Italian restaurants are everywhere in the world. Even restaurants that are not Italian will have at least one pasta dish in the menu. But they say if you want to taste the real thing, you'll have to go to Italy.
Which I did, in September 2015. I went to Venice in a short Euro trip. I stayed in Camping Jolly because I couldn't find a host. Nearby there was this pizzeria that sold a slice of pizza for 2 euros. It was really cheap compared to everything else in Venice. So I had one and was barely able to finish it. It was good, but just too big, even for me. I'm not really a big fan of pizza, and to be honest after several days in Europe, I got tired of anything with bread or cheese in it. I felt bloated all the time, because of the wheat.
The next one I tried was also a pizza, this one almost square in shape, with mushrooms, or fungi, as they called it. It was a takeaway from one of the many pizzerias on Venice island. The price was higher because of the more touristy location.
Done with pizzas, I moved on to pastas. It was at another restaurant also close to the place I stayed in. It was also comparably cheap. I ordered a plain one with tomato-based sauce, and a latte, not realizing that latte meant milk, as opposed to 'caffe latte'. Ah, estupida.
I think that's Spanish though.
Anyway, the spaghetti was okay-ish, nothing spectacular, but maybe that's because you get what you pay for, and I've also heard that Venice is one of the worst places in Italy for sampling Italian food. Ho hum, too bad I didn't have enough time to venture south.
A few days after, I went to an Italian restaurant in Frankfurt with my German host. It was authentically Italian, with Italian chefs and waiters and all. The taste was much, much better, and we even got a tiramisu on the house.
If there was one food I tried in Italy that I had to choose as a favorite though, it would have to be the gelato. It was heavenly, even in the cold. Enjoy the pictures:
