Italy is famous for its fantastic cuisine and wide selection of dishes. Of all the things I’ve tried so far, my first pick would be the Gnocchi. Unlike the United States, most of the pasta here is made from scratch. Gnocchi is basically little hand-rolled potato balls with either a red or cream sauce on top. My Gnocchi wasn’t chewy like the kind I would have gotten at a restaurant like Carrabba’s in the United States. Not only did the Gnocchi itself basically melt in my mouth, but the sauce was just the right consistency and richness. The restaurant itself was a charming little place with flowery fabric table cloths and black satin napkins. It also had several deserts that you can’t get in the United States that you could go look at through the counter and choose from!

My second favorite thing I tried was spaghetti with pesto. The pasta itself was cooked to perfection, not too hard and not too soft. Anytime I order a pesto dish in the United States it’s either too salty or too heavy, but this was not the case in Italy. Considering this dish probably originated here they know how to do it right! The sauce was cheesy and had proportional spices throughout. Again, this restaurant was a very tiny quaint place with a more casual atmosphere.

As seen in the pictures, there is only pasta on each dish. For American’s this may be confusing because we live in a supersized-bang for the buck type of society, but for Italian’s this is a normal custom. Any extra sides, soups, or salads have to be ordered separately and don’t come as part of the dish. This ultimately leads to less waste and less food consumption because individuals don’t feel obligated to finish everything on their plate or throw out what they don’t eat.

I always wondered why Italians took hours to eat their meals and now I know why! It’s because they have to savor every single magical bite and take in every  picuresque atmosphere.