"To travel through Italy is as close as one gets to being in paradise." That statement -- with which it is hard to argue -- is the opening line in a description of a book that was published after my Tuscany and Umbria book (or else I would have included it in my recommendations). The book is entitled Great Escapes: Italy (edited and compiled by Angelika Taschen, text by Christiane Reiter, Taschen, 2010) and it is the sort of book that sends you straight to your wallet after you've turned the pages because you will want to buy an airline ticket a.s.a.p.!

'Escapes' is the right word to describe these accommodation choices as every one not only captures the spirit of its Italian place but makes you feel as far from your daily life as possible.
Taschen has selected 35 hotels and inns throughout Italy, and while some are famous and expensive (Villa d'Este, Villa Feltrinelli, Hotel Splendido, Il San Pietro, Villa Cimbrone, etc.) the surprise is that a number are quite moderately priced while still being quite appealing, including the Pension Briol near Bolzano (rooms from 72 euros); Locanda Cipriani on Torcello (rooms from 100 euros); Hotel Flora in Venice (rooms from 120 euros); Villa Pisani near Padova (rooms from 170 euros); and the Casa San Ruffino in Montegiorgio (rooms from 110 euros). Even the rates at the hotel featured in the photo above -- Hotel Palumbo in Ravello -- are 200 euros for rooms and 350 euros for suites, which is not inexpensive but is also not the 900 euro rate at the Villa Feltrinelli on Largo di Garda. (Plus, if you want to discuss the finer points of paradiso, Ravello's got all the points covered and then some.)

Color photos accompany each entry, along with practical details but also suggestions for "Book to Pack," which I love. So for the Locanda Cipriani, for example, the recommended book is Hemingway's Across the River and Into the Trees, and for Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita in Matera it's Christ Stopped at Eboli by Carlo Levi, etc. There are 5 recommended properties in Tuscany: Torre di Bellosguardo in Florence (see my book and see my blog notes in 'older posts' for more about this very special place), Villa Bordoni in Greve in Chianti, Adler Thermae in Bagno Vignoni, Castello di Vicarello near Siena, and Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole (about which I will post more later). There are 2 Umbrian recommendations: Palazzo Terranova near Perugia (rooms from 305 euros, villa from 840 euros) and Locanda del Gallo in Gubbio (rooms from 70 euros, including breakfast!).

[For the record, the place in this book that appeals most to me is the Convento di Santa Maria di Costantinopoli in Apulia: no fax, no website, no e-mail address. Nine rooms without television, telephone and internet. Price upon request. Sign me up!]

This is an expensive book, $50, so I recommend it for purchase for true Italian enthusiasts and those who travel a fair amount to Italy or for those very interested in interior design and decorating. Otherwise, borrowing a copy from the library may be a better option. But don't overlook this book when planning your next trip - it is hugely inspiring!

There are only 26 days left to see a wonderful, wonderful exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled 'Rooms With a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century.' I say it's wonderful because this is one of those compact shows -- with only about 40 paintings and drawings -- that is not overwhelming, where you can stand for a considerable amount of time in front of each work and leave feeling you know each one quite well. It's a gem of a show, and if you live in the New York area, I encourage you to see it before it closes on July 4th!

I admit I was smitten with the title because I have a special fondness for pictures of open windows. It began when I saw Matisse's painting of an open window in Collioure, a Mediterranean coastal town in the Roussillon region of France near the Spanish border (and one of my most favorite places on earth). Starting with a large, framed poster of this painting, I went on to collect other open window paintings, and now I have a collection of six others on one wall of my bedroom. More than one of them is by Matisse, unsurprisingly as the subject of a recent book that I love attests: Henri Matisse: Rooms With a View (Shirley Neilsen Blum, Monacelli Press, 2010).

The Met's exhibit is jammed with some hugely appealing views, a number of them Italian (though none that are Tuscan or Umbrian). Among the featured artists are some well known names and others who are very much less so, including Caspar David Friedrich (that's his 'Woman at the Window' above), Georg Friedrich Kersting, Vermeer, Louise-Adeone Drolling, Adolph Menzel, Giovanni Battista de Gubernatis, Francois-Marius Granet, Massimo d'Azeglio, Johan Christian Dahl, and Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy (a relative of the novelist). The accompanying catalog is written by Sabine Rewald (Jacques and Natasha Gelman Curator, Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art at the Met; she's also the daughter of legendary art historian John Rewald, author of a number of books including the notable History of Impressionism (1946) and Post-Impressionism From Van Gogh to Gauguin, 1956) and is very much worth reading if you are unable to get to the exhibit.

