My Five Favorite Restaurants in Italy — Edition 2

“A tavola non si invecchia.” (At the table, one doesn’t age.) – Famous Italian proverb.

I’m 69 and have lived in Italy for 11 years. Thanks to dining from Sicily to the Dolomites, I think I’m actually 39. Eating in Italian restaurants actually reverses the aging process. How can you not feel young and healthy when eating fresh homemade pasta or seafood risotto or pizza with such natural ingredients it tastes like health food?

In an Italian restaurant we are always happy. It’s one dependable thing about life here. No matter how bad a day you have, how mad you get at the bureaucracy or how frustrated you get with the language barrier, you always have dinner to look forward to. 

Restaurants in Italy are that consistent. They’re that good. I’ve been to 19 of Italy’s 20 regions (Tiny Val d’Aosta is the only one missing) and each one has its own cuisine. When you cross a border, it’s like entering a new gastronomic country. 

Now imagine how tough it is to come up with my Five Favorite Restaurants in Italy? I did my first in 2020.  I’ve been all over Italy since then and have explored even deeper into Rome’s Lazio region thanks to the TraveLazio.it blog we started two years ago, dedicated to day trips from Rome.

But picking my five favorite restaurants in Italy is like picking the five finalists of Miss World. How do I disqualify any of them? Nevertheless, it’s time for an update. If you come to Italy this year, keep this blog handy. It’ll take you to small towns you’ve never heard of and an island that will be your next paradise. It’ll even take you off the beaten path in beaten down Venice.

So put your taste buds on full alert. I hope my latest Five Favorite Restaurants in Italy makes you hungry and maybe start planning a yummy trip to the bel paese. Restaurants are in order of preference with regions in parentheses. Please note: I left out Rome as I annually list my five favorites in my adopted city.

La Lampara (Campania)

Via Marina di Corricella 88, Procida, noon-2:30 p.m., 7-9:30 p.m., 39-08-1896-0609, www.hotelcorricella.it/it.html, info@hotelcorricella.it.

Yes, after five years, No. 1 is still No. 1. Nothing has dislodged it. I haven’t been to the island of Procida, just off the coast of Naples, since that ranking in 2020 but I have yet to dine at a more magical place. 

The setting is the most beautiful I’ve seen in Italy. It’s near the bottom of a cliff but high enough to overlook the prettiest harbor in the country: a gentle bend backed by pastel-colored buildings crawling up a hill to a domed church overlooking it all. Bobbing in the water are little boats with fishermen sitting on the dock mending their nets.

La Lampara belies the common theme that a restaurant’s views are in direct opposite of the food quality. The menu is excellent. I still remember that ravioli al sapore di mare (seafood ravioli) that was stuffed with a mix of shrimp and ricotta cheese. Combined with a big bowl of clams and tiramisu sprinkled with lemon then washed down by a carafe of Campania’s Falanghina Benevento red wine, it remains the best meal I’ve had in Italy.

Procida is also easy to reach from Rome. It’s a 75-minute train ride to Naples then a 45-minute ferry ride to the island. La Lampara is adjacent to the three-star Hotel Corricella, making it the perfect weekend getaway.

Trattoria del Cimino (Lazio)

Via Filippo Nicolai 44, Caparola, 39-07-61-646-173/39-371-484-2982, https://www.trattoriadelciminodal1895.it, trattoriadelcimino@gmail.com, noon-3 p.m., 7:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-3 p.m. Sunday.

This is courtesy of TraveLazio. Otherwise, I never would’ve visited the cute town of Caparola, 35 miles north of Rome. I never knew it was the hazelnut capital of Italy and home to an award winning dish, which happens to be my favorite in the Italian cookbook.

Trattoria del Cimino not only drips with flavor but also of history. It opened in 1895 in the town’s first palace built in 1300, it has been in the Calistri family for five generations. Behind the bar is an 2 million-year-old stone slab discovered nearby. 

