The Best Places in Italy

The art nouveau interior puts "trattoria" in embarrassing air quotes the moment you walk in. This old-school Ravenna institution has been in the same family for what feels like forever, and the dining room runs accordingly: regional cooking built around truffles, local fish, and serious meats, while the owner works the floor with the easy warmth Romagna seems to produce in unlimited quantities. Book ahead; it fills up fast.

Handmade fresh pasta and an almond cake with zabaione are the reasons regulars make the drive into the hills outside Piacenza. This is a proper family trattoria, the kind that has been feeding the same valley for generations, with a menu anchored in Emilian classics: house charcuterie, roasts, boiled meats. In good weather the veranda opens up and the whole operation moves outside. They sell their own cured meats to take home, in case once wasn't enough.

Tucked into one of San Polo's quieter backstreets, this old-school seafood trattoria has the kind of worn floors and familiar wall clutter that take decades to get right. The menu is Venetian and unapologetic about it, but the real action arrives verbally, when the server rattles off the day's specials with the confidence of someone who already knows what you should order. The wine list runs Italian and French, and leans generous on value.

The terrace looks out over Tuscan hills, valleys, and the terracotta rooftops of villages that seem placed there for the purpose, which makes the alfresco dining in summer feel a little unfair to everywhere else. Inside, it's an elegant, unhurried Italian restaurant in the old-school sense, with service that actually notices you. The kitchen runs on regional Tuscan cooking, meat and fish both, updated just enough to feel considered rather than museum-piece.

The aperitivo snacks and cocktails arrive first, which tells you something about the pace here. This trattoria-style restaurant in central Alba runs on Piedmontese tradition, with homemade pasta, bread, and desserts anchoring a menu that leans toward generous portions over fuss. The chef came up through starred kitchens in the Langhe before landing here, and the Fassona beef with red-wine sauce is the kind of dish that makes the local provenance feel like a point.

Brick vaulted ceilings meet quietly contemporary furniture in this tucked-away dining room in Giulianova's old town. The chef runs a loose tasting format where you pick your own dishes and portions, most of them plant-forward, seasonal, and vivid enough to make you wonder how vegetables got that confident. Much of the produce comes from his own garden, and a no-waste ethos runs through the whole kitchen. Ask the staff what the name means.

The veranda dining room faces Lake Garda so squarely that the sailboats and the Trentino peaks feel like deliberate decor. This contemporary Italian restaurant on the lungolago keeps the cooking straightforward enough to let local ingredients carry the weight, with lake fish getting the most prominent run of the menu. Saltwater fish appears too, and the wine list is solid. The Ora wind does its thing outside; inside, it's calm and almost Milan-sleek.

The dining room still has the old water wheel from when this building actually moved water, and it sets the tone for a restaurant that takes Sicilian tradition and quietly does something personal with it. The chef leans hard into vegetables from the kitchen garden and builds seasonal, creative menus that draw from both the island's coast and its interior. The wine cellar runs to over 1,700 labels, which is a lot for anywhere, let alone Canicattì.

The summer terrace at this modern Italian restaurant inside the Villa Riviera resort frames a sweep of Ligurian coastline that looks best when the sun goes down. Inside, the veranda dining room keeps things minimal and calm, a nice contrast to the view. The kitchen works in a contemporary register with the region folded in throughout, right down to a dessert that pairs basil and olives with white chocolate and pine nut ice cream, which sounds stranger than it eats.

Rolling carts of hand-carved prosciutto and boiled meats do the heavy lifting here, the way they have been doing at this old-school Emilian dining room in a fifteenth-century palace for longer than anyone cares to count. Sfogline roll fresh pasta every morning, and the dessert cart arrives with zabaione to pour over pears in red wine. The whole meal reads like someone's grandmother made the menu and refused all suggestions.

The dining room sits inside Matera's first pharmacy, and the view from the terrace takes in the Sasso Barisano in one unobstructed sweep. This is a creative Italian restaurant where the cooking leans toward restraint rather than spectacle, which in a town this photogenic is practically a political statement. Two tasting menus run alongside a full à la carte, so you can commit or hedge your bets depending on the mood.

A hotel restaurant inside a five-star mountain resort near the Austrian border, where the kitchen garden out back isn't decorative. Creative regional cooking leans on herbs and vegetables grown on the property, and the wine list is deep enough that the sommelier decants tableside without making it feel like a performance. The Val di Fleres setting does a lot of the heavy lifting before the food even arrives.

Perched on the top floor of the historic Kursaal building on the seafront, this contemporary Italian restaurant makes a meal of the view before the food even arrives. The menu leans on Adriatic fish and seafood, with classic regional preparations alongside more restless cooking, a turbot dish that uses fillets, cheeks, and something approximating the crackling being a fair example of how the kitchen thinks. Tableside finishing keeps things theatrical.

