Popularity of food tours in Italy?

[cruisemom42]

I've thought about starting this topic several times but wasn't quite sure how to word it. I suppose in simplest terms I just really don't fully understand the growing popularity of food tours, especially in Italy. 

 

Don't get me wrong, I feel food is an integral part of travel, particularly Italian food. But I have difficulty discovering the allure of taking a tour where you stop into three or four or five places to "taste" a few items. Other than antipasto, I'm not sure Italian cuisine really lends itself to bite-size sampling of things (not like, for example tapas in Barcelona). And for me, the whole concept of putting an entire meal together (with wine) to eat at leisure, talk about, enjoy together fits more with the Italian food aesthetic. (Slow food, not quick sampling!)

 

Also, Italian food isn't really unfamiliar to most, I would assume?  I've read somewhere that in almost every country, Italian restaurants come second in popularity only behind whatever the national cuisine is. So most of us know the basics. 

 

And while I do enjoy food, I can't see prioritizing it over the amazing sights of Italy. I guess my feeling is that I have opportunities at meal times to eat Italian food -- even if it's just a lunch ashore in a true pizzaria in Naples -- and I can learn to prepare it (or eat out and enjoy it) at home. But what I can't experience anywhere else is the charm of Trevi Fountain lit up at night or the wonders of the Duomo ceiling in Florence. 

 

What's driving the popularity of these tours?  Is it just to see and do (and InstaGram, I fear) something different?  For those who've done them, what did you really "take home" afterwards that made you feel it was a worthwhile experience?

 

[lisiamc]

I think I’m in favour of food tours, at least in the right circumstances. My view is that everyone thinks they know Italian food inside out, because as you say, it’s the most popular food just about everywhere. But my theory is that Italian food in America has existed for so long, and evolved so much, that Italian American food should be considered as an entirely separate entity, with British Italian food as a sort of shirt tail relative. My epiphany was a person in a tour group who confided that he didn’t think Italian food in Italy was actually very good. Not a patch on Italian food in the USA, he said. It’s a very tired cliche but it’s still easy to run into the people searching for spaghetti and meatballs, chicken alfredo, garlic bread, or deep-pan pizza with a million toppings, with a cappuccino for afters. A food tour could give them a whole new perspective.

 

And while the Slow Food movement is alive and well in Italy, I’ve also noticed the rise of apericena, at least in the Marche. And it is fun to occasionally make a dinner out of lots of delicious bits and pieces, with a couple of glasses of good local wine. A food tour seems like the love child of apericena and a degustazione menu, crossed with cicchetti and a pub crawl!
 

Having said that I don’t hate the idea, I would also never suggest signing up for a food tour on a first or second visit to a city. I would save it for a third or fourth visit, when someone has done the must-sees and is branching out.

 

 

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, lisiamc said:

A food tour seems like the love child of apericena and a degustazione menu, crossed with cicchetti and a pub crawl!

 

With a description like that, you're doing a good job of selling it. 😄

 

Cicchetti in Venice would be a good example of where a food tour makes sense.

[euro cruiser]

I understand the confusion.  There is so much to see and do throughout Italy, especially in places like Rome, that I can't imagine giving up time for a food tour.

 

However, years ago I spent a week at a cooking school in Tuscany and loved it.  I went at first as a gift to my brother, who suggested it, but I wound up having a great time and learning a little bit.  I "fed", so to speak, my needs by staying for a week after the cooking school to see and do the things I like, so I felt like we both got what we needed.

[rrraydon]

I love a food tour! Sometimes my daughter and I fly to Miami for a weekend just for food tours of the various areas all over South Beach.

 

The fun thing about food tours, in addition to the samples of food, is it is a history tour as well. The tour guide is very knowledgeable about the history of the area your in. 
 

Miami is SUPER expensive! For a continental breakfast for 3 of us was over $80 (bagels, cream cheese, fruit, juice and coffee). But, to do a food tour in the evening while there, it is enough to eat and drink at various restaurants along with the history tour that you’ve saved on dinner as well. Plus, you walk off all of the food! Food tours usually last about 3 hours.