It’s an elegant restaurant that has attracted some of the most hardened food critics in the country. Yet according to Vinous, the wine and food website, Cimino has “La Migliore Amatriciana d’Italia (The Best Amatriciana in Italy).” It has a unique twist, literally. Cimino uses pici, the short twisty pasta native to the area. Amatriciana is my favorite Italian dish, the one I eat when I’m in a bad mood. Cimino’s may be the best I’ve ever had.

Save room for dessert. Caprarola is covered with hazelnut trees and the torta nocciole (Hazelnut cake) is the perfect topper.

Plus, Cimino is cheap. Mains start at €12.

La Chiglia, (Liguria)

Via dell’Olivo 317, Porto Venere, 39-0187-792-179, lachigliasrl@gmail.com, noon-2:30 p.m., 7-10 p.m. 

This is a nod to Marina who has lived in Italy all of her 60 years and says this is her new favorite restaurant in her homeland. We just dined there last month when we went to Porto Venere for our anniversary.

We had no idea this little restaurant next to our rented apartment, away from the crowds of the Old Town, would be one of the best of our lives. But the simple seafood restaurant covered in nautical motifs was spectacular.

Marina swooned over her grilled calamari. So fresh, so tasty, so healthy. We shared the best seafood salad we’ve ever had with calamari, octopus, mussels, cherry tomatoes and topped with a huge shrimp then served warm.

I had Liguria’s trademark trofie con pesto e basilico (short, twisty pasta with sauce made from pine nuts and basil). In a region specializing in pesto, I challenge any restaurant in Liguria to top La Chiglia.

Combine it all with sitting by a picture window looking out at the Gulf of La Spezia. La Chiglia (“The Keel” in Italian) adds to it with a big model boat at the entrance and the tablecloths sporting a motif of sailors’ ropes.

I paid €60 for a split appetizer, two main dishes and wine.

Trattoria Dona Onesta (Veneto)

Dorsoduro 3922, Venice, 39-041-71-0586, https://trattoriadonaonesta.wixsite.com/website, donaonestavenice@gmail.com, noon-3 p.m., 6-10:00 p.m., Thursday-Tuesday.  

Yeah, OK. How can a tourist trap like Venice have one of my favorite restaurants in Italy? Because I’m a sucker for romance and Trattoria Dona Onesta has a romantic atmosphere that would’ve made Marco Polo swoon.

It’s a little place on a tiny canal next to a bridge in the San Polo neighborhood. We sat over the canal at one of four small tables with clay boxes of purple, pink and white flowers. A yellow flower sat in a vase between us. Classic guitar played softly on the loudspeaker.

I’m not a big fan of Venetian cuisine. That black squid called sepia always looked like it’s based on a dare. But we had a wonderful octopus salad then salmon covered in tomato sauce with local herbs and breadcrumbs.

But, frankly, I don’t remember the food that well. The sultry atmosphere is that overwhelming. Someone must think the food is good, though. Dona Onesta has won the TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Award the last five years in a row, placing it among the top 10 percent of restaurants globally.

Osteria Mercato (Piedmont)

Piazza Capucci 9, Stresa, 39-03-233-46245, https://www.osteriamercatostresa.com, osteriamercato.stresa@gmail.com, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., 7-11 p.m. Wednesday-Monday, 7-11 p.m. Tuesday.

Whenever I’m in Northern Italy, particularly Piedmont, I try to find risotto. That classic Italian rice soup, with a variety of ingredients ranging from seafood to chorizo, is Italian comfort food. 

The best I’ve ever had is in the tiny lakeside town of Stresa. Osteria Mercato has been serving risotto and a variety of creative seafood dishes since 2016. Oddly located in a carpark near Stresa’s historical center, the interior is modern and elegant without being stuffy.

My risotto came with beans, Piemontese salami and Piemontese cream. It came out rich, creamy and thick with salami and sauce. Also, try the tagliolini with lemon and bay squid and the rabbit cordon bleu. Dishes range from €12-€22.

Stresa is worth the trip alone. It’s on Lake Maggiore where Ernest Hemingway found the inspiration to write his 1929 masterpiece, A Farewell to Arms. He stayed at the luxurious Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees and returned numerous times after he left.