Rewald writes that the Romantic painters found in the motif of the open window "a potent symbol for the experience of standing on the threshold between an interior and the outside world. The juxtaposition of the close familiarity of a room and the uncertain, often idealized vision of what lies beyond was immediately recognized as a metaphor for unfulfilled longing, as evoked in the words of the Romantic poet Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg; 1772-1801): "Everything at a distance turns into poetry: distant mountains, distant people, distant events; all become Romantic."

While Rewald acknowledges that the title of this show is borrowed from E. M. Forster's 1908 novel A Room With a View, she admits the inspiration for it is an essay entitled 'The Open Window and the Storm-Tossed Boat: An Essay in the Iconography of Romanticism' by art historian Lorenz Eitner (Art Bulletin, 1955). I have tried in vain to find this essay online, but I certainly haven't given up the search and I'll report back when I've found it.

After I saw this exhibit, I decided to re-read Forster's novel, which I hadn't read for many, many years. I turned to a newer edition than the one I first read, a Penguin Classics paperback with an Introduction by Malcolm Bradbury (2000). I learned from Bradbury that Forster, who died at the age of 90 in 1970, lived through the late years of the Victorian age, two world wars, the Cold War, Vietnam protests, and Richard Nixon, which is quite a lot of history for one person to have experienced. I also learned that though Where Angels Fear to Tread was published first, A Room with a View was really his first Italian novel as he'd been working on it previously and then laid it aside to write two other works. Bradbury also mentions an essay Forster wrote in 1958 entitled 'A View Without a Room,' another essay I have been unable to find online (I did find a reference to a rare printed quarto of the essay but it's available for several hundred dollars).

I'm pleased to say that I loved the novel again, even more than I did the first time. Such memorable characters! Who can forget Lucy Honeychurch, Miss Lavish, Mr. Beebe, Cecil, the Miss Alans, 'In Santa Croce With No Baedeker,' and Miss Bartlett saying, "A view? Oh, a view! How delightful a view is!' And I found myself suddenly overcome by the desire to always reserve a room with a view on future trips. It's not that I haven't long appreciated the value of a view, but on many occasions I've been shown lovely rooms without a view and I've accepted them, happily. But here's the thing of it: a view adds one more dimension to immersion, which is what I ultimately celebrate in each of my books. Any detail that makes travelers feel like they are positively in their destination and nowhere else is what I'm after, and a view achieves this. Yes, true, views always cost more, so the likelihood is that I (and you, too perhaps) won't be able to enjoy them from a hotel window very often; but I will make a great effort to do so in the future.

If you've read A Room With a View you may recall that the Miss Alans did make their trip to Greece and Constantinople, and in fact they went around the world. "The rest of us," writes Forster, "must be contented with a fair, but a less arduous, goal. Italiam petimus." We seek Italy. Indeed, I certainly do, and I presume you do on occasion as well. Here's to seeking and finding rooms with views -- Italian or others -- in our future.

Though in some respects I wish I'd posted this in advance of or on Memorial Day, ultimately it doesn't matter because any of the overseas American cemeteries -- overseen by the American Battle Monuments Commission -- may be visited at nearly any time during the year (it's just that on Memorial Day, there are official programs held at each cemetery). I think it's safe to assume that just about everyone knows about the ABMC cemeteries in Normandy and Somme, France, as well as Flanders Field in Belgium and in Manila, Philippines; but I suspect not many visitors to Italy know about the Florence American Cemetery, where 4,402 American men and women killed in World War II are buried.

Visiting the Cemetery has been on my (too-long) list of things I want to see in and around Florence for quite some time, but I haven't yet visited this site, which is on the west side of the Greve river and by all accounts is lovely and moving. The memorial covers 70 acres and is only about 7 1/2 miles south of Florence (according to the ABMC website, there is even a SITA bus stop on Via Cassia just outside the cemetery gate). It's open from 9 to 5 and there is always a staff member there to answer questions and escort relatives to particular grave sites.

The military dead in Florence represent 39% of the U. S. Fifth Army burials originally made between Rome and the Alps; most died in the fighting that occurred after the capture of Rome in June 1944, and included in this number are those who died in the heavy fighting in the Apennine mountain range just before the war's end [as I note in my book, an outstanding read about this time is Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby (Picador, 1983), a captured officer of the British Army who served time as a POW at Fontanellato in the Po Valley near Parma. After many years he decided to write the book because he felt that "comparatively little had been written about the ordinary Italian people who helped prisoners of war at great personal risk and without thought of personal gain, purely out of kindness of heart."]

The ABMC was established in 1923 by Congress and General of the Armies John J. Pershing served as chairman until his death in 1948, when he was succeeded by General George C. Marshall. In addition to the cemetery in Florence, the Commission maintains 23 others on foreign soil, in Europe, North Africa, Latin America, and the Philippines. Currently there are 124,909 American war dead interred in these cemeteries, 30,921 from World War I, 93,238 from World War II, and 750 from the Mexican War.

A Florence American Cemetery booklet may be downloaded with or without pictures from the ABMC website, http://www.abmc.gov/, and there is also a narrated video tour of the cemetery's landscaped grounds, architecture, and works of art. The website also includes details on all the other overseas cemeteries; no new overseas cemeteries have been established since the end of World War II.

A writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jim Winnerman, related in a piece that appeared on Sunday, May 29th that after his visit to the Florence American Cemetery, the 44-year-old guide of his tour group said, "Many of your countrymen died so I could live in freedom. Thank you."

Today, one day after Memorial Day, I offer my own sincere thanks to all of the brave men and women who served and are serving.

Do you know about the Buon Ricordo card? It's a membership card for the Unione del Ristoranti del Buon Ricordo (Associated Restaurants of Good Memories), an association that was founded in Milano in 1964 for both visitors and residents to help promote tourism in Italy. The Buon Ricordo is a private, non-profit group of gastronomic entrepreneurs who support regional cuisine and local specialties and recover recipes based on local traditions and local products. Its motto is Viaggio tra i sapori e i colori della cucina Italiana -- travel through the tastes and colors of Italian cuisine -- and most of the 120-member restaurants are in Italy, but some are elsewhere in the world (Austria, France, Japan, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Switzerland).

As stated on the Buon Ricordo website, the group's common denominator is "the observance of local traditions, on the unquestionable quality of food, and on the professionally warm welcome to make guests feel at home." Member restaurants may be located in cities or small towns, may be expensive or moderate, or may be family run or formally professional. But they all share a desire to serve good food: "If all roads lead to Rome," the association believes, "many roads lead to restaurants serving authentic Italian meals." A charming aspect of the group is that each member restaurant has its own colorful ceramic plate crafted by Solimene in Vietri sul Mare on the Amalfi Coast -- if you, like me, are a fan of ceramics and have never been here, I promise you will love it! The building was designed by Paolo Soleri and is among the most unique structures in the world, with ceramic pieces pressed into the terracotta and cement exterior. The inside, which is vast, is filled chock-a-block with stacks and stacks of "seconds" (with nary a noticeable mistake), incomplete sets (instead of a dozen of something there might be only ten, so you have to mix and match), and older pieces that have gone out of fashion (I bought eight plates in the shape of a fish that about twenty or thirty years ago were very popular at seafood restaurants on the Amalfi Coast but are no longer), and brand new pieces (which cost more but are still less expensive than regular retail). All of this is on the first floor, while the upper floors are where the ceramics are made. It is completely worthwhile to come here as the prices are very good, plus Vietri is filled with dozens and dozens of other ceramic shops if you want to shop around. It seemed the best prices were at Solimene, but of course you might not find styles or colors you like there, so it's good to know you can walk around and find other wares you prefer. It's also good to know that the Solimene staff happily ships around the world.

But I digress: the Buon Ricordo plates bear the name of the member restaurant, and feature a specialità della casa (house specialty), so that you will see a chicken on one, or a fish, a pig, a wild boar, a vegetable, a fruit, whatever. These piatti del buon ricordo (piatti is plural for plate, piatto) have become collector's items, and if you order the house specialty at any member restaurant the plate is complimentary. I have heard that you receive the plate whether or not you are a Buon Ricordo member, but I can't confirm that personally.

A recent search of restaurants turned up 10 in Tuscany (one each in Florence, San Gimignano, Arezzo, Tirrenia, Volterra, Livorno, Impruneta, Viareggio, and Ristorante Da Delfina in Artimino, one of my own favorites (see previous post just before this one) and 5 in Umbria (two in Norcia, one in Perugia, one in Assisi, and one in Gubbio). Another good reason to join the Association is that there are also Buon Ricordo member hotels, such as the lovely Relais Ducale in Gubbio and the Podere Marcampo Agriturismo in Volterra, with 3 double bedrooms, 2 apartments, and 1 suite -- there are 8 member hotels in Umbria and 3 in Tuscany.

