We start and finish our food & wine tour in Rome, staying among the locals in bohemian Trastevere, away from the throngs of day-trippers yet walking distance to all the best eats and sights. We'll enjoy the Roman food, wine and 'la dolce vita' in the colourful cobbled alleyways full of tables and people.
We'll dine on all the classic Roman dishes, including carbonara and carciofi alla Giudìa, in iconic Roman restaurants. At Rimessa Roscioli, known for Rome's best spaghetti cacio e pepe, our personal sommelier will take us on an entertaining virtual Italian wine tour over dinner.
We'll visit a beautiful winery in the Roman hills, making distinctive wines from indigenous grapes aged in traditional chestnut barrels. Following a tour and guided tasting with winemakers Piero and Lorella, we'll lunch with them on produce from their garden.
Heading south, we stay at a family-run albergo in the oldest town of the Amalfi Coast with endless views across to Ravello and over the Gulf of Salerno. We'll spend a day in the kitchen with Mamma Marinella preparing produce from Pappa Ciccio's organic farm for our long Sunday lunch.
The Amalfi Coast is famous for the enormous, thick-skinned sfusato lemons grown all over its hillsides. At the crest of the ‘Path of the Lemons’ we’ll meet farmers Giovanni & Nadia, learn the history of this famous crop and lunch among their fruit trees with views over the coast.
We'll dine in the atmospheric, well-stocked cellar of La Villa in the small town of Melfi. Here Michele Sonnessa and his sons showcase local ingredients and traditional dishes with a twist alongside the region's delicious wines, including Elena Fucci's superb Aglianico del Vulture.
Matera, clinging to the side of a deep ravine opposite rows of rock churches, has doubled for Jerusalem in many films. Until the mid-1950s families lived in cave houses carved into the soft limestone, many of which have become the restaurants and hotels where we'll stay and eat.
We'll join an archaeologist for a private tour of Pompeii, one of the world’s most intact ancient Roman cities. Then we'll stay overnight at a nearby winery with some of Europe's oldest vines. After a winery tour and tasting, we’ll enjoy traditional Neapolitan fare in a local trattoria.
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Southern Italy is a land of easy-going hospitality, where people are keen to share whatever they have. And what they have is some glorious natural produce grown in that hot Mediterranean sun and centuries of devising how to turn those simple ingredients into almost unreasonably tasty dishes!
It’s the land of olive oil, garlic, chilli and wild aromatic herbs – plus the citrus, nuts, honey and dried fruits brought by the Arabs. A diet which was – out of necessity – rich in legumes, grains and vegetables cooked in olive oil and enriched with a little dairy has proven to be not only delicious but healthy. Inland, lamb and goat are popular – while on the coast people eat seafood, especially clams and octopus harvested along the rocky coast. Naples, under Spanish rule at the time, was among the first places in Italy to embrace New World tomatoes and capsicums (peppers), which quickly found a place in local cuisine.
I love the south for its pasta, wealth of simple vegetable dishes, sun-ripened fruits, generous use of robust olive oil, chilli and garlic. Most of all I love its tradition of taking time to share the enjoyment of ‘le piccole cose’ (the little things) because, at the end of the day, that’s what makes life worth living.
Immerse yourself in the food culture of Rome & Southern Italy. Visit food and wine producers, eat regional specialties in local restaurants and enjoy hands-on cooking with like-minded food and wine lovers in a relaxed, comfortable environment on this southern Italian food & wine tour.
The above itinerary covers the tour highlights – the order of activities and locations may vary.
My Southern Italy & Rome food and wine tour starts and finishes in Rome (Lazio), with meals in some of the city’s most traditional trattorie and a visit to a family winery in the Roman hills.
From Rome we head south to the Amalfi Coast (Campania), staying in a peaceful village – above the hubbub of the coast – with magnificent views.
Then we turn inland to rugged, little-known Basilicata for the volcanic vineyards of Monte Vulture and the cave city of Matera, before returning to Rome via Pompeii.
Basilicata – in the instep of Italy’s boot between Campania, Puglia and Calabria – is one of the country’s least-visited regions.
Among other things, it’s known for Aglianico del Vulture, one of southern Italy’s great red wines; the ancient cave city of Matera with a 10,000-year history of habitation; and stretched-curd cheeses like caciocavallo, which we see made at a family dairy near Matera.
Many southern Italian wines are made from grape varieties rarely found elsewhere.
On this southern Italian culinary tour, we’ll taste native Lazio varieties in the Roman hills; Costa d’Amalfi wines in the mountain village of Tramonti; Aglianico del Vulture made by one of Italy’s best winemakers, Elena Fucci, in Basilicata; and Vesuvius wines from vines over 100 years old beside Pompeii – plus local wines with every lunch and dinner.
This tour includes some walking to and from dinner through Rome’s cobbled streets.
While the Amalfi Coast’s steep hillsides and the stepped alleyways of Matera’s sassi offer the opportunity for more walking for those who want it, transport is arranged for all destinations outside Rome and we explore the ancient sassi by Ape – the local three-wheeled mini-truck.
Being on tour with me is like travelling with a small group of food-loving friends. Discover all the details – from accommodation and restaurant style to catering for dietary requirements and travelling solo – in the FAQ on my Food & Wine Tours page.
