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What to Eat in Italy: Must-Try Dishes, Drinks & Italian Food Culture Explained
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May 4, 2025
Planning a trip to Italy? Wondering what to eat beyond just pizza and pasta? In this video, we break down the essential Italian foods you must try, from appetizers to desserts, and share the drinks Italians actually enjoy. Whether you're traveling to Rome, Florence, Venice, or the Amalfi Coast, this is your guide to classic Italian cuisine. You’ll learn: The most popular Italian dishes and regional specialties Traditional drinks and aperitifs you should try (Spritz, wine, espresso, and more) Appetizers and small bites (antipasti) that start every Italian meal Italian food culture and dining customs so you don’t make rookie mistakes We also share our favorite food experiences and tips from years of travel across Italy. This guide is perfect for first-time visitors, food lovers, and anyone who wants to eat like a local in Italy. Subscribe for more honest travel advice and real foodie guides from around the world! #ItalianFood #ItalyTravelTips #WhatToEatInItaly #ItalianCuisine #FoodCulture #WoltersWorldEats Filmed in Bari, Italy Wolters World for Food! Our videos focus on helping travelers know what to eat when they travel, the traditional food that you always want to eat when you travel. Copyright Mark Wolters 2025 Our Main Channel: https://www.youtube.com/woltersworld Visit Our Amazon Store for Drinkware, cookingware, travel gear, and other necessities of life. http://www.amazon.com/shop/woltersworld
View Video Transcript
0:00
Ciao fellow hungry travelers! Spark here with Vultures World and today we're here in Bari, Italy and today we're going to talk about are some of the basic Italian foods that you're going to see throughout Italy
0:10
But before I go into like the basics, one thing you really need to know is when you're traveling in Italy it's all about regional cuisine
0:17
You want to have the food that's from Bari and Puglia when you're here in Bari. When you're in in venice you want to have the venetian food and the food from veneto because it is very much regional when it comes to the pastas
0:27
The meats the fishes the snacks the desserts the drinks, okay? So what i'm going to give you here is kind of like
0:33
The default it's kind of like these talk about i'm going to go to the u.s. What do you eat
0:37
Well, you gotta have steaks and burgers, right? You know and lots of fried stuff and oh, but i'm going to germany
0:43
Oh, well, you need pretzels and bratwurst These are really traditional things that you find all over the country and we're going to do that here, okay
0:50
So please, if you've got regions you love in Italy and food you love, please put in the comment section below with the region and the food you should have when you're there, people should have, so we all can get even more great regional food as well
1:02
Also, we have videos focused on different regions throughout Italy as well to help you out
1:06
Anyway, let's start with the drinks because it gets hot here, especially in the summer, and wine is a big thing here
1:12
And honestly, that's going to be a regional thing. Whatever you like, if you want red wine, white wine, rosé, whatever, it's definitely regional
1:18
My advice for you as a tourist is just to get the vino de la casa, the house wine
1:23
It won't come in a bottle. It'll come in a half liter jar or a liter jar or a quarter liter jar
1:27
and you'll pour it out yourself. The thing is, getting the local wines
1:31
the vino de la casa is usually going to be a local wine, and it's going to be cheap, and it's going to be just fine
1:36
because they're not going to serve a bad wine as their house wine, okay
1:40
So whatever you're going to have, enjoy the wine, the house wine when you're here. You can get the bottles, but I'll be honest with you, as a tourist
1:46
you'll be fine with the local wines. Now, one of the big things when it comes to drinking here is you have aperitivo time
1:52
This is the kind of after work, meet your friends and have some drinks and snacks while you're there
1:57
And some of the popular drinks you're going to have, yes, there's beer, Bira. And you've got, you know, the Peronis and the Nostro Zuros
2:04
And Forrest is a great beer from Bolzano, which is really good. You have that. But the one thing you see the most and one thing you see all over the world now is spritz, especially spritz Apero
2:12
which is a mix of Prosecco, a little bit of bubble water, and then this Aperol liqueur
2:19
which is a light orange flavor. And you have that together. It's super refreshing
2:24
But the thing is, there's not just Aperol spritz. There's also Campari spritz, which has the Prosecco bubble water and then a little bit
2:30
the Campari, which is bitter. And the thing is, is if you go to different parts in Veneto, they have Select that goes
2:35
in there and, you know, Venice. And there's different kinds out there
2:39
if you're in Sorento, if you're in the Amalfi Coast, they like to have limoncello spritz
2:43
where they substitute the Aperol for limoncello. So you have that. It's usually like a very good, refreshing kind of drink, okay
2:50
Now, another drink you want to have here is obviously water, aqua. And one thing as a tourist, what you need to know is usually you buy your bottle of water
2:56
when you sit down at a restaurant. And if you want, like, if you want normal water, like tap, not tap water, but like non-bubble
3:03
water, you ask for aqua naturale, okay? If you want the bubble water, that's aqua frizzante, okay
3:09
so you have that. And then if you just want like the nice little bubbly champagne-y kind of stuff
3:14
well, it's not champagne because we're in Italy, it's Prosecco. And Prosecco will be something
3:17
you can easily get as well at an aperitivo time, no problem. And then the last two liquors I want
3:23
to talk about before we move on to non-alcoholic drinks or after-dinner drinks you might have. If