A membership card is free, and some hotel and restaurant discounts are offered to members. I got my card simply by logging on to the Buon Ricordo site and clicking on 'The Card.' However, that was six years ago, and it appears that this function isn't working properly as I type this, so if that's the case when you log on to the site, contact the organization directly and inquire how you may receive a card:

Unione Ristoranti del Buon Ricordo

Segreteria operativa:

Corso Italia 10, 20122 Milano

(39) 02.80582.278 / e-mail: segreteria@buonricordo.com

Writer Jorge Luis Borges once opined that "I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library." I could not agree more, which won't surprise anyone who knows me personally or through my Collected Traveler books. So when I saw a copy of a book entitled Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books (edited by Jo Steffens, with an essay by Walter Benjamin / Yale University Press in association with Urban Center Books, New York, 2009) I eagerly picked it up...and happily bought it. The inspiration for this wonderful idea came from a talk on book collecting at Cooper Union in New York in 2006, which led in turn to the original version of the essay "Unpacking My Library" from Walter Benjamin's book Illuminations, which then led to the notion of photographing and exhibiting architects' libraries.
I love this idea. I don't know about you, but I always want to know what books are in someone else's library, especially the library of a fellow travel enthusiast, an artist, a novelist, a journalist, or a writer of any kind. In the same way, I want to know what books an art historian has in his or her library, or a photographer or a musician (and even better, for a musician, is what albums he or she listens to). Editor Steffens notes in the Preface that "Unpacking My Library has appeal beyond the world of architecture, for it affirms the importance of books in our lives. As you browse the books shown in these pages, a familiar title will spark recognition; an idea or converstion may be recalled. Not unlike Proust's famous madeleine, books are laden with powerful associations, and through them we share common histories and develop personal relationships."

We are privy to the libraries of a dozen of the world's leading architects in this book: Stan Allen, Henry N. Cobb, Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Steven Holl, Toshiko Mori, Michael Sorkin, Bernard Tschumi, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. The sizes of these libraries range from 750 to 6,000 copies! Not only do we get to see their books spine out on their shelves, but each architect shares their lists of their top ten influential titles -- from architectural history to theory to fiction and nonfiction -- and it is these lists that I find fascinating. For example, I don't think it would have been easy to predict that Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon appears on three architects' lists, or that titles like The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Light in August by William Faulkner, and Moby Dick appear on others (for the record, I never even attempted to reach Gravity's Rainbow, having struggled to get through V, though I loved The Crying of Lot 49). On the other hand, I wasn't surprised (but was still happy) to see Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson on the list of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien ("the ultimate dream of architecture -- you can draw your world the way you want it to be"), The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs on the list of Michael Sorkin, and The Four Books of Architecture on the lists of Michael Graves and Peter Eisenman, who notes "without The Four Books on Architecture of Palladio no one would have cared about Palladio. A book lasts longer than a building; books are more important in the world than buildings." Additionally, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi appeared on three short lists, again unsurprisingly.

All of this has given me an idea: I'm going to unpack a lot of other people's libraries! I'll compile a regular feature both on my blog and within the pages of my books about the books that people I meet (or already know) collect. As often as I can I'll include photos. First up will be books about Tuscany and Umbria and any of the cities, towns, and villages of these regions. This should be interesting - stay tuned!

The dining room (top) in the limonaia at Relais Il Falconiere, outside of Cortona, and an Il Falconiere sample dessert tray (bottom). Silvia and Riccardo Baracchi opened the inn in 1989, and in 1998 it became a member of the Relais & Chateaux group. The restaurant, under the direction of chef Richard Titi, earned a Michelin star in 2002. -- Photos by Peggy Harrison, www.peggyharrison.com.

I recently completed an office move, and haven't been able to post for several weeks. At last, all of the boxes are unpacked, files have been (mostly) organized, and I'm ready to continue with lots and lots of posts!

As promised quite some time ago, the following is a list of places to eat that I've particularly enjoyed in Tuscany and Umbria. (Note that this doesn't include Florence, which I devoted a separate post to in January -- you can easily find it under 'Search this Blog.') This was harder to pull together than I originally anticipated as I had to look through my files and my journals for all the cards and notes I've taken over many years. Certain places are missing (I've misplaced notes and cards, while others I know are in one of my towering piles of materials to file) and on some occasions I neglected to jot down sufficient enough remarks to make a recommendation, and on others I simply forgot to write down the name of the place. In the interest of time and space, I'm not including many comments at all the way I did for my Florentine favorites, but I would like to repeat a few thoughts I emphasized in that Florence post:

'What I want, and what I think just about everybody wants, is good food. If good food is found at a trattoria that's popular with tourists, then so be it. Who cares? It may also be found at a tiny neighborhood hole-in-the-wall, a refined country inn, a renowned expensive restaurant, at a winery, and a corner pizzeria, all of which is also fine...What's ideal, of course, are places where both locals and tourists are happy, where Italians aren't overwhelmed by foreigners and the foreigners feel they've chosen a place that is clearly held in some regard by the locals.'

