Rick Steves Italy 2015

At the foot of the Monti Lattari mountain range, 30 kilometres south-east of Naples, 15 from Vesuvius and round the cape from Sorrento, is a town called Gragnano. It is part of a staggering landscape, vertiginous, volcanic and productive – lemons, tomatoes, olives, grapes and pasta. If the story of pasta is a vast jigsaw, Gragnano is a vital piece.

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The Trattoria Don Ciccio in Taormina is located near the Cathedral in the heart of the city. It offers its customers fresh dishes of the best Sicilian tradition. Pasta, fish, meat freshly cooked and the best Sicilian wines and international.

“It’s the Italian tradition of dining as a discussion,” the German author Hans von Trotha commented over dessert. At Santa Maddalena, unhurried meals, served with Monti’s century of stories and the camaraderie of table-side banter, break up the workday. The retreat functions like a sleepaway camp for great writers, its ritual group meals and hoursl... See more