An old vaulted ceiling and a live kitchen on the ground floor set the tone at this family-run restaurant in central Trento, where the cooking lands somewhere between the Trentino hills and a quietly modern sensibility. Lunch runs lighter; the full menu rewards a bit of planning ahead. The room manages to feel historic and unfussy at once, which is harder than it sounds.

A reservation-only vegetarian restaurant in the old center of Marino, where a short, daily-adjusted menu means the kitchen cooks only what it can do properly that day. The chef works plant-based ingredients, pulses, and fruit into combinations that are bolder and more technically involved than the spare, minimalist room suggests. The kind of place that converts skeptics quietly, without making a fuss about it.

Climbing plants soften deliberately aged green walls, and a small terrace out front sets the tone before you've ordered a thing. This is a Nikkei restaurant and cocktail bar where the chef, a Peruvian native, works the Japanese-Peruvian crossover with a light hand and sharp contrasts. Tasting menus and à la carte both run alongside a sip pairing, small cocktail tastings built around Nikkei ingredients, which is a more considered idea than it sounds.

Red paper lanterns over the tables and lounge music set the mood at this contemporary Chinese restaurant near Piazza Wagner. The kitchen takes classic dim sum and familiar Chinese cooking and nudges them somewhere more interesting, folding in foie gras, XO sauce, cured ham, and other detours that feel considered rather than gimmicky. The room is sleek enough that you'd dress up, relaxed enough that you wouldn't stress about it.

A winding uphill road from the coast leads to this family-run trattoria, where the terrace looks back out over the sea. The menu is almost entirely meat, rooted in Abruzzo tradition: arrosticini, barbecued cuts, fragrant mushrooms, and one token salted cod for the outliers. Save room for the pizza dogge, a layered dessert of sponge, custard, and Alkermes liqueur that has absolutely nothing to do with pizza. The wine list stays local.

A preserved oak tree grows from the center of the dining room, lit up like it knows it's the main attraction. This creative restaurant in a stone building on the edge of Colle di Val d'Elsa serves modern tasting menus alongside an à la carte that moves between meat, seafood, and vegetables with the seasons. The kitchen leans into technique without losing the comfort of familiarity, and the front-of-house team keeps things warm and loose.

A bar and restaurant sitting in the small piazza at the top of Bergamo's funicular, with a terrace that looks out over the city below. The room has a retro, slightly Anglo-inflected feel, all rustic wood and unhurried service from staff who seem genuinely pleased you made the climb. Meat is the kitchen's main argument, backed by bread and desserts baked in-house. In summer the terrace is the obvious move; apparently a few regulars claim it in winter too, when the sun cooperates.

A small, candlelit dining room a short walk from the Politeama theatre, Bebop is a contemporary restaurant where the kitchen takes Sicilian ingredients seriously and then does unexpected things with them. The chef is young and the menu shows it, in a good way: local tradition gets rerouted through a modern sensibility without losing the thread back to the island. Dress like you mean it; the room has that kind of energy.

Up a floor in a palazzo along a porticoed alley in the pedestrian center, Belle Parti is the kind of classic seafood restaurant that makes you feel you've wandered into someone's very tasteful dining room. Exposed beams, paintings, and mirrors compete handsomely for your attention, and the seasonal menu leans toward the Adriatic, with a few good meat options for the table's dissenter.

A fish display cabinet that changes with the catch each day sits at the center of this family-run seafood restaurant in Porto Cervo, where you pick what you want and the kitchen handles the rest. It's an informal room with a Mediterranean menu, run by two brothers whose easy professionalism keeps the place full. The new terrace lounge, with its view over the coastline, is where people linger long after the plates are cleared.

A modern bistro tucked into a small garden in Forlì's historic centre, where the big windows and summer terrace do a lot of the heavy lifting. The kitchen runs contemporary Italian, with meat and fish dishes that lean personal rather than traditional. Lunch brings a lighter menu for anyone who has afternoon plans. Come evening, the cocktail list pulls real weight as an aperitif stop, and the digestif selection suggests nobody is in a hurry to leave.

Panoramic windows frame Lake Annone at this fine dining room inside the Bianca Relais, where sunsets over the surrounding hills tend to distract from the menu. The chef, who previously held a Michelin star at Vecchio Ristoro in Aosta, runs three blind tasting menus: one for the plant world, one built around freshwater fish, and one that follows the market. Dressing up is the right call; the room expects it.

The old Arnolfo space in Colle di Val d'Elsa's historic center has a new chapter: a relaxed Italian restaurant running a short, seasonal menu where the main courses are simply called "Italian specialities," which is either charmingly modest or very confident. Bread gets serious attention here, including a dipping option designed specifically for the Cinta Senese pork sauce. On warm days, the terrace is quiet enough to feel like a secret.