 

I plan on doing 2 food tours while I’m in Rome in 2 of the the Piazzas…not sure which two yet—it depends on which Piazza food tour encompasses the specific sites we want to see along the tour. These food tours will also give a fascinating history of each of the areas.

Edited July 30, 2022 by rrraydon

[cruisemom42]

14 minutes ago, rrraydon said:

The fun thing about food tours, in addition to the samples of food, is it is a history tour as well. The tour guide is very knowledgeable about the history of the area your in. 

 

I guess I'm just a bit jaded. Been on too many tours where the "history" given was bosh. (At best it was an effort to be entertaining. At worst it was just flat-out wrong.)

 

[rrraydon]

7 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I guess I'm just a bit jaded. Been on too many tours where the "history" given was bosh. (At best it was an effort to be entertaining. At worst it was just flat-out wrong.)

 

The tours are an overview I want to say of the history, not an in-depth one . Truthfully, I can’t stay focused on one thing that long…incessant chattering irks me. Just give me a overview and let’s move on! 🤣 If it’s something I find very interesting, I research it myself at a later date. 

Edited July 30, 2022 by rrraydon

[rrraydon]

41 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I guess I'm just a bit jaded. Been on too many tours where the "history" given was bosh. (At best it was an effort to be entertaining. At worst it was just flat-out wrong.)

 

You are so knowledgeable of Italy you should be a guide! 😊

 

I would love your advice on which Piazzas are most interesting. 

[cruisemom42]

9 hours ago, rrraydon said:

 

I would love your advice on which Piazzas are most interesting. 

 

I thought about this for a bit. "Interesting" is such a leading word. 

 

Let me propose a novel idea:  In all of their cities and towns, the Greeks and Romans created agoras or forums -- this was the ancient equivalent of a piazza, where people mingled.

 

So for me, the most interesting "piazza" in Rome is the Forum Romanum, the ancient heart of republican Rome with all of its temples, buildings and monuments. During the years of the Roman Empire, a number of emperors created their own fora, because the original one was becoming so clogged with memorials.

 

Doesn't really lend itself to a food tour though. 😂

 

Other "interesting" piazzas for me would include the Piazza San Pietro, the huge area in front of the Vatican -- which used to be an ancient Roman circus in Nero's day. A lot of people don't realize that the Vatican is located where it is today because it was built on the site of the death of St. Peter .....  in Nero's circus. There's a lot of later history there as well including how the obelisk in the center was moved from one location to its present one back in 1586, when they really had no idea what they were doing, and how the modern facade of St. Peter's and the colonnade surrounding the piazza came to be.

 

Or the Piazza del Campidoglio -- very interesting  because of its geography. It was also "ground zero" for ancient Rome, being the site of its holiest temple to Jupiter. In the Renaissance, Michelangelo had the commission to re-design it in order to create a pleasing "whole" out of a very oddly shaped hill, and he succeeded brilliantly. It also has one of my favorite statues from antiquity (although sadly only a replica is displayed today): the bronze equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, one of the very few bronze statues to survive from antiquity. (It's said that the only reason the statue was not melted down later is because it was thought to be of Constantine, who legalized Christianity, so was not considered to be "pagan"). If you want to see the original, though, you only have to step into the Capitoline museum whose doors open off the Campidoglio today. Near the Campidoglio you can also see the excavated ruins of a Roman insula or apartment house from ancient times, known as the Ara Coeli insula, tucked into the side of the hill -- several floors of which are preserved. This is where the poor of Rome lived, often sharing a single room with their entire family.

 

Not sure I've helped you at all, as these interesting piazzas are not exactly teeming with food opportunities....

 

 

 

 

 

[carlmm]

22 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I thought about this for a bit. "Interesting" is such a leading word. 