I continue to recommend all of the places to eat in this post, and I hope they're still worthy. Of course, nothing is a guarantee, and I'm not a full-time restaurant critic keeping up with everything on a regular basis. But people ask me for recommendations all the time, so please let me know if you have an unsatisfactory experience at any of these!

Before you make note of the listings, I recommend that you peruse not only Beth Elon's A Culinary Traveler in Tuscany, Carla Capalbo's The Food and Wine Lover's Companion to Tuscany, Emily Wise Miller's The Food Lover's Guide to Florence, Fred Plotkin's Italy for the Gourmet Traveler, and Maureen B. Fant's Trattorias of Rome, Florence and Venice for these authors' superior recommendations, reflecting their many years of expertise and research, but also the following: *Eating in Italy: A Traveler's Guide to the Hidden Gastronomic Pleasures of Northern Italy by Faith Heller Willinger (Morrow, 1998) -- many of Willinger's recommendations are still valid, but her opening chapters on Italian menus, reservations, service, tipping, when to eat, logistics, etc. are invaluable; *The Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan, first published in 1973 -- the recipes are flawless, but the reason travelers should read (or re-read) this is for Hazan's thorough description of a typical Italian meal and what to expect with each course; *An Appetite for Umbria: The People, The Places, The Food by Christine Smallwood (Bonny Day Publishing, 2006) -- culinary guides to Umbria are practically nonexistent, so this would be a valuable book for that reason alone, but Smallwood's reviews of 25 places to eat are interesting and revealing snapshots of Umbria itself, and she notes that most of the places she recommends are small "and their owners have every intention of keeping them that way, preferring 25 customers to feel delighted about the food and service they have received, rather than 50 merely think the experience was good. In none of them is there a frenzied race for culinary decorations, nor are quality or innovation sacrificed for easy returns: many of these chefs and proprietors are supporters of small, local food suppliers and producers rather than supermarket chains, and all believe that offering good food -- and wine -- is a duty as much as a delight."; and Flavors of Tuscany: Traditional Recipes From the Tuscan Countryside by Nancy Harmon Jenkins (Broadway, 1998) -- aside from the very good recipes, Jenkins, more than just about anyone, has been chronicling life in the Tuscan countryside for nearly 40 years (she and her family own a farmhouse near Cortona). But as she notes in the Introduction, hers is a book about Tuscan country cooking, "not about how I bought a crumbling wreck and, with money, luck, time, and the aid of colorful locals, turned it into something of which Martha Stewart herself would be proud." Jenkins has been in Tuscany long enough to have witnessed rapid change (just one of which is that fields long planted with wheat, vines, and olives are now filled with tobacco and sunflowers, causing a dearth of groundwater because of too great a demand), but "food habits, fortunately, die hardest of all, especially in a culture like Italy's where food is taken seriously as an important -- no, the important -- factor in family and community life." She observes that the agricultural calendar in Tuscany doesn't vary much from a medieval Book of Hours, and noteworthy for visitors is that grapes, potatoes, prosciutto, wine, fresh olive oil, ham, pancetta, and sausages "play starring roles in year-round menus" along with tomato conserva, plum and fig marmalades, dried chestnuts, white and speckled beans, chickpeas, and dried wild porcini. Jenkins's friend Roberto, who runs La Solita Zuppa in Chiusi (see my recommendation below), once told her that "la cucina si fa nella storia; non si fa nella geografia" (cuisine is created by history, not by geography) but she doesn't agree: "cuisine is made of both history and geography, and the traditional cuisine of Tuscany, for me at least, is unassailable proof."


Toscana
Artimino
Ristorante Da Delfina, via della Chiesa, 1 / 055.8718.074. I first read of Delfina in Nancy Harmon Jenkins's Flavors of Tuscany (the final chapter, 'When You Go to Tuscany,' includes recommendations) and I'm so glad I went because I had one of my most memorable meals in Italy here.

Autogrill
I am a huge fan of the Autogrill, Italy's chain of rest stops on its toll highways. This may seem incredibly odd, since rest stops in North America are among the worst places to eat on earth. What you can find at an Autogrill may include a cappucino -- served in a porcelain cup with saucer -- that is downright delicious; a panino (remember that the Italian word for a single sandwich is 'panino' while the plural is 'panini,' which no one ever gets right in America) that is made with prosciutto and other quality ingredients and that is then pressed properly for immediate consumption and not put in a microwave; and a salad made with arugula, real tomatoes that have flavor, and creamy mozzarella....and a whole host of other yummy, healthy things to eat. Yes, at a rest stop. Some enterprising person should investigate extending the Autogrill franchise in the U.S.

