta and cooking with olive oil reign supreme; in the north, it’s all about risotto and cooking with butter, including in Lombardy. While here, be sure to try risotto alla Milanese, a creamy, yellow, saffron-infused dish typically served as a first course. Polenta, another local staple with a sunshine hue, is a subtly sweet, porridge-like dish made from cornmeal. But for something sweeter, don’t miss the panettone. This festive fruitcake originates from Milan, and the city’s bakers still produce the most authentic version. 

Recommended holidays: 

Lombardy: Sforzas and Gonzagas 
Includes wine tasting in the winemaking region of Franciacorta, and a restaurant dinner featuring hand-prepared agnolini pasta. 

Lazio & Umbria food and drink holidays

In the heart of Lazio, in the heart of Italy, lies Rome. Dubbed the ‘Eternal City’ by the ancient poet Tibullus, the metropole of the Roman empire helped to shape national cuisine early, and you can still find Roman inventions on the menu today.

Carbonara was created in Rome, where it is traditionally made with cured pork cheek (guanciale), spaghetti, black pepper, eggs, and sharp, salty pecorino Romano cheese. Other signature pasta dishes from the Lazio region add or subtract from the carbonara formula; cacio e pepe is the most barebones, losing the pork and egg, while amatriciana adds tomato while losing the egg. Pecorino Romano sprinkles it all, and also originates from Lazio. Daily rations of this sheep’s cheese were allotted to Roman legionaries, and it’s now a protected delicacy under EU law. For the perfect pairing, try Cesanese del Piglio – or Piglio, for short. This DOCG-status red is produced locally using the rare Cesanese grape.

To the north of Lazio is Umbria, a rustic, landlocked region famed for its black truffles, which come in winter and summer varieties. Between truffle hunts, you could visit one of Italy’s prettiest borghi (villages), Norcia, which elevated pork charcuterie to an art – so much so, that Italian pork butchers are known as norcini.  

Perugia, the capital of Umbria, is also the home of Perugina, a beloved chocolate company founded here in 1907. Be sure to try their hazelnut-filled Baci chocolate kisses, which come wrapped in a multilingual love note. Or go one step further by visiting Perugina’s factory and museum, Casa del Cioccolato, for a little history to go with your chocolate tasting. 

Recommended holidays: 

Lazio & Umbria: A Journey through the Heart of Italy 
Features a visit to Casa del Cioccolato in Perugia to sample some of Italy’s finest chocolate. 

Emilia-Romagna food and drink holidays

Stretching from the Apennine Mountains to the Adriatic Sea, Emilia-Romagna is a region of bucolic scenery and historic towns in the north of Italy. Follow the ancient Roman road of Via Emilia, and you’ll pass places that have given Italy some of its most beloved dishes and ingredients.

Bologna, the regional capital, is affectionately called ‘La Dotta’, ‘La Rossa’, and ‘La Grassa’ – ‘The Learned’, for having the world’s oldest university; ‘The Red’, for its characteristic red-brick buildings; and ‘The Fat’, as the city is considered Italy’s food capital. This is the home of the original Bolognese, tagliatelle al ragù, which mixes slow-cooked meat sauce with flat egg pasta. It’s also the origin of one of the most authentic lasagne dishes, lasagne alla Bolognese, with its alternating layers of pasta and ragù.

Continue north-west on the road, and you’ll arrive in Modena, birthplace of Pavarotti. The city is famed for its production of balsamic vinegar, made using slowly aged grape must. ‘Balsamic’ has the same etymological root as ‘balm’, as ancient Romans considered it a curative as well as a condiment. Modena’s traditional variety of balsamic vinegar is now protected under EU law, and there is no better place to buy it.

Journey on and you will arrive in Parma, the home of parmesan – or Parmigiano Reggiano – known as the ‘King of Cheeses’ and made exclusively in Emilia-Romagna. Parma also lends its name to Parma ham (prosciutto di Parma): dry-cured ham sliced to translucent thinness, and first perfected here.

Recommended holidays:

The Riches of Emilia-Romagna 
Visits both Parma and Bologna.

Veneto food and drink holidays

The north Italian region of Veneto is best known for its capital, Venice. Picture serenading gondoliers plying lagoon waters, and palatial architecture from a time when ‘La Serenìssima’ was the centre of a powerful republic. Veneto is also the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, with the tragic romance unfolding in Verona – an attractive, walled medieval city. Between seeing its sights, Veneto has plenty to please your palate.

Cichetti is a Venetian tradition, and a must during your visit. Locals share small dishes a la tapas, often at one of the city’s many bacari restaurants, where the focus is on simple, authentic food and drink in a cosy, understated setting. Perhaps try crostini – a toasted bread appetiser – topped with anchovies fresh from the Adriatic lagoon that surrounds Venice.

The popularity of Prosecco has risen precipitously in recent years, and the light, lively sparkling wine is produced to the north of Venice in the Prosecco Hills – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a great spot for a vineyard tour. 

Cheese always goes well with wine. While in Verona, be sure to try monte Veronese, a DOP cheese made using milk from cows that graze in the north of the province. 

Recommended holidays:

Beyond Venice: Veneto & Friuli 
Features wine tasting in the medieval cellar of Montagnana castle in Veneto, as well as wine, chocolate and ham tastings in the neighbouring region of Friuli.