 

Let me propose a novel idea:  In all of their cities and towns, the Greeks and Romans created agoras or forums -- this was the ancient equivalent of a piazza, where people mingled.

 

So for me, the most interesting "piazza" in Rome is the Forum Romanum, the ancient heart of republican Rome with all of its temples, buildings and monuments. During the years of the Roman Empire, a number of emperors created their own fora, because the original one was becoming so clogged with memorials.

 

Doesn't really lend itself to a food tour though. 😂

 

Other "interesting" piazzas for me would include the Piazza San Pietro, the huge area in front of the Vatican -- which used to be an ancient Roman circus in Nero's day. A lot of people don't realize that the Vatican is located where it is today because it was built on the site of the death of St. Peter .....  in Nero's circus. There's a lot of later history there as well including how the obelisk in the center was moved from one location to its present one back in 1586, when they really had no idea what they were doing, and how the modern facade of St. Peter's and the colonnade surrounding the piazza came to be.

 

Or the Piazza del Campidoglio -- very interesting  because of its geography. It was also "ground zero" for ancient Rome, being the site of its holiest temple to Jupiter. In the Renaissance, Michelangelo had the commission to re-design it in order to create a pleasing "whole" out of a very oddly shaped hill, and he succeeded brilliantly. It also has one of my favorite statues from antiquity (although sadly only a replica is displayed today): the bronze equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, one of the very few bronze statues to survive from antiquity. (It's said that the only reason the statue was not melted down later is because it was thought to be of Constantine, who legalized Christianity, so was not considered to be "pagan"). If you want to see the original, though, you only have to step into the Capitoline museum whose doors open off the Campidoglio today. Near the Campidoglio you can also see the excavated ruins of a Roman insula or apartment house from ancient times, known as the Ara Coeli insula, tucked into the side of the hill -- several floors of which are preserved. This is where the poor of Rome lived, often sharing a single room with their entire family.

 

Not sure I've helped you at all, as these interesting piazzas are not exactly teeming with food opportunities....

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect!

[rrraydon]

57 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I thought about this for a bit. "Interesting" is such a leading word. 

 

Let me propose a novel idea:  In all of their cities and towns, the Greeks and Romans created agoras or forums -- this was the ancient equivalent of a piazza, where people mingled.

 

So for me, the most interesting "piazza" in Rome is the Forum Romanum, the ancient heart of republican Rome with all of its temples, buildings and monuments. During the years of the Roman Empire, a number of emperors created their own fora, because the original one was becoming so clogged with memorials.

 

Doesn't really lend itself to a food tour though. 😂

 

Other "interesting" piazzas for me would include the Piazza San Pietro, the huge area in front of the Vatican -- which used to be an ancient Roman circus in Nero's day. A lot of people don't realize that the Vatican is located where it is today because it was built on the site of the death of St. Peter .....  in Nero's circus. There's a lot of later history there as well including how the obelisk in the center was moved from one location to its present one back in 1586, when they really had no idea what they were doing, and how the modern facade of St. Peter's and the colonnade surrounding the piazza came to be.

 

Or the Piazza del Campidoglio -- very interesting  because of its geography. It was also "ground zero" for ancient Rome, being the site of its holiest temple to Jupiter. In the Renaissance, Michelangelo had the commission to re-design it in order to create a pleasing "whole" out of a very oddly shaped hill, and he succeeded brilliantly. It also has one of my favorite statues from antiquity (although sadly only a replica is displayed today): the bronze equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, one of the very few bronze statues to survive from antiquity. (It's said that the only reason the statue was not melted down later is because it was thought to be of Constantine, who legalized Christianity, so was not considered to be "pagan"). If you want to see the original, though, you only have to step into the Capitoline museum whose doors open off the Campidoglio today. Near the Campidoglio you can also see the excavated ruins of a Roman insula or apartment house from ancient times, known as the Ara Coeli insula, tucked into the side of the hill -- several floors of which are preserved. This is where the poor of Rome lived, often sharing a single room with their entire family.