The large wooden bar anchors this all-day bistro inside the La Perla hotel, where the bartenders keep busy from aperitivo hour well into dinner. Mountain lodge décor leans cheerful rather than rustic-chic, and live music fills the room most evenings. The menu runs through the familiar notes of Italian tradition, and the wine list is serious enough to keep a sommelier quiet for a while.

A short walk from the waterfront in Siderno, this seafood and Calabrian trattoria keeps its menu tight and its cooking rooted in what the coast actually produces. The housemade fresh pasta is the thing to focus on, scialatielli with shrimp and stracciatella being a local favorite, and the bread arrives with an artisanal oil that tastes like the region in one dip. Warm, unhurried, and selected by the Michelin Guide.

The name translates to Blue Grape, and the old stone dining room in Algund earns it. This is a modern South Tyrolean restaurant where the chef leans on fermentation and local sourcing to push regional cooking somewhere new, without the folk-costume nostalgia that can weigh it down. Evenings run as a tasting menu; lunch is looser and more affordable. The hospitality matches the room, warm but never fussy.

The shaded terrace faces Lake Maggiore and the Rocca d'Angera, which is either a medieval fortress or proof that Arona has always known its angles. This is a lakeside Italian restaurant where the chef calls herself a home-style cook, and the menu backs her up with unfussy, flavour-forward dishes built around local freshwater fish. Carlo runs the front of house and takes the wine pairings seriously, so let him.

A gazebo dining room where the waves breaking on the beach are close enough to count, with a sheltered indoor room waiting if the weather turns. This is a modern Sicilian restaurant where the chef runs tasting menus, vegetarian options included, alongside an à la carte list that pulls from both land and sea. The cooking leans local and contemporary, plated with the kind of color and care that makes you slow down.

A restored farmhouse on the edge of Montalcino, with a glazed terrace that earns its keep even in winter. This is a Tuscan restaurant where the kitchen leans into the territory, peposo and onion soup alongside more contemporary plates, and the wine list tilts heavily toward local reds, Brunello especially, with older vintages getting their due. The service knows its bottles cold, which matters when the list runs that deep.

A flower-scented courtyard in Albaro's quiet residential streets sets the tone before you've even sat down. Inside, this contemporary Ligurian restaurant trades on the pleasures of careful sourcing, steering between the coast and the hills as the season dictates. The room is warm and unhurried, the kind of place where dessert is not an afterthought but a small event in itself, which the menu will remind you of more than once.

A bistro in the Ravizza neighborhood where the gyoza comes filled with ossobuco and finished with saffron cream, which tells you most of what you need to know about the kitchen's sense of humor. It's the kind of warm, brick-and-wood room that Italy does better than anywhere, serving contemporary Italian cooking that takes occasional detours through Spain and East Asia without losing the thread. A sister spot, Casa Lucia, handles pizza around the corner.

Named for a rare butterfly found only in the Vulture hills, this creative restaurant occupies a carefully restored ruin in a corner of Basilicata most people couldn't point to on a map. The dining room reads modern inside ancient walls, and the kitchen leans into tasting menus built around hyper-local Lucanian ingredients. The kind of place where the amuse-bouches alone make a case for the whole region.

A casual fish spot right on the Soverato seafront promenade, where the menu is built around the idea that good fish needs very little help. Catch comes fried, raw, tucked into rolls, or piled onto friselle bread, with generous salads and house-made desserts filling out the gaps. Wine by the glass and cocktails, including creative originals in the evening, keep things lively. The Michelin Guide has it on their radar.

The veranda opens fully in good weather, roof and all, so the sea air genuinely runs the room. This is a classic seafood restaurant near Martina Franca's town square, built around raw preparations and high-quality fish handled with care. New management has freshened the direction without losing the old-school character. The front garden and private parking are small graces that add up, and the menu stays loyal to clean, fragrant, coastal cooking.

A historic villa in the Monte Grappa foothills, with kitchen gardens that actually feed the tasting menus, is a good argument for creative modern cuisine. The chef builds seasonal menus around short-supply-chain and organic ingredients, following the territory's rhythm rather than fighting it. The cellar leans into PIWI grape varieties alongside the classics, and the front-of-house runs things with the kind of quiet attention that makes a long tasting dinner feel easy rather than exhausting.

A creative restaurant perched above the Asti hills, with the estate's own vineyards rolling out beneath the terrace and nobody pretending that isn't the point. Inside, the dining room is modern and unfussy, letting the chef do the talking with Piedmontese cooking that respects the old recipes just enough before quietly ignoring them. A handful of guestrooms mean you can stay, which is convenient given the wine list is right there.

The panoramic terrace looking out over the Castelli Romani hills tells you immediately what kind of restaurant this is: old-school, comfortable in its own skin, with no interest in reinventing itself. Classic Lazio cooking fills the menu, the focaccia that comes with the bread basket has its own quiet reputation, and the dining room has the settled feel of a family place that has been feeding the same hills for generations.