The Best Places in Italy

A young chef shaped by home cooking and a stretch in French kitchens runs this intimate contemporary restaurant in the middle of town. Lunch keeps things relaxed and affordable; evenings open into a more personal à la carte where land and sea dishes show off what the training was actually for. A carefully chosen natural wine list runs alongside, coherent rather than showy.

Named after the chef's mother, this tasting-menu restaurant in central Modena shifts its lighting, music, and room details in step with the menu as the seasons turn, which is either charming or a lot, depending on your tolerance for concept dining. The kitchen draws on a wide spread of references and cultures without any apparent anxiety about what goes with what. Counter seating puts the young team's storytelling right in front of you.

You can walk in straight from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which sets the tone immediately. This is the Park Hyatt's intimate fine dining restaurant, with contemporary art on the walls and service that knows exactly what it's doing. The kitchen runs two tasting menus, one a quiet love letter to Milan, the other following the season wherever it leads. The sommelier commands around 700 labels and seems genuinely happy to talk you through them.

Three separate tasting menus, one each for meat, fish, and vegetables, give away what kind of dinner this is: a modern restaurant where the kitchen is the whole point. The room in Fasano is warm and convivial, the cooking precise and sensory-minded, and the story behind it, started by the chef and his partner after years in Australia, gives the place an unusually wide-angle outlook for a small Apulian town.

A small, modern seafood restaurant on the western shore of Lake Bolsena, where the terrace puts you close enough to the water to feel the logic of eating fish here. The menu leans almost entirely toward the sea, which takes a little faith this far inland, but the kitchen commits to it. You can follow a themed tasting menu or pick your way through the carte, choosing at least two dishes and letting the quiet, unhurried service do the rest.

A fishmonger that gradually started feeding people, Pesceria San Martino is a small, unpretentious seafood restaurant in Ciriè where the front room is intimate and a glass conservatory opens to the garden in summer. The kitchen leans into what you'd expect from its origins: very fresh fish, fried squid available to take away, and a "seafood charcuterie" that earns its quotation marks. Weekends fill fast, so book ahead.

Maccheroni alla bobbiese, the pasta shape that put this small Emilian hill town on the culinary map, is what the kitchen here has built its reputation on. It's a traditional trattoria-style restaurant near Bobbio's historic centre, cooking squarely from the local pantry and the season, not the trend. The room feels like a place where the menu changes when the produce does, not when the PR department does.

A handful of tables in a spare modern room with a nod to 1920s detailing, near the edge of Treviso's old center. The name is a riff on tailoring, and the kitchen takes the metaphor seriously, building the menu around whatever the market offers and shaping it into three tasting menus that prioritize flavor over flourish. A business lunch lands at midday for those who prefer not to commit to the full fitting.

A family-run Piedmontese restaurant in Borgomanero where the dining room has quietly ignored every décor trend of the last several decades and is better for it. The cooking is classic, with the occasional modern adjustment, like their paniscia, the local bean-and-salami risotto, finished with a swoosh of vegetable cream on top. A few fish dishes round out a menu that otherwise stays firmly in the region.

A short walk from Piazza Navona in a city where proximity to a landmark usually means a tourist tax, this seafood restaurant holds its own with a menu built around crudo and whatever the day's catch makes possible. The room is modern and intimate, service reads your mood without hovering, and the team brings real experience to Rome's notoriously competitive dining scene. Go when the evening quiets the neighborhood down.

Just past Porta Romana, this small contemporary dining room keeps so few covers that booking ahead isn't optional. Rustic details share the room with generous floral arrangements, which gives the place more personality than its size suggests. A portion of the produce comes from the team's own farm of the same name, and the menu moves between meat and fish in a way that feels considered rather than arbitrary.

Terracotta floors, exposed brick, and shelves of bottles stacked floor to ceiling set the scene at this farmhouse restaurant outside Pontassieve. The menu moves between charcuterie, classic Tuscan meat dishes, and a few seafood options that keep things from feeling predictable. The wine list leans toward bottles that are considered rather than expensive, which is its own kind of statement in a region where the opposite is easy.

A nineteenth-century farmhouse on the quiet edge of Empoli, restored just enough to keep the rural bones showing. This is a contemporary Tuscan restaurant where the kitchen takes local, seasonal ingredients seriously without turning dinner into a lecture. The chef's pigeon dish, exploring the bird across five preparations, is the kind of thing that makes you glad you asked for recommendations. The estate produces its own wine and olive oil, which is a very Tuscan thing to do.