 

Not sure I've helped you at all, as these interesting piazzas are not exactly teeming with food opportunities....

 

 

 

 

 

It was in fact very interesting! 

[marazul]

While I am 100% with cruisemom's idea of interesting piazzas, I think rrraydon is probably trying to decide between food tours around Campo dei Fiori and Piazza Navona (or maybe Piazza de Santa Maria). 🙂

[schmoopie17]

I realize that what I'm about to say might be considered blasphemy on this board, but even though we will be in Rome for the first time in October prior to our cruise, we are not really into history, monuments, architecture, etc. Doing tours of the Colosseum, Vatican, etc., really doesn't interest us all that much. What does interest us is food and wine. Therefore, we have signed up for the Twilight Food and Wine tour of Trastevere. This tour essentially gets five stars from everyone who has taken it and we, needless to say, are very much looking forward to it. Having said that, we do plan on walking through the city to see the high points (aka tourist traps). Hey, we're tourists and we don't mind being trapped 😁. We'll be staying near the Pantheon, so lots of stuff to see while walking in the neighborhood.

 

I know, I know...the first response that people will say is that we can do our own food and wine tour without having to pay a tour company. Fine, I get that. But we feel that this will give us an overview and get a lay of the land so that in the couple of days following, we'll have a better idea of what to look for in putting together our own food tour. Plus, it is a good way to walk off jet lag and meet some of our future cruisemates, who have also signed up for the tour. (Maybe I shouldn't add that we're also doing a Tapas and Wine tour in Barcelona a few days later.) What can I say...we're gluttons for punishment.

[cruisemom42]

21 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

even though we will be in Rome for the first time in October prior to our cruise, we are not really into history, monuments, architecture, etc. Doing tours of the Colosseum, Vatican, etc., really doesn't interest us all that much. What does interest us is food and wine.

 

So you travel all the way to Europe just for the food and wine?

[schmoopie17]

58 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

So you travel all the way to Europe just for the food and wine?

I guess you could say that. And to do a Transatlantic cruise.

[Ski Mom 2]

On 7/30/2022 at 10:26 AM, schmoopie17 said:

I realize that what I'm about to say might be considered blasphemy on this board, but even though we will be in Rome for the first time in October prior to our cruise, we are not really into history, monuments, architecture, etc. Doing tours of the Colosseum, Vatican, etc., really doesn't interest us all that much. What does interest us is food and wine. Therefore, we have signed up for the Twilight Food and Wine tour of Trastevere. This tour essentially gets five stars from everyone who has taken it and we, needless to say, are very much looking forward to it. Having said that, we do plan on walking through the city to see the high points (aka tourist traps). Hey, we're tourists and we don't mind being trapped 😁. We'll be staying near the Pantheon, so lots of stuff to see while walking in the neighborhood.

 

I know, I know...the first response that people will say is that we can do our own food and wine tour without having to pay a tour company. Fine, I get that. But we feel that this will give us an overview and get a lay of the land so that in the couple of days following, we'll have a better idea of what to look for in putting together our own food tour. Plus, it is a good way to walk off jet lag and meet some of our future cruisemates, who have also signed up for the tour. (Maybe I shouldn't add that we're also doing a Tapas and Wine tour in Barcelona a few days later.) What can I say...we're gluttons for punishment.

We have signed up for this same tour on our arrival day into Rome. We have had wonderful food tours in the past at several places throughout Europe and the Caribbean/Mexico. We love that typically it can be a small tour, sometimes an owner/operator who one can learn about their family, life and business. As retired entrepreneurs of a family business, we love sharing stories, eating great food, and learning about one another. 

 

We have been to Rome but thought this tour, in an area we have not been to, would be the perfect introduction to this trip. We also have one in Bologna we are looking forward to as well. The last food tour we took we were the only ones, along with a tour guide and driver (in Cozumel) and boy were we spoiled!