3:28
you're in the north, a lot of times you'll have what's called grappa. And grappa is from pressed
3:33
grapes. It's, you know, I wouldn't say it's moonshine, but it's in that moonshine-y vodka-y
3:37
you know whiskey family kind of stuff but it's grappa you'll have that and here's a fun thing
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there's a place called basano del grappa uh-huh you can go there and have grappa underneath the
3:46
bridge it's so cool you can have that that's really popular in the north one thing you see
3:50
a lot of times in the south especially where there's tourist areas is limoncello and limoncello
3:55
is a lemon liqueur it's a lot strong it's pretty strong so don't think it's just a fun like easy
4:00
shot no no it packs a little bit of a punch so you have that now the thing is i realized that not
4:06
all tourists want to drink alcohol on the air they want to have some some local like normal drinks and
4:11
i'm telling you if you're walking around and you see a like a slushy machine going that's called
4:15
guernita and guernita is comes in various flavors of slushy the most popular ones are lemon and mint
4:23
and then you see orange and strawberry which is fraibola you see that so those are really good refreshing things also you see aranciata which is basically i would call it bubbly orange juice or it somewhere
4:35
in the fanta bubbly family kind of um with that there is that at any time especially in southern
4:41
italy if you can get just fresh squeezed orange juice you can't go wrong with that now we've got
4:46
some drinks out of the way now let's look at some of the appetizers some of the snacks some of the
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of the things that might show up on and during aperitivo time or sometimes when you're going to
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get a little a little bit of a starter that's out there and one of these is popular and you'll see
4:58
this sometimes it's the the olives there olives uh ascolante which is basically it's an olive
5:02
stuffed with meat and then they fry it yeah it's super healthy but it's super good you'll see that
5:07
a lot of places um another thing if you're in the south you'll see arancini which is a you'll see
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it looks like a big fried doll like big fried ball but actually it's got rice inside inside the rice
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There might be tomatoes and cheese or meat in there. It's so good
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If you're in the South, you have to get arancini because they're fantastic. Sicily obviously has the best if you're going to be there
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But it's one of those things that are so good. It's actually you can get it pretty much throughout the country
5:33
And another thing you'll see throughout the country is bruschetta. No, it's not bruschetta
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It's bruschetta. Bruschetta is the toasted bread with like olive oil and vinegar on top and some tomatoes and some salad there
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Or it might have meat on it. There's a lot of different toppings that are going to go on. And if you get it as an appetizer, like a starting snack, it can be small
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But if you get it for a meal, it can be like as big as a pizza when you get it
5:55
And that's a really nice kind of lighter thing you might want to get. If you're not super hungry, you can do that
6:00
Another light thing you might pick out is actually just getting the prosciutto and melon
6:06
You can get that, the ham and melon together, which is great on a hot day like today
6:10
The thing is, when you're getting these snacks, whether it's aperitivo time or just sitting around having a drink or just enjoying yourself
6:15
yourself. Sometimes you can just get a plate that will have meats and cheeses on it. And there's
6:20
tons of regional meats here, tons of deli meat you're going to love. Yes, mortadello, which is
6:24
actually bologna. That's something you should have when you're here. I mean, who knew that bologna could be fancy? Well, it's in Italy and where it's from. So you want to have that. There's
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sorpresa, which is from Vicenza, which is really good. But usually the prosciutto or the salami
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you can't go wrong with that. And with all those meats and all those kind of deli cuts you're
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going to have with the salami or prosciutto, whatever, there's tons of cheeses when you're
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here and the thing is we know the the parmigiano and the pecorino we've heard of that and and yes
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of course we know mozzarella but did you know there's multiple kinds of mozzarella if you get
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fior de latte when you're like in sorento oh my god it's so good over there or you could get
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buffalo mozzarella yeah cheese made out of buffalo milk oh it's so good if you put it on pizza it's
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amazing or maybe you want to go with a super soft kind of thing like we had this yesterday
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burrata which is basically looks like a mozzarella bubble once you cut into it it like
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leaks everything out and it's so good. The thing is here in Italy the cheeses are very regional
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wherever you go so if you get a cheese plate ask them for the regional cheese plate. We were up in