A contemporary osteria a short walk from Parliament, named for the owners' grandparents, who were in the trade long before it was fashionable. The menu stays close to Roman tradition but makes room for a Marsala Florio pairing that runs alongside each course, which is a more interesting idea than it sounds. Book ahead if you want a seat on the terrace, and book ahead anyway.

Contemporary art lines the walls of this intimate creative restaurant in central Seregno, the result of a longstanding tie-up with a local gallery. The cooking is modern but relaxed, moving easily between meat, fish, and vegetables without the kind of anxiety that usually comes with "creative cuisine." And in a corner of Lombardy where cheese courses have quietly vanished, this one still rolls the trolley.

The restaurant sits inside a Medici villa, which sets a certain tone before you've even ordered. PS Ristorante runs two tasting menus, one of them vegetarian, drawing almost entirely from the estate's own olive oil, heritage grains, Cinta Senese pigs, and kitchen garden. The Tuscan countryside arrives on the plate in a quietly contemporary form, and the outdoor terrace looks straight onto the gardens if you need reminding where you are.

A small bistro on a quiet side street in Cuneo's old center, where the kitchen keeps things clean and seasonal without making a fuss about it. The menu leans contemporary, the wine list tilts toward natural and organic producers, and the room is the kind of low-key that takes a little effort to pull off. Good place to eat simply and drink interestingly without the evening turning into a whole thing.

A seafood-forward restaurant that has been around forever and still books out well ahead, which tells you most of what you need to know. The intimate dining rooms feel genuinely warm rather than fussy, and the service matches. Fish comes prepared with a classic sensibility and lighter modern instincts, while a few Ferrarese meat dishes, salama da sugo among them, hold their own on a menu that is otherwise happily pointed at the sea.

The menu changes daily at this family-run trattoria in Altare, where the kitchen sits at the border of Liguria and Piedmont and takes that geography seriously. Both regions show up on the plate, from plin and rabbit tortelli to vitello tonnato, all given a modern reinterpretation without losing their footing. The wine list leans the same direction. An old-school institution that has quietly kept up with the times.

Warm lighting and large windows onto a Gallarate pedestrian street set the mood at this contemporary osteria, where the kitchen leans meat-forward but keeps fish and vegetarian options in honest rotation. The cooking has a personal stamp without losing track of how flavors are supposed to balance. Lunch runs lighter and easier on the wallet, which is when the regulars tend to fill the room before the evening crowd arrives.

A vaulted brick cellar from the late 1800s beneath the estate's own vineyards sets the scene for this Piedmontese restaurant in Costigliole d'Asti. The cooking stays rooted in local flavors with a careful modern hand, and there's a vegetarian tasting menu alongside the main card. Wines lean on the house Mura Mura labels, which is either convenient or a flex, depending on your mood. A bistrot format runs Mondays and Tuesdays.

The dining room sits inside a former 16th-century church merged with an ancient wine press, and the stone bones of both are still very much present. Radino Wine Bistrot is a casual Italian wine bistro in Matera serving the kind of straightforward southern cooking that doesn't need explaining, cavatelli with Lucanian sausage being the anchor. There's also a snug room downstairs set aside for cigar smokers, which tells you something about the crowd's intentions.

A soft-lit bistro on Via Andrea Doria where the menu swings between meat and fish without committing to either, which turns out to be more interesting than it sounds. The kitchen leans Mediterranean but keeps things unpredictable, portions are generous, and the covered terrace is the kind of dimly lit spot that makes every dinner feel like it was someone's idea to be romantic. A good-value neighborhood bistro that doesn't quite act like one.

One entire wall opens onto the kitchen, so you can watch the team work while you decide whether you want a taco, a bowl of raw seafood, or something just pulled off the grill. This contemporary Italian restaurant near Nola keeps an unusually wide menu, swinging from street food and Spanish ham to creative meat and fish dishes, with a Champagne list that takes the subject seriously. Come summer, the whole thing moves outside for a looser, more informal format.

A small, packed seasonal restaurant in Milan where the menu leans heavily vegetarian and changes with what the land is actually doing. The kitchen calls its philosophy "cuisine with roots," and the short menu earns the phrase: a handful of dishes built around freshness and the kind of layered flavors that take real thought. Book ahead for the evening, or you will be eating elsewhere.

Foraged Mugo pine shoots and lichen on the menu signals immediately that this is not a hotel dining room trying to please everyone. Set inside the Lory hotel in Pinzolo, Rendenèr is a casual contemporary restaurant where the kitchen follows the Alpine seasons hard, pulling sow-thistle in spring and herbs from its own organic garden in summer. The wine list leans regional, which, given the surroundings, is exactly the right call.

