The Food We Love In Italy (2024)

Early January 2024, we took our kids to Italy. You can find about the trip in my article "Trip to Italy in 2024". In this article, I will only focus the food we had in this trip.

Pizza (Rome, Italy)

Our walking tour guide told us that pizza is only sold by weight in Rome, not elsewhere in Italy. Looking through the pizza varieties feels like looking at gallery art, except they all look delicious!

You might be wondering how much it costs. I snapped a photo of the menu at the pizza shop inside Termini. I bought a slice, and it cost me about 7 euros by weight.

Near our Airbnb in Rome, we also found a pizzeria selling whole pies. Very tasty as well.

Cannoli (Rome, Italy)

A cannoli is a tube-shaped Italian dessert that consists of fried pastry dough stuffed with a sweet, creamy cheese filling. We bought ourselves some cannoli, of course, with the favorite Italian pistachio topping. The shell was crispy, and the cream was yummy!

Tiramisu (Rome, Italy)

We got some Tiramisu at the famous Pompi dessert shop in Rome, and again, with pistachio on it. It was so smooth and cool, not crazily creamy. We loved it.

Specialized Espresso Drinks (Termini, Rome, Italy)

Caffe Alla Nocciola

Cappuccino

Caffe Cioccolattato

I believe it must be quite challenging for Starbucks to establish a market in Italy. Coffee in Italy is inexpensive, ranging from 1 to 3 euros, and offers a wide variety of options. For instance, the first one, a mix of espresso and Nutella with hazelnuts on top, known as Caffe Alla Nocciola in the pictures, cost me 3 euros. The middle one, a regular cappuccino, was priced at 1.5 euros. The last one, named Caffe Cioccolattato, a blend of espresso and chocolate, only cost me 3 euros.

In Italy, people treat coffee as an integral part of their daily routine. They visit coffee shops or dessert spots, order a cup, enjoy it while standing at the bar, and then continue with their day. It is a simple and affordable ritual, far from being considered fancy or expensive.

Biscotti with Vin Santo (Tuscany, Italy)

A valuable lesson from this wine-tasting tour was the discovery of dipping Biscotti into a Tuscan fortified wine called Vin Santo. It all made sense today. In the past, I wasn’t impressed by the hard and dry texture of Biscotti, but now I appreciate the magical combination of its nutty flavor with the rich, alcoholic notes of Vin Santo.

Cicchetti (Venice, Italy)

Venetian Cicchetti, very similar to Spanish tapas, is my favorite food in Italy, not just one of them. Each cicchetti has various toppings on a piece of baguette. There is a wide variety of top-notch ingredients, including fish, mushrooms, nuts, vegetables, and cheese. They may look simple, but they taste heavenly.

My favorite one is the cicchetti with a blend of cheese and pistachio. I couldn’t get enough of it.

I love food that not only tastes great but is also affordable. Cicchetti perfectly fits this profile. Each cicchetti costs only 1.5 to 2.0 euros. You can get full with just 4 or 5 of them! Despite the limited transportation in Venice, the food there is surprisingly affordable.

Close to each other, there are two cicchetti restaurants: Osteria Al Squero and Cantine del Vino già Schiavi. One sells them at 1.5 euros each, and the other at 2 euros each. People usually select some cicchetti, find seats, or just stand next to the wine bar to enjoy cicchetti with some wine. We visited both of them and couldn’t get enough!

Croissant with Pistachio Cream (Florence, Italy)

Pistachio is a staple nut in Italy, and sweets featuring pistachio can be found everywhere. Near our Airbnb in Florence, my daughter and I discovered croissants with pistachio cream at a local market. They bear a striking resemblance to matcha pastries in Japan.

To us, the cream seemed a bit too sweet, overshadowing the original flavor of pistachio. If they were lighter, that would be perfect.