Finding the best Italy food tour can be a challenging task with so many different options across Italy to choose from. Before selecting the specific food tour, there are several questions to answer – the type of food tour, its duration and whether it is a short experience, a fully day, or a multiple-day package tour, where the food tour will visit, who leads the tour, whether it is just a food tour or also includes tastings, a cooking workshop, and/or, a meal. In this article, we will get to the bottom of these questions and help you find the best Italy food tour.
How to select the best Italy food tour?
When selecting the best Italy food tour, you should pay attention to the following questions:
- Who is leading the tour? Look for food tours in Italy which are led by local chefs, food experts, or local insiders. These tours will provide you with the best experience as these experts will have a better knowledge and passion for food and their location than any regular tour guide. On Tourist Journey we select all our food tours around this criteria as we believe that it purely enhances the experience.
- What does the tour include? Some tours might be a great way to get a basic introduction to the location through its food and serve as a kind of hybrid city tour and food tour. This can be great if you are short on time. Look for tours which include tastings.
- Is there a cooking workshop? And meal? A cooking workshop is one of the best styles of food tour experience in Italy as this will not only introduce you to the food but also enable you to prepare a meal alongside a local chef. Look out for how many dishes are included and whether or not you will go before the meal to buy the ingredients.
- How many people are in the group? On no group tour is the group size more important than a food tour. So aim for tours with no more than 20 participants, ideally up to 10. And if it’s a workshop, aim for no more than 10 participants.
- Is it a package? Or just a day or part-day experience? This of course depends on what you are looking for, but the duration of the experience is very important to knowing how it will fit into your trip.
- What is the trip type? There are endless types of different food tours in Italy. Each have their own advantages, which we examine in the next section of this article.
What is the best type of food tour in Italy?
There are several different types of food tours which you might come across in Italy. Each has distinct advantages and disadvantages. Each type of food tour serves a different audience, budget, and style of travel.
A market tour or short urban food tour
- Location – Usually within a city or village
- Duration – Usually one to two hours
- Led by – Important to be careful to ensure it’s led by a local insider food expert or chef. At Tourist Journey our food tours are all led by food experts and often chefs to ensure that the experience is more authentic
- Benefits – Market tours or short urban food tours types of tour can provide a great introduction to the location you are visiting and serve both as a city tour and introduction to the location’s cuisine.
- Includes – Often include tastings at stops along the way, and the guide will give you great recommendations for spending your time in the location
- Where will you find this in Italy? – Most cities
- Best food tour in Italy – For those who are short on time, those on a budget, not big foodies but want to experience some food content, or those looking to get acquainted with a new city or region.
- Examples – Naples Street Food Tour, Venice Food and Wine Tour, Rome Food Tour, Milan Food Tour, or see more food tours in Italy
An Italy cooking workshop
- Location – Usually within a city or village, sometimes at beautiful countryside locations.
- Duration – Usually two to four hours (longer if including purchasing ingredients before and a meal after)
- Led by – important to be careful to ensure it’s led by a local insider food expert or chef. At Tourist Journey our Italy cooking workshops are all led by chefs to ensure that the experience is more authentic
- Benefits – Provide a unique insight into the cuisine of the location, providing an authentic local experience, and of course, teaching you new techniques and dishes to impress your friends when you return home.
- Includes – Often include a market tour before the workshop, ingredients needed to make food, tastings at stops along the way, guided cooking in a kitchen, and a meal
- Where will you find this in Italy? – Most cities and regions
- Best food tour in Italy – For those looking for an insider local experience, to learn to cook authentic Italian dishes.
- Examples – Tuscan food workshop starting in Siena, Tuscan pizza workshop, Roman Pizza Making, pasta workshop in Verona. More cooking workshops can be found here.
Full day food related tours
- Location – Usually from a city to a countryside location or through a region.
- Duration – Usually 10 hours
- Led by – Important to be careful to ensure it’s led by a local insider food expert or chef. At Tourist Journey our food tours are all led by food experts and often chefs to ensure that the experience is more authentic
- Benefits – Get to visit locations which are otherwise hard to reach, often going off the beaten track, go to places which are super insider and only locals know, fuse the cuisine with other elements such as history, culture, nature or wine.
- Includes – Transportation, often includes tastings and lunch, guiding.
- Where will you find this in Italy? – From many cities to the surrounding region.
- Best food tour in Italy – For those looking to go off the beaten track and see beautiful countryside as well as enjoying the cuisine.
- Examples – flavors of Emilia Romagna from Bologna and Verona, Etna food and wine tour, Prosecco tasting from Venice, Taste of Tuscany. More full day food related tours, here.
Italy food tour package
- Location – Can range from one city to multiple cities and regions, depending on duration.
- Duration – From 3 to 14 days
- Led by – Important to be careful that the tours and experiences within the package are led by local experts, insiders, and chefs. Tourist Journey food packages of Italy are led by local guides, chefs, and insiders, in each location, meaning that you will be with a different expert for each day, providing, what we believe, is a far better food tour experience.
- Benefits – An immersive multiple day experience, includes accommodations, includes other complimentary experiences and tours, hassle-free including all practicalities.
- Includes – Multiple food tours, cooking workshops, other tours, hotels and accommodations, and everything else needed to create a perfect trip.
- Where will you find this in Italy? – Most cities and regions
- Best food tour in Italy – For those looking for a hassle free visit to Italy based around the country’s food, including everything, curated and brought together by experts.
- Examples – 14 day flavors of Italy food package, 5 day Rome food package tour, more Italy packages.
Customized Italy food journey
On a customized Italy food journey, you will decide where to go, for how many days, when to go, and what you want to experience. This is the best type of Italy food tour for many people as it is fully personalized. It will also include exactly what you want it to include. The process of creating a personalized Italy food journey takes just 3 minutes with Tourist Journey’s Create my Journey tool.