Chiusi
Osteria La Solita Zuppa, via Porsenna, 21 / 0578.210.06 / http://www.lasolitazuppa.it/. Though I already enthused about La Solita Zuppa in the pages of my book, I can't leave it off this list. As I read in Florence, Venice, & The Towns of Italy: Artists, Writers, Architects, Curators, Historians, and Gourmets Reveal Their Favorite Discoveries in the Ultimate Insider's Guide (The Little Bookroom), Solita Zuppa is "perfect for lunch or dinner if you are in the neighborhood, and worth a detour if you are not," written by Nancy Winter, archaeologist and librarian. My two meals here, one lunch and one dinner, were positively outstanding, and I believe the owner and his wife could write a cookbook based on their recipes that would be very appealing.


Cortona
Caffe Bar Signorelli, via Nazionale, piazza Repubblica. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure the Bar Signorelli is particularly noteworthy. I just like it here, and I am a fan of the works of Luca Signorelli, the Renaissance painter born and buried in Cortona, so I like the association. It was one of the first places I ever went to in Cortona -- before Frances Mayes put Cortona on the map -- and the vibe was cheery and warm.

Relais Il Falconiere, just outside of Cortona in localita San Martino a Bocena / 0575.612.679 / http://www.ilfalconiere.it/. I also raved about the restaurant here at this justifably famous inn in my book, but as with La Solita Zuppa, I couldn't leave it off this list! The restaurant is in the old limonaia on the beautiful grounds and earned a Michelin star in 2002. My lunch here was on my short list of 'best meals in Italy' and every morsel of it was delicious and I didn't want it to end.

Trattoria Tacconi, via Dardano, 46 / 0575.603.588. This is a very unassuming little (actually, I would use the word tiny) place, with only five or six tables, and open only for lunch. There is no menu to speak of, just whatever the husband and wife team have prepared for the day, so if you have dietary restrictions this may not be the best place.

Gaiole in Chianti
Osteria at Badia a Coltibuono, localita Monti di Sotto / 0577.749.031 / http://www.coltibuono.com/. Cooking enthusiasts know Coltibuono for its cooking classes, taught by Lorenza de' Medici, the most famous member of the Stucchi Prinetti family, owners of this beautiful abbey. But the restaurant on the grounds is also a "find" to know about, with good Tuscan food served outdoors (note that it's closed from 8 November to 12 March). If you like what you eat and drink you can buy all the Coltibuono products, plus local ceramics, in the abbey's shop, and you can also spend the night(s) in the abbey's 8 double guest rooms and 3 apartments.

Lucca
Antico Caffe delle Mura, piazzale Vittorio Emanuele II / 058.347.962. Even if the only reason to go here is because of its location right on the magnificent walls of Lucca it would be enough, but as it happens the food is good and the decor evocative.

Montalcino
Enoteca La Fortezza, piazzale Fortezza, 0577.849.211 / http://www.enotecalafortezza.it/. Sitting in the inner courtyard, surrounded by the stone walls of the fortress (which you can walk on!), is hugely wonderful as you sample local cheeses, salami, sandwiches and, of course, wine.

Montepulciano
Caffe Poliziano, via Voltaia nel Corso, 27 / 0578.758615 / www.ec-net.it/site/caffepoliziano. You can have a meal here at this Montepulciano classic or just stop for a glass of wine or a coffee or a snack.

Pienza
Trattoria Latte di Luna, via San Carlo 2/4.

Plus pecorino, pecorino, pecorino! I don't think I wrote down the names of the shops selling this iconic Tuscan cheese, but it doesn't matter: you'll see it everywhere in this small, hilltop village renowned also for its stupendous views over the surrounding Tuscan countryside.

Porto Ercole
Trattoria La Lampara, lungomare Andrea Doria, 50 / 0564.833.024. I made mention of this Porto Ercole fixture in my book as well, and it's a popular place right by the water named for the light on Italian fishing boats. My husband and I were taken here years ago by Katie and Robin Coventry, founders of the Marina Cala Galera in Porto Ercole.

Prato
Antica Fiaschetteria Trattoria e Cantina, piazza Lippi, 4 / 0574.41225 / www.anticafiaschetteria@alice.it

Sansepolcro
Ristorante Fiorentino, via Luca Pacioli, 60 / 0575.742.033 / http://www.ristorantefiorentino.it/. The menu changes daily here at the restaurant of the Locanda del Giglio, where I didn't stay because I only visited Sansepolcro for the day (to see Piero della Francesca's 'The Resurrection,' named "the best picture in the world'' by Aldous Huxley).

