By Nicole Souza
Well known for its pasta, pizza, and gelato, on my spring break, I was lucky enough to travel all throughout Italy through the Bus2alps Best of Italy trip, trying all different sorts of delicious foods. But Italy’s well-known basics aren’t the only things you have to eat when you go. Here’s a gallery of the food-porn of Italy I collected when I traveled to five different cities:
Tuscany
Bruschetta and deli meats accompanied my succulent Tuscany wine. The olive oil was definitely the game changer, although the bread alone wasn’t your typical white toast you find in Stop n’ Shop. For our main course, the bolognese was indescribable thick and flavorful. I can never go back to boxed pasta ever again. (Sorry Barilla!)
Rome
Margherita pizza, eggplant parmesan, risotto, gnocchi x2 and spaghetti exceeded all expectations. Descriptions and words can’t explain how amazing all of these dishes were. So much tomato sauce. Too few days to consume.
The famous Tony’s welcomed us on our first night of our Bus2alps trip with unlimited wine and water, a ginormous grilled vegetable platter, deli meats with flatbread, fried calamari, penne alle vodka, gnocchi, and tiramisu (unfortunately there is no picture for that because I ate it too fast). After too much bread, oil, pasta, and white wine, (and not enough water) I felt like my stomach was gonna explode, but I wanted to keep eating anyways.
Frigidarium had by the far the best gelato in all of Italy. Their signature flavor has cookie crumbles, caramel, and hardened chocolate covering the gelato AND a cookie wafer. I also got to try Kinder Bueno chocolate, macaron, mint chocolate chip, and lemon flavors, all doing wonders for my taste buds.
Florence
Just a couple of ways Florence showed its love for me—and there never went a day where I didn’t eat gelato. Newscafe captured my heart with the little string of hearts in my cappuccino. Gusta was by far the best pizza: I’ve never had crust just chewy and soft enough that it would still easily allow my teeth to rip through the bread. Unfortunately, my stomach was growling, and even though these two works of art were beautiful, I had to dig in and ruin the mesmerizing visuals.
Magnum surprised me by allowing me to create this work of art (top). Covered in white chocolate, pink almond stars, rose petals, cookie pieces, then drizzled with milk chocolate, it was almost too pretty to eat. Almost. The grey poppy seed gelato (yes, I said GREY) I tried was so unique tasting. You’ll have to go to Florence to try it for yourself! Eduardo’s vegan almond was surprisingly my second favorite. The walnut and dates was also a nice surprise!
Venice
Dal Moro’s pasta, which was in a Chinese take-out box, was being made right in front of us as we were waiting in line. I went basic and got the Pomodoro Fusilli. The hot basil and tomato sauce was the perfect thing to warm me up on the rainy day we visited. It was so fresh—definitely the best pasta I had in Italy! The sardines and polenta dinner won me over at dinner. Venice is the quintessential place for having the best tasting fish! And of course if there’s a Magnum, there’s more gelato!
Verona
Margherita pizza never failed to satisfy me on my spring break. At our group lunch, I purposely traded my share of penne alle vodka for someone else’s share of pizza! Amorino was a charming gelato store that actually presents its product in the shape of a rose! I tried the orange chocolate chip and condensed milk flavors (again almost too pretty to eat). My friend purposefully chose the strawberry so the petals would look like an actual rose.
While the food in Italy made my taste buds happier, I somehow managed to hold myself back from eating it all until after I took the Insta-worthy photo.