[steamboats]

I totally agree with @lisiamc. American and British Italian food is far away from real Italian food. Even here in Germany you sometimes don´t get the real thing. Our "Spaghetti Bolognese" have nothing to do with a Bologna sauce.

 

I love doing food tours. And yes, you do experience new stuff. I´ve done a food tour in Naples (more here). Although I´ve been to Naples many times for the last 30 years I´ve never heard of Taralli and now I have to buy some each time I´m there. Or I wouldn´t have dared to buy a fried pizza. The food tour gave me the history of this dish and we tried one - now a typical Neapolitan street food. BTW, on this tour we also had a full lunch. This tour wasn´t just a food tour but a combination of food and city tour. The guide told us a lot about the history of Naples and that part of the town.

 

BTW, I´ve also done a food tour in Ibiza or a tapas tour in Barcelona. Another great tour was the old fishing port in Barcelona (including a climb up to the clock tower) which ended with a fish lunch in a nearby restaurant. I do love local food and I am experimental regarding food and try to discover new stuff. But basically, the ship "food" tours are not the real thing. I usually book independent tours for this. Each time we ended up with small groups or - in Ibiza - it was just the two of us.

 

With food tours you get to places you wouldn´t have gone and try food you don´t know it existed.

 

steamboats

[cruisemom42]

I suppose I am lucky to live in a large city where there is good availability of "real" (not Americanized) Italian food. I even have two authentic Neapolitan pizzerias near me, one of which is registered in the list of "true neapolitan" pizzerias worldwide. A quick Google search shows at least 5 places where Italian cooking lessons are offered near me, including wood-fired pizza and pasta from scratch. With so much emphasis today on authentic cuisine, I'm surprised this isn't more common.

 

Plus, there are so many food channels on TV and YouTube -- I'd think anyone who's truly a foodie would already be linked into these and would be aware of what items are a specialty of which regions, and what to try in Rome vs. Naples vs. Venice -- particularly if food/wine is such an essential part of travel for them.

 

Same thing with wines -- I can attend tastings of Italian wines in my home city. Seeing the vineyards with my own two eyes doesn't really change or add anything to the taste of the wine. 

 

 

[cruisemom42]

On 7/31/2022 at 10:17 AM, schmoopie17 said:

I guess you could say that. And to do a Transatlantic cruise.

 

But history adds another layer to everything, even to food and wine appreciation.

 

For example:  it's hard to imagine but very true that tomato sauce only came to Italy after the discovery of the New World -- tomatoes were not available in Europe prior to their discovery in what's now South America.

 

Or did you know that even back in the time of ancient Rome, people were eating "takeout" food from a type of store or food market known as a "Thermopolium" (which basically means a shop for heated food items). Many of them still exist in the ruins at Pompeii, for example.

 

As to viniculture, it's now thought that the Etruscans (a pre-Roman Italian people) were the ones who taught both the French and the Latin people (who made up the Roman empire) the secrets of wine making. 

 

And if any food tour guide tells you that Marco Polo brought pasta to Europe, don't believe it. Italians were already familiar with pasta before his trip to China.

 

 

 

[schmoopie17]

45 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

But history adds another layer to everything, even to food and wine appreciation.

 

For example:  it's hard to imagine but very true that tomato sauce only came to Italy after the discovery of the New World -- tomatoes were not available in Europe prior to their discovery in what's now South America.

 

Or did you know that even back in the time of ancient Rome, people were eating "takeout" food from a type of store or food market known as a "Thermopolium" (which basically means a shop for heated food items). Many of them still exist in the ruins at Pompeii, for example.

 

As to viniculture, it's now thought that the Etruscans (a pre-Roman Italian people) were the ones who taught both the French and the Latin people (who made up the Roman empire) the secrets of wine making. 

 

And if any food tour guide tells you that Marco Polo brought pasta to Europe, don't believe it. Italians were already familiar with pasta before his trip to China.

 

 

 

As usual, I learned something from reading your post. Always enjoy reading what you have to say.