Where did you eat in Italy? I found Italian food incredibly rich and delicious...with dirt cheap local wines to boot. Daily, I'd venture to the Markets and grab cheese, fresh bread, produce...go grab a couple bottles of wine. LOL. I think I gained 15 pounds? I'm not a big wine guy, there was wine in abundance with all our meals and I drank it like everyone else but it's kind of wasted on me. I was with a church tour group so our guide would bring us to different restaurants most nights. They were family run places and they fed us well. I don't want to hate on them, the food was fine but I guess I had high expectations. I also don't like seafood in any form. We would typically get many courses with a dinner, so sometimes if there was something I really liked it was just a small portion and then the next course would be served. In these situations we really didn't order for ourselves, they'd just seat us and then start bringing us food. When we were left to find our own food for like lunches when out sightseeing we didn't have much luck with places we chose. We tried to find places with authentic food or sometimes it was just quick street food which was comparable to fast food quality. I don't want make it seem like everywhere we went was a letdown because it wasn't, but my general feeling was I expected a different experience. One day I literally went and had Chinese food because I wanted something different lol. Oh man, that's funny - the Chinese food. I think, perhaps an addendum is in order, I have a skewed perspective. When I went, I went to watch my brother-in-law play in the Lega Basket Serie A, so I was pretty much treated to the best restaurant recommendations each and every stay. Outside of the Markets, I just relied on others local and expert opinions. I'll never forget the night we were treated to a dinner by the clearly apparent Mob boss in Avelino (in the South of Italy - distinctively different cuisine than Tuscany or the Po region). It was one plate after the next just rapid succession. Everything came with fresh grated truffles. It was insanity. At the end, we paid a grand total of the equivalent of like $20USD. Never was it more apparent to me that it's all about who you know and that I was living in a very impermanent Bubble while he had a career. Ted Kennedy used to clandestinely fly into Tuscany and eat at Monteriggioni's 'Ill Pozzo'. I used to stay at a BnB just outside the city - a repurposed Convent. I ran into him one night while eating solo. Wild times.