Flavor of Italy podcast

Discover the Amalfi Coast by Boat with Blue Star Positano

There's something magical about seeing the Amalfi Coast from the water. The colorful villages clinging to the cliffs, hidden coves, sparkling Mediterranean waters, and breathtaking coastline are even more spectacular when explored by boat.

This weekend I'm back in Positano, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to revisit my conversation with Elisabeth, who, together with her husband Pepe, owns and runs Blue Star Positano, a family-operated boat tour company right on Positano's beachfront.

In this episode, Elisabeth shares a little about life...

On October 16, the world celebrates World Food Day, an annual initiative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This year, one of its newest Food Heroes isn't an individual farmer, chef, or food entrepreneur. It's an entire community: Pollica, a small municipality in the Cilento area of southern Italy, where the Mediterranean Diet isn't simply a way of eating. It's a way of life.

Pollica is a Mediterranean Diet UNESCO community, recognized for preserving the traditions and cultural practices that make the Mediterranean Diet so much more than a collection of healthy foods. Here, generations...

When I talked about Italian cheese with food and travel writer Eleonora Baldwin on the Flavor of Italy podcast, one of the things that struck me was just how much there is to know about a food most of us take completely for granted. Eleonora is a longtime cheese lover who has turned that fascination into part of her professional life. She created and hosted several seasons of AB Cheese for the Gambero Rosso television channel and has incorporated cheese tastings and cheese and wine pairings into her food and travel work.

The Joy of Salsas Across the Globe:
When most of us hear the word salsa, we probably picture something red, tomato-based and perhaps fairly spicy, sitting alongside a bowl of tortilla chips. But salsa is a much bigger world than that. It can be fresh or cooked, red or green, fiery or mild, made with tomatoes, fruit, herbs, roasted vegetables or even ingredients you would never expect. Once you start thinking about fresh homemade salsas as simply combinations of good ingredients brought together to add flavor to a dish, the possibilities become almost endless.

There are certain ingredients I simply can't imagine my kitchen in Italy without, and lemons are high on that list. Cooking with lemons is such a natural part of my everyday life in Italy that I hardly stop to think about how often I use them.
So when I sat down in Rome with Joanna Palmer, author of La Limone Kitchen Cookbook, we had quite a lot to talk about. As the name suggests, Joanna's cookbook revolves around lemons, but our conversation quickly became about much more than recipes. We talked about family food traditions, learning to cook...

If the first part of this story made you want to explore The Odyssey connections for yourself, you can follow them along a surprisingly compact stretch of the Lazio coast. Begin in Sperlonga, continue south to Gaeta and Formia, and, if you have time, head north to Monte Circeo. Some of these connections are archaeological, while others stem from ancient, longstanding local traditions, but together they explain why this beautiful coastline is known as the Riviera di Ulisse.

Here's where to stay in:

Sperlonga https://booking.stay22.com/flavorofitaly/NYu4bd2MDg

Gaeta...

Sperlonga and The Odyssey have been intertwined for nearly two thousand years, and now Sperlonga is having an unexpected new moment in the spotlight thanks to Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. The connection couldn't be more appropriate. Long before Hollywood turned its attention to the epic adventures of Odysseus, a Roman emperor created an astonishing celebration of those same adventures in a vast seaside grotto here in Sperlonga.

If Sperlonga has already captured your attention and you'd like to visit, here's where you can stay.

For this episode's show notes and photos find them here.<...

What happens when filmmakers from around the world gather in an Italian city to tell stories about food? At the Bergamo Food Film Festival, the answer turns out to be about much more than beautiful dishes on a screen. Food becomes a way to talk about memory, place, health, agriculture, family, cultural identity and, perhaps most importantly, human connection.

What do you get when two 22-year-olds with almost no money decide that the canals of Southern California need gondolas? In the case of David F. Black and his friend Mike O'Toole, you get a leaky Pakistani fishing boat, an old lifeguard dory, plenty of people convinced the idea will never work, and eventually one of the most unusual Italian-inspired businesses in America. More than four decades later, gondolas are still gliding through the canals of Naples Island in Long Beach, California.

What happens when the doorbell rings and suddenly you have people to feed? Maybe your husband is bringing colleagues home, relatives appear unexpectedly, or friends are coming over and you'd really like the evening to feel special. You start wondering what you can possibly put on the table, which bottle of wine to open, whether you have the right glasses, and how you're going to pull everything together without spending hours in the kitchen.

This is exactly when Megan Recce wants you to call your food and wine big sister.

That's how Megan describes the...

There comes a point when you're learning Italian when knowing the translation of a word simply isn't enough.
Understanding Italian language and culture means going beyond the dictionary. You can know that tavola means table. You can learn that magari sometimes means maybe. You can be told that pronto means ready. And you can dutifully memorize that in bocca al lupo is what Italians say when they want to wish someone good luck. But none of that necessarily tells you what those words actually mean when you hear Italians use them. BUT:

Margherita Berti, language teacher and cre...

