#Unmissable: Italy's most fantastic restaurants

Even simple Italian places offer wonderful food, but there are also plenty of modern and unique restaurants that are worth adding to your bucket list

I am probably not alone with my opinion that Italy is one of the best culinary countries. It offers an abundance of wonderful ingredients like cheeses, fish, fruits, vegetables, pasta, cured meats, etc. Even at the simplest level, in trattorias or osterias, you can practically eat perfectly. Especially since the exciting and unique feature of simple Italian cuisine is that they can create surprisingly good things from just a few ingredients.

This is partly due to the fact that the backbone of Italian cuisine comes from the kitchen of the poor, meaning it wasn’t an option to include many ingredients in each dish. This "cucina povera," especially from Southern Italy, has since conquered the world, and today Italian cuisine is the most popular kitchen in the world. And while it’s true that you can eat very well in Italy, even by randomly walking into places, it’s still worth gathering the spots that can offer a lifelong, #unmissable memory, offering something that’s not available anywhere else, regardless of price level or style. These are the kind of places that make you smile even years later just thinking about them.

As usual, this collection was preceded by hundreds of trips, lengthy preliminary research, interviews with local foodies and journalists, and of course, plenty of tastings. If you find value in this, subscribe AND then get a paid subscription.

In the following, you'll find the #unmissable spots in Italy from Sicily to Liguria, Tuscany to Puglia. These are all places worth interrupting your vacation for or taking a slight detour to visit. Some are even worth planning an entire trip around! And yes, there are some budget-friendly options among them too...