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Vicenza and by there they had an Asiago cheese plate. There was multiple types of cheeses from
7:29
Asiago from soft to hard cheeses to semi-soft. I mean it was fantastic so do try the different
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cheeses when you are here and that can be also a nice little kind of appetizer thing to have
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Now, another thing I want to talk about is if you're at aperitivo time, you might just
7:43
get like a little cup of something. And I won't lie to you, here Italians, they love their french fries and their patatine
7:48
or their chips too. That might be something you get with your drinks
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Another thing that's actually from here in Puglia is taralli, which looks like a kind
7:59
of a circle, a little either a circle or kind of a snail kind of thing wrapped up
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And basically, as Liam says, it's the goldfish of Italy because it comes with so many different
8:08
flavors. It's a nice crispy salty crunch. It goes great with any drink you're gonna have. Now it's
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time to move on past the drinks and the snack stuff that you're gonna enjoy. Now we need to
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talk about your meal time here in Italy. There's a few things I think you need to know before we
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get into the food. One thing when you go out to eat in Italy it takes time. It is not about fast
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eating or fast serving here. You do need to have patience when you're getting seated, when you're
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waiting for your menu, when you're ordering your food, you're getting your drinks. That's very
8:35
normal. Italians aren't like shovel it in like in the US. It's much more of an experience when you
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go eat. You go there to enjoy the company of your friends, of the waiter, the people that are there
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That's what you're there for. Okay, so have some patience when you're eating and realize it takes
8:49
time Another thing you need to realize is a lot of restaurants will close their kitchens from about 2 to 7 7 around there Now if you in a obviously some of the places will still be open even if it not those hours but traditional thine restaurants
9:03
actually do close in the afternoon so do be ready for that and if you're going to want to go out and
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eat especially on the weekends pretty much anywhere in italy it's one of the better places to go eat
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you do need to make reservations because people eat for so long here it's not like they turn over
9:17
the tables a lot so reservations are are really key and what you have to realize is since this is
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such a friendship kind of thing this is actually a great time for you actually meet some of the
9:26
locals when you are here whether you're having drinks you're eating up it's a good way to make
9:30
a conversation with a table near you or people nearby just to try to meet some of the people
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you're here because i'll be honest with you eating in italy is a social affair and so you're gonna
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meet people when you're eating and snacking and everything okay now as we get into like the main
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meals that you're gonna have when you're here i think it's important to mention the primi piatti
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and the second piatti. So when you look on a menu, you'll see prima piatti and then second piatti
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And prima piatti, that's the first plate. Those are the pastas. Second piatti, that would be the
10:00
meats and the fish. Okay, so you have different stuff that's there. And if you order, you can
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order a first and a second, that's totally fine. But they will come at different times. If you have
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a group of people, and some people only order prima piatti, and some people only order second
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piatti, they might come out at different times too. So if you want everything to come at once
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make sure you tell your waiter okay so let's talk about some of the prima piazza and that's the pasta
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look there are so many different pastas around it again it's like the wine and the cheese it's super
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regional here in barra you have orechietti the little ear pasta you might have that with broccoli
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or you might have it with turnips or you might have it i had it with a horse the other night
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you have those different sauces that go with it the ragu's the sauces it's going to be different
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by the different kind of pastas the pastas you're probably going to see all over is spaghetti and it
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could be spaghetti alla bolognese, which is the meat tomato sauce that's from Bologna. That's
10:50
everywhere. You might see spaghetti pomodoro, which is just a tomato sauce, okay? You might
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see spaghetti vongole, so it could be with seafood, like clams or mussels or whatever