Five tables on the upper floor, a daily menu that changes with the season, and a couple running everything, her in the dining room and him at the stove visible from the moment you walk in. This tiny Langhe trattoria in Monforte d'Alba is rooted so firmly in Piedmont that "regional" feels like an understatement. Book well ahead, arrive hungry, and consider one of the three rooms upstairs if you'd rather not drive the hills after dinner.

A single communal table split between an interior dining room and a panoramic terrace facing the Palatine Hill is the whole concept here, and it commits to it completely. The contemporary Italian cooking leans Mediterranean, with handmade pasta as the clear through-line. The tortelli with pork ribs and cacao mass is the kind of dish people mention unprompted. Come at sunset and the terrace doubles as a cocktail bar with a view that makes the real estate feel almost embarrassing.

A cable car gets you here for lunch; a snowcat gets you home after dinner, which should tell you something about how seriously the Dolomites take atmosphere. Despite the name, this is a proper alpine restaurant, not a hiker's hut, and the menu knows it: hearty mountain staples share space with modern dishes and, somehow, oysters. Evening service slows down enough to match the scenery.

A mountain pasture for centuries before it became a dining room, Rifugio Fuciade sits in the Dolomites with the Costabella chain as a backdrop and Pale di San Martino dissolving into the distance. The menu reads like a regional field guide, canederli, veal stew with polenta, chanterelle mushrooms, the kind of Alpine cooking that makes sense when snow is involved. A wine cellar with over 600 labels, and rooms if you'd rather not drive back down.

Named for the classic postwar film whose director was born right here in Fondi, this contemporary Italian restaurant sets its creative cooking across elegant dining rooms and a courtyard that earns its keep on warm evenings. The kitchen leans modern without losing the thread, pairing southern Italian instincts with enough invention to keep things interesting. The wine list is short but clearly chosen by someone paying attention.

A terrace overlooking the Ligurian coast is the reason to navigate the narrow, winding road up to this rustic hotel restaurant in Finale Ligure. Call ahead to book a sea-view table, because the room itself is simple and unassuming. The kitchen leans into regional cooking, with seafood and classic meat dishes rooted in the local tradition. The kind of place that rewards the effort to find it.

A cabinet of fresh fish greets you at the door, which tells you most of what you need to know about this old-school Sardinian seafood restaurant on the road toward Capoterra. The menu runs from antipasti of tuna and mullet bottarga through grilled skewers, lobster, eel, and more sauces for pasta than you'll need a second visit to work through. Locals who know the bottarga from the burrida have been filling the tables here for generations.

Sardinia has a coastline that could make a postcard weep, but the island's cooking has always looked inland, toward slow-braised meat and hand-rolled pasta. This casual trattoria in Cagliari leans into that tradition hard, with simple dining rooms dressed in local touches and a menu of regional specialities that reads like a glossary of the dialect. Malloreddus, culurgiones, snails in tomato sauce, and the honey-fried sebadas dessert all make appearances.

The suckling pig goes on the spit before you sit down, which is your cue to arrive early and watch. This is a farm-restaurant on a working agriturismo outside Alghero, and the fixed menu builds toward that roast as its centerpiece, everything else on the table grown on the same land. The owners will walk you through every step if you ask, and most people ask. Rooms are available if you'd rather not drive back after.

The dining room sits in what used to be the servants' quarters of the Stupinigi Hunting Lodge, which sets a certain mood before the food even arrives. It's a full-service restaurant doing Piedmontese regional cooking, with seafood running alongside as a genuine parallel option, not an afterthought. The wine list leans local and changes weekly, which keeps regulars guessing in the way a good cellar should.

A fine-dining restaurant set inside Monza's royal park, on grounds where the king once kept his pheasants, with the famous racetrack close enough that the quiet feels deliberate. The menu moves between Mediterranean fish, Milanese classics, and the occasional French flourish, a nod to the park's layered history. In summer, the terrace looking out over the greenery pulls the whole thing together.

The yakitori grill sits right at the entrance so the smoke hits you before the host does. This is a Japanese contemporary restaurant where a Kyoto-born chef turns out kushiyaki skewers over open flame alongside wagyu cooked tableside over charcoal by the guest. One wall holds over 150 sake labels, refreshed weekly, and the sommelier has an opinion about all of them. The room is spare and calm, the kind of place that takes the food seriously without asking you to.

A terrace over a pedestrian street in Oneglia, where the seats go fast enough that booking ahead is non-negotiable. This is a polished, contemporary Ligurian restaurant with an à la carte menu of fish and meat alongside tasting menus for anyone happy to let the kitchen decide. The wine list ranges beyond the region, though the local labels are well represented. The room is dressed to match the ambition, and the crowd tends to dress accordingly.