The Best Places to Eat and Stay in Italy

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.

Inside Palazzo Ripetta, a short walk from Piazza del Popolo, San Baylon is a contemporary Italian restaurant that manages to feel relaxed and polished at the same time. When the weather cooperates, the internal garden does most of the heavy lifting, a tucked-away green pocket in the middle of Rome. The kitchen works with obvious seasonal restraint, letting good produce carry the argument rather than technique, which is present but never announced.

On a clear day the terrace here looks out over the kind of Piedmontese panorama that makes you forget you ordered two hours ago. This is a traditional village trattoria with contemporary instincts, the kitchen leaning on regional classics while updating the plating and finding pairings that feel thought-through rather than dutiful. The wine list covers Piedmont thoroughly and then keeps going, which is fitting given that the sommelier runs the room.

Black truffles turn up with genuine generosity here, which tells you something about how this family-run restaurant in Spoleto's historic center operates. It sits inside the Clitunno hotel, but the mood is its own: an intimate, recently refurbished dining room with seasonal meat and fish, and a terrace on the small square for warmer nights. Park outside the restricted zone and walk in; the stroll through the old town is half the point.

The wine list at this modern Piedmontese restaurant is organized by color-coded mood, from "voluptuous" to "purpureal," which sounds like a game but is surprisingly useful. The space itself has history, once a grocer's shop where Lavazza first started blending coffee. The kitchen leans into regional tradition with a creative edge, and the carousel of starters makes a strong case for ordering everything on the table at once.

A deconsecrated church and its cloister form the backdrop for this contemporary restaurant in Piacenza, where the terrace alone earns the reservation. The chef describes himself as a meat person, which makes it quietly amusing that the seafood is what stops conversation: a fish soup loaded with crustaceans, mussels, and cuttlefish that arrives tasting like someone meant it. Book outside when the weather cooperates.

Sitting near the alleged birthplace of Christopher Columbus, this seafood-forward trattoria is run by the Scala family, who also operate the well-regarded San Giorgio nearby. The menu leans on the market and the region, with cappon magro appearing often, though meat dishes get a careful, lightly modern treatment too. A covered outdoor terrace opens onto a pedestrian street, and the wine list handles itself well by the glass.

A seasonal tasting menu built around the Agro Pontino region, with a kitchen that treats the local terroir as the whole point rather than a selling line. The outdoor room doubles as a winter garden, all bamboo and soft lighting, and an actual Roman archaeological site sits a few metres away should dinner leave you feeling historically curious. Modern country cooking, and a long drive from anywhere, but that's rather the idea.

The name means "flavour" in Ligurian dialect, which sets expectations clearly enough. Savô is the gourmet restaurant inside the Hotel Windsor, where a contemporary dining room opens onto a terrace with direct views of the beach and sea. The kitchen leans on regional, seasonal ingredients and leans harder on fish, though a meat option runs through each course. The wine list is serious, and the Windsor Bar handles cocktails for those who want to linger.

Wooden floors, exposed beams, and a garden so carefully kept it looks staged: Scola is a country house restaurant tucked into the Ligurian hills, run by the same family for four generations. The chef takes traditional local cooking and nudges it somewhere more unexpected, think coastal flavors refracted through a creative lens. The room is warm and unhurried, the kind of lunch that quietly swallows an afternoon.

Charcoal smoke drifts through the vaulted stone arches of what used to be a royal stable, which sets the mood before you've sat down. This is a meat-forward restaurant in Pollenzo, steps from the University of Gastronomic Sciences, where Piedmontese scottona arrives in several aging stages alongside Chianina and Alpina cuts. The sourcing is serious, the cooking method is fire, and the setting looks like it was designed by someone who understood atmosphere before the word existed.

A small Japanese restaurant on a narrow street in the historic centre, with just enough covers inside and on the terrace to make a reservation feel less optional than the menu suggests. The kitchen runs a classical lineup, hand-rolled gyoza, tempura, raw fish, ramen, and rice dishes executed without fanfare. The Japanese clientele filling most of the seats is its own quiet argument. Sake, shochu, and craft beer, plus wine for the unconvinced.