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There's a lot of different stuff that'll go on it. But spaghetti is kind of like the tried and true one that's everywhere, but it does change. Like if you're in Veneto, you might get biggily
11:07
which are big fat noodles, or you might go some places that have like ribbon-type noodles. If you're
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going down to leche, they have a different kind of noodle, okay? So just realize there's gonna be a
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lot of chipmucata noodles is the ragu's it's the sauces that are going to be different as well
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so just know you have your pomodoro like i said and your meat sauces with ragu's and stuff so
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so you'll have that and and don't think that your portion sizes of pasta in italy are going to be
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like the portion size you get at restaurants and other places around the world because since it's
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meant to be the first plate and then the second plate they're a little bit smaller so it's not
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like when you're going to some of like in germany it's like i get pasta i can share with two people
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No, here it's like one plate for one person. Now, some other things you'll see in the first plate, lasagna is obviously very popular
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It's the layer of the pasta, the cheese and the tomato sauce, or it might be a cream sauce
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in there. There's a lot of different versions. You get some really good vegetarian lasagnas here as well
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If you don't like pasta, you can actually go with risotto, which is a rice-based dish
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There's a lot of different kinds. Again, a regional, if you get risotto milanesi, it's going to be, it has saffron in it, so
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it's yellow. If you get it in the Amalfi Coast, it might have a red wine
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And so it looks like it's bloody and purple. So there's different risottos you can have when you're here
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And then if you want the like little potato dumpling kind of stuff, you have gnocchi, which are potato pasta
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You can get that as well. But I will say gnocchi can be a bit heavy in the summertime, especially like Amalfi Coast where they have the gnocchi sorrentino
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which is with basil and tomato and mozzarella. But it's so heavy in the heat, it can be a bit much
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That's why some of these pastas you don't see in the summertime
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Okay. So just know, get the local pasta, whatever it is, and enjoy. And then if we go to the second place, that's your meats
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And there's a lot of different meats and fish you can have when you're here. Here in Barri, like they've got octopus, swordfish, sea bream, sea bass
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Those are very popular. You go up along the coast, you can get like a bunch of little small fish and shellfish
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fried up. And it's so good if you have that. And it's great to share
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Also, you want meats, obviously, cutleta, milanesa. That's that fried veal cutlet that's breaded and fried
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It's so good. You can have that. A lot of places, Ossobuco, which is a veal shank, which is good
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There's just lots of different meats you can have, the big steaks that are here
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So you have a lot of great meats to have when you are here. And that why it important to realize meatballs count as meat Okay So if you want meatballs that will be a second plate and possibly the first plate So you probably won see spaghetti and meatballs together too often when you here All right Now obviously probably everyone favorite kind
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of Italian food is pizza. And yes, there's pizza all over the country, you will not have a problem
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finding it. And I will tell you this, when you're looking at the pizzas, here's the thing with the
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pizzas here, they're big, like if you order a pizza, you order pizza for yourself, you don't
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order it for the table and so you eat with a fork and knife and have that yes you can come up eat
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with your hands if you want that's fine but usually it comes a big thing on your plate with lots oh
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man the cheese is so good on there but you get all kinds of different things and here when you order
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pizza you don't order a pepperoni pizza you order a diabola which is uh you know mozzarella tomato
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sauce and spicy salami or you might get capricosa they have names and the names are associated with
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different ingredients in there and of course if you want to get a pizza just like you want you can
