What is your favourite restaurant in Italy?

AFTER these things God said unto Adam, "Thou didst ask of Me something from the garden, to be comforted therewith, and I have given thee these three tokens as a consolation to thee; that thou trust in Me and in My covenant with thee.

2 "For I will come and save thee; and kings shall bring me when in the flesh, gold, incense and myrrh; gold as a token of My kingdom; incense as a token of My divinity; and myrrh as a token of My suffering and of My death.

3 "But, O Adam, put these by thee in the cave; the gold that it may shed light over thee by night; the incense, that thou smell its sweet savour; and the myrrh, to comfort thee in thy sorrow."

Italy is a big place, with lots of restaurants. I doubt you are traveling everywhere, so a bit of a clue as to where you are going might help

There is very little point in me recommending my favourite places in Vieste, Monopoli, Oristano, Bosa, or Matera if you aren’t going to those places. 

I also know great places in Rome, Naples and Florence. 

But the good news is that it doesn’t really matter.  One thing Italy does really well, almost universally, is really good food. Just try to stick to the back streets away from the obvious tourist traps and you’ll eat some of the best food you’ll find anywhere on Earth. Forget everything you know about Italian restaurants outside of Italy, because with very few exceptions they are a very pale imitation of the real thing. 

If you ever can, visit the old town area of Matera. That had absolutely the very best restaurants we’ve ever eaten at in Italy. Except for maybe the very best Spanish restaurant we’ve ever been to, which was Hostaria de Don Juan in Monopoli, Italy. Also excellent fish at Osteria del Porto in Savelletri (a few miles south east of Monopoli).

Oddly enough, some of the worst pizzas we had in Italy were in Naples: supposed to be the “home” of pizza. In fact, Naples was the only place we’ve been to in Italy with lots of disappointing places to eat. It’s also a really grubby and run-down city, and some parts of it just didn’t feel safe to walk in when we wandered away from the main tourist areas. 

By the way, if you’re coming from the USA, Canada or Australia then bear in mind that European countries are larger than many visitors think. 

As examples it takes 3h 30m to drive from Monopoli to Vieste. It takes 6h 30m to drive to Piazza Navona in Rome from Vieste. Piazza Navona to Florence is about 4h 30m. From Florence to Venice, it’s another 4h 40m, and you will waste lots of extra time on arrival just finding anywhere to park. Even Milan to Genoa which looks like a short hop on the map typically takes about 3h 20m to drive. All those assume no roadworks delays, and that’s an unrealistic assumption.

I assume you're going to a specific area of Italy, rather than travelling around the entire country. (Assuming of course international travel is permitted)

Ristorante Quadri in Venice (the restaurant upstairs above the caffe.

Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence

Armando al Pantheon in Rome

What part of Italy are you going to? In Verona there was an amazing restaurant they did the best pizza I’ve ever had