Recently I went on the best 2 week holiday to Italy. There were 2 reasons for this trip:

  1. I’ve always wanted to visit and travel around Italy – from Rome, to the Tuscan countryside, to the picturesque Amalfi Coast

2. Italian food

Italian food has always been my favourite cuisine. I always said that if I had to only eat one thing for the rest of my life it would be pizza (proper Italian pizza).

So, the fact that I finally got to travel around Italy on a foodie adventure was a dream-come-true.

In a series of blog posts I’ll be discussing my favourite places, in terms of food and travel. This post with feature a beautiful city with plenty of culture.

Stop 1: Verona

The first stop on the trip was Verona in Northern Italy: also known as the city of Romeo and Juliet. The city itself was incredibly beautiful and, I believe, highly underrated.

Tourist info – Where to Visit

Here’s a list of my favourite places I visited while in Verona.

  1. Castelvecchio (an old castle on the riverbank)
  2. Basilica di San Zeno Maggiore
  3. Verona Arena (a Colosseum)
  4. Piazza Del Erbe
  5. Castel San Pietro

I would recommend hiring a bike and making your own little tour cycling between these places.

Food – Where to Eat

I set out to find the best of my favourite foods. I had multiple criteria, and I will split these into sections.

1. Pizza

Pizza in Verona is more like the Roman-style pizza. This means a thin, crispy base with plenty of toppings. My all-time favourite pizza topping is anything with fresh prosciutto. Considering this, I had pizza ft. prosciutto 3 days in a row.

The first place I visited was a great Italian restaurant in an old church. We went here on a Saturday night and were lucky to get a table. I’m certainly glad we did because the pizza was lovely – mozzarella, porcini mushrooms, prosciutto and Gorgonzola.

🍽 Prosciutto, mozzarella, Gorgonzola, porcini

📍 San Matteo Church Trattoria

The next night we were recommended a restaurant by Alena, the lovely woman in charge of our guesthouse. The pizza here was my favourite pizza in Verona. I literally got exactly the same pizza as previously, but in my opinion this is the best way to compare. The photo here doesn’t look quite as good as the last one but, in this case, looks are deceiving.

🍽 Prosciutto, mozzarella, Gorgonzola, porcini

📍Ristorante Pizzeria Il Cappero

The final pizza was, and I’m sure this’ll come shock, also featuring prosciutto and mozzarella. Also, burrata. Divine.

🍽 Prosciutto, mozzarella, burrata

📍 Cafe Dante

2. Pasta

Now onto the next best carb: pasta. Everyone loves pasta, right?

My first pasta dish in Italy was Bucatini Arrabiata, and it was lovely. This was a lunch and we ate pasta, drank aperol spritz and sat out in the sun.

🍽 Bucatini arrabiata

📍 Anselmi Caffe

Next up, a classic lasagna. And, oh boy, was this a great. The best lasagna I’ve ever had. Literally melted in the mouth.

🍽 Lasagna

📍Al Lamberti

The final pasta dish of Verona? Bucatini with slow cooked duck and mushrooms. So much flavour.

🍽 Bucatini with slow-cooked duck and mushrooms

📍 Caffe Dante

3. Gnocchi

Okay, so fresh homemade gnocchi is my weakness. So I was very excited to try as much as I could.

First up, a lovely fresh gnocchi with pesto. Simple yet effective.

🍽 Pesto gnocchi

📍 Anselmi Caffe

Next day, I needed gnocchi again. This time I had a lovely gnocchi ragu. Loved loved loved.

🍽 Gnocchi al ragu

📍 Al Lamberti

4. Coffee

Obviously, it Italy, I had to try as much coffee as possible. I am a self-confessed coffee snob and, at home, refuse to drink instant coffee. In Italy, the coffee that we refer to as Latte at home is known as a Caffe Latte Macchiato. It tends to come in a large glass. The cappuccino is the classic Italian coffee and lovely in the morning.

5. Gelato

I am obsessed with gelato. My favourite flavour is chocolate so I set out to compare as much chocolate gelato as I could.

First stop, chocolate and strawberry gelato. Both classics and both absolutely stunning.

🍽 Chocolate and strawberry gelato

📍 Vitoria Gelateria

Next up, chocolate and cherry. So creamy, so good.

🍽 Chocolate and cherry gelato

📍 La Stagione Del Gelato

And final stop, literally just before I got on a train, was Gelateria Verona. Again, incredible.

🍽 Chocolate and mango gelato

📍 Gelateria Verona

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So, there you have it, a proper Italian food route of Verona. For more in-depths photos and videos check @dining_with_ali and my Verona highlights.

Next time, we’ll go through the highlights of Lake Garda. Get ready.