Karen Phillips, founder of Andiamo Trips, has developed a deep appreciation for the places, wines, food, and stories that many visitors never discover. Rather than offering conventional tours, she creates memorable experiences that invite travelers to slow down, engage with local culture, and see southern Italy from a completely different perspective. If you're looking for authentic Naples travel experiences, look no further!
For example: Sea & Sip - the experience begins aboard a boat exploring beautiful parts of the Bay of Naples, including islands such as Ischia or Procida. Guests have time to swim, relax, and enjoy the spectacular...

Taylor Swift may have made Sancerre the world's hottest white wine, but what makes it so special? Discover the fascinating French region behind this iconic Sauvignon Blanc, why wine lovers have treasured it for decades, and why it's perfect for summer. PLUS: these are the wines that deserve a place on your table next…

When we think about California wine, names like Napa Valley, Mondavi, and the famous 1976 Judgment of Paris often come to mind. Yet behind the success of California's wine industry are countless immigrant families whose stories are every bit as remarkable, even if they've been largely forgotten.

One such story is that of Gemello Winery, an Italian American winery founded by immigrants from Piedmont who arrived in California with little more than determination, a knowledge of viticulture, and a willingness to work incredibly hard. 

In my recent conversation with author Kevin Ferguson, I discovered that his f...

When most people dream about Tuscany, they picture golden wheat fields, rows of cypress trees, vineyards glowing in the summer sun, and long lunches enjoyed beneath blue skies. It's the classic image we've all come to know, and for good reason. Tuscany is undeniably beautiful in summer.

But there's another side to the region that visitors often miss.

In my recent conversation with cookbook author Amber Guinness about her beautiful new book Winter in Tuscany: Cozy Recipes and the Quanto Basta Way, she shared a completely different vision of Tuscany. Having grown up there, she...

The Greatest Secret Isn't the Mediterranean Diet

People usually assume the answer is simple: the Mediterranean diet. Certainly food plays an important role, but it tells the whole story. Italian longevity comes from a combination of habits, attitudes, relationships, and daily routines that work together over an entire lifetime.
When people ask me about Italian longevity, they usually expect me to point to olive oil or pasta or red wine. Those things certainly have their place, but after more than four decades living here, I believe the greatest secret lies elsewhere.
It is the combination...

How to Survive Summer in Rome : 10 Local Tips That Really Work!

Every summer in Rome I receive emails from readers asking the same question: Is it too hot to visit Rome? If you've been watching the news, it's easy to understand why. Headlines about record-breaking temperatures and red heat alerts can make it sound as though Rome should be avoided until autumn.

After living in Rome for 43 years, I can honestly tell you that summer in Rome is still one of my favorite times to be here. Yes, it's hotter than it was when I...

Join me for a fascinating conversation with Karoline Walch, fifth-generation owner of the renowned Elena Walch Winery in Alto Adige, one of Italy's most distinctive and exciting wine regions. Nestled among the dramatic peaks of the Dolomites, Alto Adige is a place where Italian and Austrian influences blend seamlessly, creating a unique culture, cuisine, and wine tradition unlike anywhere else in Italy.

Karoline shares the remarkable story of how her mother, Elena Walch, an architect from Milan, helped transform a family winery and became one of the pioneers behind Alto Adige's quality wine revolution. We explore the...

Reaching 300 episodes of the Flavor of Italy Podcast feels both surprising and deeply rewarding. When I recorded my first episode, I had no idea where this Italy podcast would take me. I simply wanted to share my love of Italy's food, wine, culture, travel, and people with an English-speaking audience.
Three hundred episodes later, I've had conversations with bestselling authors, chefs, winemakers, artisans, historians, photographers, and people who have completely reinvented their lives by moving to Italy. Looking back, what stands out most is not the number 300, but the extraordinary people and experiences that have made the Flavor...

Every year on June 2, Italy pauses to celebrate one of the most important moments in its modern history. Across the country, Italian flags appear on balconies, official ceremonies take place in cities and towns large and small, and in Rome the skies are filled with the colors of the national flag as the Frecce Tricolori soar overhead. For many Italians, it is a welcome holiday that signals the arrival of summer, but Italian Republic Day is far more than a day off from work. It commemorates a decision that fundamentally changed the nation and shaped the Italy we know...

Italian Festivals are a different and joyful way to experience Italy beyond the Tourist Trail: town squares filled with music, local communities gathering to celebrate the harvest, patron saints....

