Customer Reviews

Osterie & Locande d'Italia: A Guide to Traditional Places to Eat and Stay in Italy

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having just returned from 3 weeks in Italy, I cannot say enough about
how great this book was in directing us to terrific food where we ate with
Italians, not other tourists. It does take time to locate the restaurants, and they aren't always centrally located, but it is well worth the effort.
Once our group would arrive at a restaurant, trattoria or osteria, the
inevitable question was, "is it in the book?" Everyone began to rely
on the book & look forward to the meals it sent us to. We did not use
the book for hotels, but perhaps next time! Our past trips to Italy could
have benefited from this book, but our future ones certainly will!
Highest recommendation.

This is much better to travel with than any other guide book where eating is concerned. Real Chefs, real food, traditional food, seasonal food and organic healthy food. Not meant for the coach loads but people who are concerned what they eat. I have tried six of the places in Umbria and haven't once been disappointed. The large travel books I now leave behind.
Martins Ritins - also a chef so I should know!

This book was our Bible during our 2-week trip in Northern Italy. When packing our day bag, we often had to decide between this book and Frommer's. We often chose this book over Frommer's, because our meals were that important to us. This book contains local restaurants that a friend or relative who lived locally would take you. They're often restaurants tucked away in small streets and away from the main tourist sites. If you don't want to go where all the tourists go, get this book. The restaurants aren't fancy but really good local food prepared with fresh ingredients. Meals for 2 people averaged at 50 euros (2 pastas, 2 main dishes, some sides, and some wine).

We ate at 8 places recommended by this book. 6 were absolutely stellar, 1 was OK, and the last was dismal. Here's how to tell the terrible restaurants from the great restaurants (with or without this book). The good restaurants do not cater to tourists because their customers are real Italian diners who return for repeat business. They write their menus daily, and in Italian only (because they don't expect many foreign customers). The one restaurant from this book that was terrible had 100% of tourists seated, a menu that was like a printed book because it had the menu in 5 different languages with 5 pages of items, and a "tourist" menu. Run, don't walk, if you see these things at any restaurant.

If you're a real foodie, I think Michelin would be a good complement to this book. While the restaurants in this book were good, they are mostly osterias and trattorias (the title of this book), which tends towards casual dining. There are no fancy restaurants in this book. Sometimes we wanted something more upscale, and did seek some Michelin-rated restaurants, but this book is definitely a must for anyone who wants to eat well in Italy from day-to-day.

I am an American living in Naples Italy and am delighted with this book. We were already Slow Food fans, and this book has given us a way to further support this philosophy. I have been thoroughly disappointed in many of the restaurant recommendations offered by the best selling travel guides (tourist trap after tourist trap) but this book has replaced them all. These are restaurants you want to visit again and again and are the ones where we take our friends and family when they come to visit. We haven't tried the hotels but I expect they are just as reliable.

I almost hate to recommend this book since the Italian language editions have been sort of our secret for many years. Now anyone can find these wonderful places to enjoy authentic regional foods and wines in the REAL Italy! We've been to many, many of these places over the years and the descriptions of them are spot-on so I'm confident that the places we have yet to enjoy will be equally as good. Be patient though, just because the book is in English does NOT mean the folks at these wonderful eateries speak the language. The glossary helps a lot in this regard.

An essential handbook for anyone with dreams of eating their way around Italy. The descriptions evoke strong images of romantic nooks with sumptuous offerings - all supporting the Slow Food philosophies of local quality ingredients prepared by passionate gastronomes. Included are accommodation options covering 3-star hotels to intimate farm stays. I won't travel to Italy without it.

I am Italian, and I have been saying for years to my friends and colleagues visiting Italy how wonderful the Slow Food guide to the Osterie d'Italia is, too bad it is not translated... And then I found out I was wrong! I should have known better. Well, now I know better.

If you visit Italy and you love food, you must buy this one (or, if you can read Italian, the Italian versions, where "locande" and "osterie" are treated separately). I and my parents have by now tried maybe 40-50 of the osterie indicated in these guides. Perhaps 2 or 3 places we found ok but nothing more, but all the others we found ranging between good and totally outstanding. The guide is neatly organized by region (with ALL Italian regions covered), with each region preceded by a map showing all places where one or more osteria/locanda is described in the book. This is indeed very useful because, wherever you are, you can easily identify if there is a covered establishment nearby. Within each region, location are listed in alphabetical order.

What sets apart these guides is that they will tell you often about places off-the-beaten-path (both in the "usual" art cities and in small towns) where you will find authentic, family-run, mostly small places where you can experience amazing regional Italian cuisine, the one that uses local ingredients + LOVE to produce what is best in Italian food. Also, I don't think we ever spent more than 40 euros per head in these places, INCLUDING a good (ok, not superexpensive) bottle of DOC wine.

This guide is the result of a combination of the "Guida alle osterie d'Italia Slow Food" and the "Guida alle locande d'Italia". The latter we have but we have used significantly less, so I won't judge on the "locande" section of this book, although given my previous experience with Slow Food guides I am sure this section will be outstanding as well.

Really, the Slow Food guides have improved significantly my family enjoyment of food around Italy, and I can assure you that food represent a very important component of our family life. If you like Italian food and want to make sure that you will go to the right place instead of choosing restaurants at random (which can be high-risk in places such as Rome, Florence or Venice, although perhaps much less in small towns), then you must must must buy this guide!! Just keep in mind that if you are instead looking for high-end restaurants where you will be treated deferentially by waiters who will ask about how you like you food at every dish and refill your glass with iced water every 30 seconds you may end up disappointed. But I never cared for such establishments and these guides pretty much always bring me to where I want to go.

We brought this book prior to an '07 three week trip to Northern Italy. It is based on the 'Slow Food' movement now going on in Italy. We purchased a number of other books to supplement this one. This book is excellent for people who want to "go" the way the Italian do, i.e., good food (a must for them)at a reasonable cost and small hotels/B & B types without all the hype. We are now using it again for a late '08 trip back to Northern Italy. As a side point - there are also Slow Food shops in Italy where you can purchase quick meals or food items to take away - all of the highest quality and fair price. Remember this "Slow Food" movement was started by Italians for their own people - the main idea was for top quality food and reasonable accomodation at a fair price and they have achieved it. Remember to look for the "Golden Snail"

This book was an invaluable resource. Perfect for those who cherish great meals and good wine. We toured Italy from Lake Como to Verona, Venice to Florence and Bologna. In each city we made a point to eat at a site mentioned in this book. Every meal was unbelievable !!! We would love to see more Slow Food guides for other cities around the world.

This is a very useful bood for those looking for good places for eating and staying. However, the editor needs to update the edition since there are many new establishments in the market.