San Vincenzo
Gambero Rosso, piazza della Vittoria, 13 / 0565.701.021. Admission: I've never eaten here. So why does it appear on my list? Well, because I think a restaurant that has been rated the best in all of Italy many times deserves some notice, even if you are the sort of person to avoid that sort of thing (I usually am), and I have read so much about it, and the chef -- Fulvio Pierangelini, co-owner with his wife, Emanuela -- earned two Michelin stars, and I've made a Gambero Rosso recipe for shrimp and chickpea puree that appeared in Faith Willinger's Adventures of an italian Food Lover: With Recipes From 254 of My Very Best Friends (Potter,) and it was so delicious that I just feel I have to mention it, even if I can't offer my personal recommendation. Colman Andrews, a very fine food writer and author, wrote a great article about Gambero Rosso in Gourmet (January 2007), and he accurately notes that if the restaurant isn't better known to American diners, "it's probably because of its location, south of Livorno on the rather ambitiously named Etruscan Riviera." Unless you're visiting the Maremma region, you probably have no reason to be in the vicinity of Gambero Rosso. "It's in Tuscany, sure, but it's at least a two-hour drive from Florence or the Chianti region, and this particular area has no tourist attractions or luxury hotels." Among Andrews's numerous descriptions of Pierangelini are "...he is a self-taught, intuitive chef who plays by his own rules; he is part of no movement and chases no trends. Molecular gastronomy doesn't interest him. He just cooks." During his second visit to Gambero Rosso Andrews thinks to himself, "Damn, this food is good. So, er, is this the best restaurant in Italy? Who cares? And leave me alone. Can't you see that I'm eating?" When Andrews mentioned to Pierangelini that truffle oil was popular in the States, Pierangelini exclaimed, "I detest truffle oil!," which reminded me that Beatrice, at the wonderful online Italian culinary emporium http://www.gustiamo.com/, has been telling everyone for years that truffle oil is a farce, and that if you want to taste olive oil and truffles together, simply put slices of truffle in your favorite olive oil and there you go -- it doesn't get any better than that, and no chemically-produced mushroom essences are added to the oil. Oh, and that shrimp with chickpea puree I mentioned? Andrews relates that when Pierangelini first made the dish, shortly after he and Emanuela bought what was then a run down seafood restaurant already called Gambero Rosso, his father told him he could conquer the world. So I do recommend that you go. I'm certainly planning to! [and note that this restaurant has no relationship with the Gambero Rosso magazine and culinary and wine guides.]

Siena
Cane e Gatto, via Pagiaresi, 6 / 0577.287.545.

Enoteca Italiana, fortezza Medicea, 1 / 0577.288497 / http://www.enoteca-italiana.it/. Both a store and a bar, for snacks or lunch, and a must for anyone with a yen for Italian vino.

Osteria La Sosta di Violante, via di Pantaneto, 115 / 0577.43774. A guide named Francesco who I once hired for the day took my good friend Amy and I here for lunch. It seemed to be known mostly to locals, and was quite good.

Viareggio, Orbetello, and Isola Giglio
I've linked these two towns and one island together for one reason only: slices of pizza topped with thinly sliced potatoes, fresh rosemary, and olive oil, which I ate in all three places. Positively yum. Thank God that Jim Lahy, at Sullivan Street Bakery in New York (533 West 47th Street, 10th/11th, http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/), makes a version which is just about identical.

Umbria
Norcia
Pork products and more pork products! Norcia has long been known for its pork products, so much so that the word norcineria still refers to a shop where pork and pork products are sold. A lot of shops, the names of which I neglected to record, offer free samples, and if you like pork you will truly be in paradiso.

Perugia
affe Sandri, corso Vannucci, 32 / 075.572.4112. Around since 1860, Sandri is a landmark caffe with a beautiful dark wood interior and frescoed ceiling. I can't imagine a visit to Perugia without a stop at Sandri, reportedly the oldest coffee shop in town.

Spello
Il Mulino, piazza Matteotti, 6/7 / 0742.65.1305. This terrific place is owned by the Palazzo Bocci hotel (http://www.palazzobocci.com/) across the street, where I've never stayed but I would very much like to.

Spoleto
L'Osteria del Matto, vicolo del Mercato, 3 / 0743.225.506. This family place is very near the outdoor market in Spoleto, insuring meals made with some of the best local ingredients. The collection of wooden Pinocchios is also a unique feature of the decor.

Todi
L'Osteria al Duomo, via San Lorenzo, 1 / 075.894.4400. This is a special place in the pretty town of Todi, very near the cathedral and piazza del Popolo but held in regard by locals.