Italy is a country that celebrates with extraordinary enthusiasm, and one of the greatest pleasures of living here is discovering just how deeply these traditions are woven into everyday life. Visitors often arrive with a familiar checklist in mind - Rome's monuments, Florence's art, Venice's canals, perhaps the Amalfi Coast or Tuscany's vineyards - and while those places are undeniably magnificent, there is another side of Italy that...

Why Polignano a Mare, Puglia Belongs on Your Travel List

If you've been dreaming about southern Italy, there's a very good chance that Polignano a Mare, Puglia is already somewhere on your radar. Even if you don't immediately recognize the name, you've almost certainly seen photographs of it: whitewashed buildings dramatically perched on limestone cliffs above the Adriatic, impossibly blue water below, and terraces that seem suspended between sea and sky. It's one of those places that looks almost too beautiful to be real. But as stunning as Polignano a Mare is, what makes it truly memorable...

Italian wine inspires passion, curiosity, and, for many people, a fair amount of confusion. Even devoted wine lovers can feel overwhelmed when faced with Italy's astonishing range of native grape varieties, regional traditions, appellations, and bottles whose labels sometimes seem to raise more questions than answers. Unlike wine cultures built around a relatively smaller group of internationally recognized grapes, Italy's wine identity is gloriously complex, shaped by geography, history, climate, and deeply local traditions that can shift dramatically from one valley to the next.

That's precisely what makes Italian Wine: The History, Regions, and Grapes of an...

If you're walking through central Rome near the Pantheon and the Parliament, you're in one of the city's most elegant shopping areas. It's also where you'll find Davide Cenci, a store that has been part of the Roman landscape for a full century and is still run by the same family today.
The story behind Davide Cenci Rome starts in Umbria, where Davide's great-grandmother sold fabrics at local fairs in the early 1900s. That background in textiles and direct customer interaction shaped what came next. Her grandson, who later opened the Rome store in 1926, took that experience and...

For anyone who loves Italy, the phrase Dream of Italy has a certain magic to it. It suggests the Italy so many travelers carry in their imagination: hill towns, long meals, local stories, ancestral roots, beautiful landscapes and the possibility that a trip might become something much deeper than a vacation.

That's exactly what happened to Kathy McCabe, founder of Dream of Italy, when she first traveled to Italy with her mother to search for her grandfather's ancestral hometown. Her grandfather had dreamed of finding that village for most of his life. Kathy and her mother found...

If you love baking, Italy, and the kind of cookbook that offers much more than a stack of recipes, Domenica Marchetti's new book Italian Cookies sounds like a real delight. In this recent Flavor of Italy podcast conversation, Domenica joined me to talk about her ninth cookbook, a beautiful and deeply researched exploration of Italian cookies that goes far beyond the familiar idea of biscotti. What emerges from our conversation is a portrait of Italy told through butter cookies, almond cookies, olive oil doughs, rustic biscuits for dunking, and small-town specialties that carry generations of memory and pride.

If there is one flavor that quietly defines the Italian table from north to south, it's bitterness. Not harshness, and not austerity, but a layered, balancing bitterness that sharpens appetite, supports digestion, and brings depth to everything from aperitivo to dessert. Understanding bitter in Italian cuisine means understanding something essential about how Italians taste the world.

During a recent conversation with Lolly Martyn, we explored how bitterness runs through Italian food culture in surprising and beautiful ways - from wild greens gathered in fields to amari served after dinner, from espresso to radicchio risotto. For many visitors, bi...

The real history of macaroni and cheese stretches back more than 2,000 years and begins not in North America at all, but in ancient Rome.

When people think about macaroni and cheese, they usually imagine a familiar American comfort dish that somehow emerged in the twentieth century and quickly became a childhood staple. Yet the real story of macaroni and cheese history stretches back more than two thousand years and begins not in North America at all, but in ancient Rome. What makes this history so compelling is that it isn't simply the story of a recipe. It's...

Who Rings Rome's Church Bells? Not Always a Bell Ringer
A few years ago, I recorded a podcast episode about something many of us notice in Italy but rarely stop to think about - the sound of church bells drifting across the city. I found myself wondering: is there really someone up there in the bell tower pulling the ropes, or is it all automated now?
Around that time, my husband showed me a newspaper article about a Roman bell ringer whose fascination with bells began when he was still a toddler in a stroller. His mother...

If you think Italian cooking is mostly about pasta and meat, my conversation with Giulia Scarpaleggia will gently change your perspective. Her new cookbook,  Vegetables the Italian Way - Turning Simple and Fresh into Extraordinary, shows something Italians have always known but the rest of the world is only beginning to rediscover: vegetables Italian style are not side dishes but central elements of everyday meals. Her approach to vegetables the Italian way reflects what happens in real Italian home kitchens, where vegetables appear in antipasti, pasta dishes, savory pies, soups, and main courses. This is not restaurant Italian food. I...

