Amalfi Amore

Adrian Mourby takes a road trip along the awe-inspiring Amalfi Coast from Sorrento to Salerno… Images by Kate Tadman-Mourby unless otherwise stated There was a seagull on our balcony, a very large one, enjoying what was left of the pre-prandial grissini. The Excelsior Vittoria in Sorrento 1 stands on top of a cliff outside the […]

Fast Culture: Torna a Surriento

Vide ‘o mare, quant’è bello! Spira tantu sentimento… Look at the sea, how beautiful it is! It brings out many feelings. Image: Vesuvius across the Bay of Naples from Sorrento by Patricia Gartman The Circumvesuviana commuter train between Naples and Sorrento is a somewhat ramshackle affair. It’s often crowded and always noisy, and it seems […]

Taste of Naples

Mario Matassa explores the riches of the food of Naples, perhaps the most iconically Italian of all cuisine. Simply grilled vegetables, milky white balls of buffalo mozzarella, spaghetti with tomato sauce, pasta e fagioli (pasta with beans), clams with linguine, melanzane alla parmigiana, torta di ricotta, babà al rhum (just one in a long list […]

Italy’s top five cheeses

Italy’s cheeses are famed throughout the world – and with good reason! Here are our top five… which is your favourite?! Photos by iStock/ Getty Images 1 Parmigiano-Reggiano, the undisputed king of Italian cheeses (above), comes from a designated area around Modena, Parma and Reggio Emilia, and is a grana, or hard cheese, with a nutty, […]

Homes in Emilia-Romagna

The sophisticated region of Emilia-Romagna offers every geographical delight as well as some of the best food in Italy. Rural homes in its hills offer exceptional value for money too, says Fleur Kinson. Photos by Getty Images   If you’ve never heard of Emilia-Romagna, that’s only because this happy, prosperous place feels no need to […]

Insalata di rinforzo

Full of the strong flavours that are typical of the region, this Campanian dish will evoke memories for anyone who has ever visited Naples – Here’s Mario Matassa’s take on ‘reinforcing salad’: Insalata di rinforzo (‘reinforcing salad’) hails from Campania in the south of Italy. Its name refers to its capacity to reinforce the appetite. It can […]

Molise: a voyage of discovery

Even here at Italia! we have rarely featured Molise, yet this unsung destination is deserving of your attention. Words and pictures by Valentina Nicastro You’re going where?” This is what friends kept asking me when I proudly announced my decision to visit Molise. Why? Because this small region overshadowed by neighbouring Puglia, Campania, Lazio and Abruzzo […]

A taste of Italy: food for free

Mario Matassa celebrates the start of the autumn foraging season with a set of Italian recipes that all contain ingredients that can be gathered for free Photos by Mario Matassa Italians are simply wild about wild food. Whether it’s chestnuts, borage leaves and mushrooms in the autumn, truffles in the winter, asparagus, wild hops, nettles […]