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do it that way i personally like the diavolo which is the spicy salami kind with uh the the buffalo
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mozzarella on it oh it's so good you can get the buffalo on there the buffalo mozzarella on there
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get it it's so good on pizza when you're here and the thing is if you're walking around you can get
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pizza ataglia which is basically you go into a place you'll see these big sheets of pizza
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and you're so they ask how much do you want you'll tell them like how the size the weight or whatever
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and they'll cut it, they weigh it, and you pay like that. And that's really pizza in your hand, walk-it-around pizza you can get, so that's nice
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Another walk-it-around food moving away from pizza are piadines, which are sandwiches
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There are so many different sandwiches when you come here, it's not going to be a problem to find them. Whether you're at a kiosk or at the train station, there are so many sandwiches that just don't even worry about it when you're here
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There'll be plenty for you to have. And then let's talk about desserts, because we're getting, you know, I've had all my meals, I have my starters and my drinks
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Now let's talk about some of the typical desserts you're going to see. And again, going back to the theme, when it comes to eating in Italy
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there's a lot of regional desserts you want to have when you travel around, okay
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So know that first. But the ones I'm going to give you are kind of the typical ones you see
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One is the classic tiramisu. You know, the sponge cake and cream and coffee kind of stuff
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That's one thing that's popular, and you'll see it everywhere. Another one is panna cotta, which is basically gelatinized cream
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It's custard. Yeah, it's custard. You might get chocolate on it or berries on it. Whatever, panna cotta is always a great one to get
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And then if you go for ones that like my American friends all know about, the cannolis, which is basically, it's a tough pastry or hard pastry
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filled with ricotta in it. That's really good. But the dessert you want to have, and you should have multiple times a day
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every day when you're in Italy, is gelato. The ice cream here is incredible
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And the flavors are so wonderful. And you're going to get multiple gusty flavors
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So you can get, oh, I want two gusty, two gusty, like two flavors. And I want lemon and strawberry
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I want pistachio and orange. There's so many great things to get
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But I will tell you, go to a gelateria and get your ice cream. Don't get it from, like, the carts around
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No, no. Go to an actual gelateria and get it because it'll be so much better, okay? And then the last thing I want to tell you is when you're leaving and you're looking at your bill
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The bill is il conto. So if you want the bill, you say il conto, per favore. And they'll bring it
16:34
You can pay cash. You can pay cards. No big deal. You don't have to tip in Italy
16:38
You can, but you don't have to. but one thing I want you to notice if you sit down you might have a coperta which is a cover
16:45
it might be a euro or two per person for sitting down it's like the cover for sitting that's why
16:50
if you're going to have your espresso those coffees you might want to stand up at the bar
16:54
and get it so you don't have to pay that so that's one thing to realize also when you're looking at
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coffees when you're in here they love their espressos and I'll tell you you when you get
17:02
espresso here it's very small and intense if you want a full little glass that's a double okay
17:06
adolpio okay and another thing you need to realize is when you're looking at like cappuccinos and
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anything with a lot of milk in your coffee that is a morning thing after about 11 o'clock noon
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italians don't put milk in their coffee it's just an espresso to keep them going and you'll notice
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they'll have espresso at the end of the meal okay and if you're like me you might get a cafe coretto
17:26
which is an espresso with a shot of grappa in there just to finish off the night right so i hope
17:32
this helps you know some of the basics of the foods here in italy i mean i'll be honest there's
17:36
so many great foods here in pastas and dishes. Please put it in the comment section below to help
17:40
other travelers know what to eat in different parts of the country because I'm just giving the
17:44
basics here and there's so much more than just these basics. So anyway, I wish you all the best
17:49
Have a great time here eating in Italy because I'm not really worried because you will because
17:53
the food is fantastic. Ciao from here in Bari
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