Sometimes the most remarkable pieces of history are hidden inside everyday places. One such place is the Antica Farmacia Reale, located in the historic center of Rome near the Spanish Steps. What makes this pharmacy extraordinary is not simply its age, although it is certainly old. What makes it truly remarkable is that it is still operating today as a fully functioning pharmacy.

The Antica Farmacia Reale can document its history back to 1672, which is already extraordinary for a commercial establishment that is still operating today. What makes this claim especially compelling is that Giulio possesses a...

167 Years of Italian Craftsmanship in the Heart of the Eternal City - Historic Linen Shop in the Heart of Rome

Just steps from the Italian Parliament, tucked into one of the most elegant corners of Rome's historic center, sits a remarkable shop that many people walk past without realizing the extraordinary history inside. Tebro, a Rome historic linen shop founded in 1867, has been serving the city for more than 167 years, quietly building a reputation for quality, discretion, and craftsmanship that reaches far beyond the streets surrounding it.

The store today is located on Via dei P...

Crimes Against Art - What We DON'T See Behind the Headlines

When news broke about the recent Louvre theft, the story felt almost cinematic. A bold break-in, a swift escape, international headlines. Like many of you, I followed it with fascination. But in my recent conversation with Lynda Albertson, Executive Director of ARCA, I was reminded that crimes against art are rarely isolated, dramatic events. They are part of a much larger and more complex global reality.
The Louvre case dominated the news cycle in late 2025, but crimes against art occur constantly around the world. In...

If you think you know Fettuccine Alfredo, you may want to think again. Recently I sat down inside one of Rome's most historic restaurants, Il Vero Alfredo, to talk about the true story behind this iconic dish. My guest was Chiara Cuomo, the fourth generation of the family behind the restaurant. What I discovered is that the real Fettuccine Alfredo is far simpler, more elegant, and far more meaningful than most people realize.  
Tune in for the rest of this magnificent story!

In the heart of Rome's Jewish Ghetto, just opposite the Portico d'Ottavia and steps from the Teatro di Marcello, there is a staircase that leads down into history.

That staircase belongs to Leone Limentani Rome, one of the oldest family-run shops in the city — founded in 1820 and still operated by the same family, now in its seventh generation.

I first discovered Leone Limentani Rome decades ago when I lived on Via Giulia. I would walk along the Tiber and into the Ghetto, descend those stairs, and find myself in what felt like an Aladdin's cave of...

Sitting among the ruins near the Terme di Caracalla, with ancient stones underfoot and Roman roads radiating outward beneath us, I spoke with Tom Brughmans, an archaeologist whose work is reshaping how we understand movement, connection, food, and daily life in the ancient Roman world.

Tom is the director of an ambitious international research project that has produced the first spatially detailed digital atlas of the Roman road system. Not just the famous roads, and not just Italy, but the entire Roman Empire—stretching across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. These are the roads people ac...

Italian designers work quietly behind the scenes, shaping how leaders, artists, and thinkers present themselves to the world through style.

Rome has always been a city where power, culture, and aesthetics intersect. Politics meets art, ceremony meets daily life, and nowhere is that more visible than in the world of Italian designers who work quietly behind the scenes, shaping how leaders, artists, and thinkers present themselves to the world. One of the most remarkable of these is Sartoria Litrico, a Rome-based bespoke tailor now in its third generation and officially recognized as one of the city's historic...

The wine world is changing—and if you're drinking the same way you did five years ago, you're missing something.

In this episode, we dive into the 2026 wine trends behind a quiet but powerful shift in how people drink today. Prestige labels and power wines are losing ground to lighter, fresher, more drinkable styles chosen for real life—not status. Heavy reds aren't disappearing, but they are being rethought, chilled, and replaced by wines that feel better at the table and easier to live with.

We explore why crisp whites now outsell reds, how chillable reds...

This week's podcast episode is a re-release from two years ago, but the story it tells remains timeless. It explores the deep roots of Carnival in Verona, why gnocchi are inseparable from the celebration, what locals eat and drink during Carnival season, what else to see while you're in town, and how easy it is to pair Verona with a quick day trip to nearby Venice.

When people think of Verona, the first images are often Shakespearean: Romeo and Juliet, the small balcony in the historic center, and the romance that clings to the city's stones. Others...

Liguria Italy is often reduced to a handful of famous images: pastel houses clinging to cliffs, glamorous yachts bobbing in Portofino, hikers threading their way between the villages of the Cinque Terre. But as this conversation on my Flavor of Italy podcast reveals, Liguria Italy is far richer, deeper, and more nuanced than its postcard reputation suggests.

In this episode, I spoke with Anna Merulla, co-founder of Beautiful Liguria, a locally based travel company created to tell the story of Liguria Italy from the inside out. What emerges is a portrait of a region that rewards curiosity...