Torgiano
Le Melograne at Le Tre Vaselle, via G. Garibaldi, 48 / 075.988.0447 / http://www.3vaselle.it/. The restaurant in this lovely, lovely country inn is owned by Teresa Lungarotti and her stepsister Chiara Lungarotti, of the Lungarotti wine family. Le Melograne is a bit of a splurge, but is well worth it for the mix of regional Umbrian dishes and others from around the world, all in a beautiful setting.

After a brief hiatus while I enthused about Rainbow Tree, I'm returning to Tuscany and Umbria, specifically, to the cuisine of these regions. Before I post my list of some of my favorite places to eat outside of Florence (you can find that in a previous post), I must alert you to a wonderful and helpful book that is essenziale for anyone who is interested in Italian gastronomy in general and for anyone who will be traveling in Italy: Italy Dish by Dish: A Comprehensive Guide to Eating in Italy by Monica Sartoni Cesari and translated by Susan Simon (The Little Bookroom).

Just published, this chunky-but-not-heavy paperback is a handy culinary tour of Italy that highlights the culinary specialties of each region of the country and features more than 3,000 menu items plus really thorough descriptions of dishes and how they're prepared, which as anyone who travels knows is what you really want to know when you're deciding what to order. As if this weren't enough, author Cesari has also included a recipe that best represents each region (and I have to commend her for including an authentic recipe for trenette pasta with pesto, which hails from Genoa in Liguria and which includes potatoes and green beans), as well as an excellent overview of each region that is part history and part culinary.

Of Toscana, Cesari notes the food is "sober, elegant and well balanced -- it perfectly reflects the landscape of the region." She also says Tuscan food is an "original and sometimes mysterious mixture of flavors and habits" that, fascinatingly, was praised in a poem by Lorenzo the Magnificent, 'I Beoni,' which is a list of Florentine trattorie. Lorenzo wrote about people who gathered together to eat fresh fava beans with pecorino cheese (one of the world's most delicious combinations, and still on menus for a short time every spring in Tuscany), sausages, fried frogs, herring, fried crabs, and beans, with Tuscan wine, of course. Cesari concludes her overview of Tuscan cuisine by noting that "Every city, every village, every piece of the countryside and hills has its own personality, which together make up the great Tuscan kitchen."

Of Umbria, Cesari observes that "you can't really talk about the food of Umbria without first talking about how the borders of the region changed continually during the era when the Sabine tribe inhabited the area." Therefore, Umbrian dishes have influences from neighboring Tuscany, the Marches, Lazio, and Abruzzo, and Umbria is one of the smallest and most secluded regions of Italy. Key specialties of the region have long included Castelluccio lentils, truffles, the pork products of Norcia, all kinds of fowl, olive oil, beef,and farro, an ancient grain that dates back to the time of the Etruscans. Essential Umbrian culinary tools, relates Cesari, are the fireplace, the spit, and the pignatta, a glazed, terracotta cooking pot (sounds like something I have to have!).

A small quibble is no mention of cicchetti (pronounced che-KET-ee), which are everywhere in Venice and visitors will encounter them on and off the beaten path. Cicchetti are somewhat similar to tapas, in that they are little dishes -- sometimes just a plate of olives or nuts -- that are displayed on bar and counter tops in little restaurants and bars beginning in the late morning and through the afternoon (unless an establishment closes after lunch, though it will open again in the late afternoon). It is an enormous pleasure, and a wonderful tradition, of stopping into a bar for a break and having a glass of Prosecco (unique to the Veneto) and some cicchetti, until you're ready to continue on. Cesari does mention the andar a ombra, similar to the Italian (and Mediterranean) before-dinner passeggiata (stroll) except that in the Veneto strollers walk from osteria to osteria for glasses of white wine. I have known the custom as giro d'ombra, 'giro' meaning stroll and 'ombra' being slang for glass of wine, but I believe they must be synonymous.

Author Cesari is an Italian culinary authority in Italy and is the author of several books (in Italian). Translator Susan Simon is also the author of several cookbooks, including The Nantucket Table, Contorni, Insalate, and the Pasta Sfoglia Cookbook with Ron and Colleen Suhanosky (Wiley), which was awarded with a James Beard Award in the Single Subject Category in 2010. Any cooks and travelers who, like me, remember the very good book by Maureen B. Fant and Howard Isaacs entitled The Dictionary of Italian Cuisine (Ecco, 1998), will love this new volume because while it may not include every culinary word in the Fant-Isaacs book it surpasses it with its region-by-region focus and is a true traveler's companion.