Welcome to the Via Rosa Newsletter—so glad you’re here!
Here’s a taste of the newest content we’ve been sharing on our website lately - a fresh roundup of stories, updates, and inspiration we can’t wait for you to explore. Plus openings on tours for 2026 & 2027!!
Via Rosa organizes small group tours that explore Italy’s rich and diverse food culture. Each journey is thoughtfully led by either Elizabeth or Sophie—the founders of Via Rosa—or by a carefully selected guest host from their trusted circle of food experts and friends.
While most of our tours are currently waitlist-only (they sell out fast!), a few spots are still available on a handful of our tours. As a subscriber to this newsletter, you’re among the first to hear about these limited openings.
September 27-October 3: Eastern Sicily with Elizabeth Minchilli (3 spots left)
October 18-24: Parma with Shereen Pavlides (2 spots left)
We still have some spots available on our tours to Parma, Sicily and Puglia for next year. Visit our website for the details.
If there’s one thing Italians know how to do well, it’s spend a day at the beach. And with summer finally here, the timing couldn’t be better. Even the first warm weekends of spring are enough to send entire families towards the sea, cars packed with umbrellas, beach bags, folding chairs, and enough food to feed a small army. And by August, it seems as though half the country has migrated to the coast.
Of course, everyone has their favourite stretch of coastline, and everyone swears theirs is the best. And honestly, they might all be right. Some people swear by the long sandy beaches of Sardinia, others prefer the wilder, rocky coves in Cilento. Some go for the beach clubs and aperitivo scene, while others are happiest with nothing more than a towel spread on a quiet patch of sand.
Of course, a day at the beach in Italy is about much more than sun and sea. It’s the seafood lunch that somehow stretches well into the afternoon, the stroll along the waterfront before dinner, the beach bar where you stop for a coffee and end up staying for an hour, catching up with friends between dips in the sea.
Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to spend my summer vacations on beaches all over Italy, from famous stretches of sand to more hidden corners that still feel almost untouched. Here are some of my favourites.
There’s no doubt that Venice is one of the most beautiful and unique cities in Italy, but it’s not the easiest place to eat well. Tourists outnumber residents here, so there are lots of tourist traps that cater to them. If you want to eat like the locals do, you have to know where (and what) to eat in Venice.
Venetian cuisine tends to focus on the fresh seafood fished from the lagoon, which is not necessarily the kind of fish you’ll find in the sea. Local specialties include softshell crabs (when in season), risotto with black squid ink, sarde in saor (sweet and sour sardines), and baccalà mantecato (whipped codfish). You’ll also find vegetables native to this part of Italy, such as castraure (the first, prized buds of the purple artichokes that grow on the island of Sant’Erasmo), radicchio di Treviso, and squash.
Venetian restaurants tend to be small and the good ones book up in advance, so be sure to make reservations ahead of time, especially during major events like the Biennale. If you find yourself without reservations and in need of a bite, you can always go to a bacaro for cicchetti (we have a whole guide to them here). When we want to sit down for a proper meal or a drink, these are the places we like to go, in alphabetical order.
Salento is the southern tip of Puglia and it feels like its own little world. We’ve been coming here for years, and every time I return I’m reminded why people fall so hard for this part of Italy. The light is softer, the sea seems to shine a little brighter, and the pace of life slows down, tempting you to stay longer than just a few days.
Most people try to see all of Puglia in one go, but Salento really deserves time of its own. The towns are close to each other, yet each has its own character, from Lecce’s golden stone streets and baroque churches to the tiny inland villages and quiet fishing towns along the coast. You can spend your morning swimming in water so clear it looks unreal, then settle in for a long lunch in a simple seafood trattoria where recipes haven’t changed in decades.
Here are some of my favorite places to eat and drink in Salento.
In Italy, there are hundreds (maybe even thousands!) of different types of cheese. Parmigiano Reggiano, mozzarella, and burrata are among the most famous, but if you spend any time in Rome, you’ll quickly learn that pecorino is everywhere. The most classic Roman pastas feature pecorino romano, not parmigiano, and the hard, salty cheese sometimes appears in sandwiches, meat and cheese boards, and elsewhere.
But pecorino romano isn’t the only type of pecorino, so what exactly is pecorino anyway? And how can you choose the right pecorino? Read on to find out.
You can find our full schedule of week-long food tours in Italy by clicking the button below:
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