Although the twentieth century has done much to blur the regional differences of Italian food, they are still there - and often highly evident, with the French influence strong in Piemonte, Austrian flavors in Alto Adige, and even Greek in Calabria. Italy has remained largely untouched by the latter-day boom in non-indigenous eating, partly due to its lack of any substantial colonial legacy but also because of the innate chauvinism of Italian eating habits. The exceptions are the Chinese restaurants that crop up in every town, the ubiquitous burger bars, and recently Spanish, Japanese and North African cuisine has started to pop up in more cosmopolitan towns especially, of course, Rome and Milan. More usually, the exotic option is sampling cooking from other parts of the country. Milan tends to be the favorite melting-pot, with restaurants specializing in food from all regions.

True to the stereotype that every Italian believes that Italian food is the best in the world and that mamma's is always the perfect example, many restaurants are simply an extension of the home dining table. Adventure is not usually on the menu. There has been some limited experimentation with new, "trendier" ingredients like whole-wheat pasta and brown rice, but probably the best you'd get if you asked a waiter for any such thing would be a raised eyebrow; request a whole-wheat pizza and you'd certainly be laughed out of sight. Vegetarian restaurants , too, have been slow to catch on, and you're only likely to find them in major cities, but there are always plenty of non-meat choices on every menu.

Perhaps the most striking thing about eating in Italy is how deeply embedded in the culture it really is. Food is celebrated with gusto: traditional meals tend to consist of many courses and can seem to last forever, starting with an antipasto, followed by a risotto or a pasta dish, leading on to a fish or meat course, cheese, and finished with fresh fruit and coffee. Even everyday meals are a scaled-down version of the full-blown affair. Shopping for food is a serious matter. Supermarkets have yet to make any real impact on the dominance of the traditional store in town centers, and food stores of every description abound. Street markets, too, can be exhilarating, selling bountiful, fresh and flavorsome produce. Happily, the Italians as yet haven't adopted the heavy cropping methods which result in completely tasteless produce - even a simple raw tomato can be a revelation.

Foods like bread and cheese are still made with an eye on quality. Bread is almost entirely made by small bakeries and tends to get heavier, crustier and more salty the further south you go (for eating with salty hams, salami and cheeses there is pane senza sale ). Cheese is often factory produced, with large firms like the Milan-based Galbani marketing common varieties like Bel Paese, Gorgonzola and Taleggio. But cheese-making also remains in the hands of local farmers working to traditional recipes: local tastes are much in evidence.

Breakfast, snacks and ice cream
Most Italians start their day in a bar, their breakfast consisting of a coffee with hot milk ( cappuccino ) and a brioche or cornetto - a jam-, custard- or chocolate-filled croissant, which you usually help yourself to from the counter and eat standing at the bar. Breakfast in a hotel ( prima colazione ) is often a limp affair of bread and processed meats, often not worth the price.

At other times of the day, sandwiches (panini  can be pretty substantial, a bread stick or roll packed with any number of fillings. A sandwich bar ( paninoteca ) in larger towns and cities, and in smaller places a grocer's shop (alimentari) will normally make you up whatever you want; you'll pay £3000-5000/?1.55-2.58 each. Bars may also offer tramezzini, ready-made sliced white bread with mixed fillings - less appetizing than the average panino but still tasty and slightly cheaper at around £3000/?1.55 a time. Toasted sandwiches ( toast ) are common, too: in a paninoteca you can get whatever you want toasted; in ordinary bars it's more likely to be a variation on cheese or ham with tomato.

If you want hot takeaway food there are a number of options. It's possible to find slices of pizza (pizza rustica or pizza al taglio) pretty much everywhere, and you can get most of the things already mentioned, plus pasta, chips, even full hot meals, in a távola calda , a sort of stand-up snack bar that's at its best in the morning when everything is fresh. Some are self-service and have limited seating, too. The bigger towns have these, and there's often one inside larger train stations. Another alternative is a rosticceria , where the specialty is spit-roast chicken but other fast foods such as slices of pizza, chips and hamburgers, or stuffed roasted vegetables, are also often served.

Other sources of quick snacks are markets , some of which sell takeaway food from stalls, including focacce - oven-baked pastries topped with cheese or tomato or filled with spinach, fried offal or meat - and arancini or supplì - deep-fried balls of rice with meat (rosso) or butter and cheese (bianco) filling. Supermarkets , also, are an obvious stop for a picnic lunch: the major department store chains, Upim and Standa, often have food halls.

Italian ice cream ( gelato ) is justifiably famous: a cone (un cono) is an indispensable accessory to the evening passeggiata. Most bars have a fairly good selection, but for real choice go to a gelateria , where the range is a tribute to the Italian imagination and flair for display. You'll sometimes have to go by appearance rather than attempting to decipher their exotic names, many of which don't even mean much to Italians: often the basics - chocolate and strawberry - are best. There's no problem locating the finest gelateria in town - it's the one that draws the crowds - and we've noted the really special places throughout the Guide. If in doubt, go for the places that make their own ice cream, denoted by the sign "Produzione Propria" outside.

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