Best Dining Bets

Cibrèo (Florence; tel. 055-234-1100): The amalgamated country-style decor of this restaurant belies its status as one of the city's finest kitchens. The dishes are Tuscan at heart -- though they buck the standard by serving no pasta and little grilled meat -- with innovative touches and plenty of peperoncino for spice. You may have to wait for an hour even with a reservation, but the wait is invariably worth it.

La Giostra (Florence; tel. 055-241-341): A closet prince and double Ph.D. decided in retirement to indulge his love of cooking and open this little-known fine restaurant a few blocks east of the Duomo. He doesn't stick strictly to Tuscan dishes, but rather lets his culinary imagination and half-Hapsburg heritage marry Italian and Austrian cooking, with occasionally spectacular results. He also makes the best Sacher torte this side of Vienna.

Osteria le Logge (Siena; tel. 0577-48-013): In a room that looks a bit like an 18th-century apothecary shop, Siena's most accommodating staff serves some of the city's finest food. They take pride in their die-hard Tuscan dishes and urge you to try their traditional specialties. There's a reason the Sienese come here when they want to celebrate -- taste for yourself.

Il Piraña (Prato; tel. 0574-25-746): One of the best seafood restaurants in Italy is stuck in the modern outskirts of landlocked Prato. The atmosphere is refined but thoroughly modern, and the chef really knows what he's doing with any kind of fresh fish (flown in daily from both of Italy's seas), crustacean, or mollusk. A meal will set you back, but for any lover of frutti di mare (fruits of the sea), it's worth the side trip from nearby Florence.

La Buca di Sant'Antonio (Lucca; tel. 0583-55-881): This maze of a restaurant hidden in the maze of Lucca's central alleys has been pleasing palates since 1782. The decor is hodgepodge trattoria style, but the service is professional and the food is high-toned Tuscan. The stuffed pastas are excellent and the sauces light and delicate. The spit-roasted kid is the knockdown second course.

Ristorante Zaira (Chiusi; tel. 0578-20-260): Chiusi has several fine dining spots, but this one just edges out the others for its pasta del lucumone -- ziti, ham, and three cheeses baked in a ceramic bowl until a crunchy brown crust forms -- and for the moldy ancient wine cellars you can tour after your meal.

Il Falchetto (Perugia; tel. 075-573-1775): Years of success and a location on the edge of the town's main square haven't encouraged Perugia's most popular restaurant to lower its standards or to stop making some of the best Umbrian food in town. The homemade pastas are great, but the specialty is a melt-in-your-mouth casserole of spinach-and-ricotta gnocchi.

Osteria del Gambero (Ubu Re); Perugia; tel. 075-573-5461): You could make a meal here just out of the delicious and seemingly bottomless assortment of fresh breads and rolls. Of course, that would entail ignoring the incredible pasta and meat courses. The intimate candlelit restaurant is up on the second floor on a side street, so few people even know it exists. Get here before Michelin starts strewing stars about the place.

Il Tartufo (Spoleto; tel. 0743-40-236): The floor of the lower dining room actually dates to the Roman Imperial era, but it's open only during the festival season. People really come here to taste some of the most refined and successful culinary uses of truffles in Italy. They work all seasons of the truffle here, and the chef is a master at coaxing out the tuber's delicate flavor in both Umbrian and international dishes.

The Best Trattorie in Town

When you're not in the mood for a formal restaurant, head instead to a homey trattoria, where locals and families go for filling and tasty simple fare at great prices.

I' Cche' c'è c'è (Florence; tel. 055-216-589): Tuscan standbys like tagliatelle with wild mushrooms and beef cooked in Chianti wine get a refined touch here. This place is far from undiscovered, but being crowded at the long central table (much more fun than the private reservable ones ringing the room) with diners from across the globe has its own charm.

Il Latini (Florence; tel. 055-210-916): Squadrons of prosciutto ham hocks hang from the ceiling, and the waiters scamper around cracking jokes as they fit new arrivals into spaces at long communal tables like a jigsaw puzzle and lay huge platters of grilled meats and bowls of steaming ribollita (vegetable soup) in front of hungry diners. Although tourists have known about this place for decades, it remains a fun-loving local's-style trattoria, concerned above all with showing you a noisy good time and stuffing you with hearty Florentine fare.

Il Pizzaiuolo (Florence; tel. 055-241-171): Florentines can't make a decent pizza. But owner Carmine emigrated from Naples and brought with him that city's ancient trade secrets and the plans for a huge brick oven. This place is like a bit of old Napoli, with long tables, loud conversations, historic Naples photos lining the walls, incredible bubbling pizzas being passed to and fro, and basil leaves as table centerpieces. Come early, stay late, eat hearty.

Il Cantinone (Florence; tel. 055-218-898): Under the brick barrel vault of an old chianti cellar stretch long wooden tables where students, intellectuals, and extended families crowd nightly. The wine list is outstanding, as are the piping hot crostoni (pizzalike slabs of peasant bread slathered with toppings like prosciutto, gooey mozzarella, spinach, and tomatoes). This is the perfect place to head for a noisy, cheap but tasty meal.

Trattoria S. Omobono (Pisa; tel. 050-540-847): This tiny, no-nonsense room behind Pisa's daily food market serves real Pisan food the way Mamma used to make it. The place fills up early at every meal.

Cittino (Montepulciano; tel. 0578-757-335): Marcella will bustle you upstairs to her expanded den cum dining room and serve you heaping portions of pasta -- she spends the morning whipping up batches of homemade gnocchi and pici -- smothered in ragout or spicy tomato sauce. It's a no-frills place with excellent food, ridiculously low prices, and the biggest smiles in town.

Ristorante Fiorentino (Sansepolcro; tel. 0575-742-033): In Sansepolcro's old inn for visiting Piero fans, you'll get the best fundamental Tuscan food in the city. If you're lucky, the burly owner may pull over a chair to explain the finer points of Piero della Francesca's art or jab his thumb at tables and rattle off lists of famous people who've eaten his humble but tasty cooking in that chair right over there.

Umbria (Todi; tel. 075-894-2737): The traditional dishes of southern Umbria are at their best here, with fresh ingredients like wild asparagus tips, wood mushrooms, wild duck and boar, fresh river trout, truffles, and handmade pastas. In summer, the vine-shaded back terrace offers sweeping views across hilly farmscape. In winter, you can warm by the open fire where they grill your second course.

The Best Countryside Trattorie

Trattoria le Cave di Maiano (near Florence; tel. 055-59-133): This is many a Florentine's not-so-secret culinary escape in the cool hills above the city. You can dine inside the rustic farmhouse or out on the famous tree-shaded terrace with its distant view of Florence. The food is classic, well-prepared Florentine.

La Cantinetta di Rignana (Chianti; tel. 055-852-601): After an eternity of potholes and twisting dirt roads, you'll come upon a group of houses lost in the hills between Greve and Badia a Passignano. Curing meats hang in the doorway, and the cloth-covered tables are amusingly lit by end-table lamps. The homemade pasta is first rate, as are the grilled meats. Settle back after a hearty lunch on the glassed-in porch with some hard biscotti and a glass of vin santo to soften them and drink in the vista spilling across the vine-covered hills of the Rignana estate.

Rafanelli (outside Pistoia; tel. 0573-532-046): Though Pistoia's miniature tree nursery industrial zone has grown up around this one-time countryside trattoria over the past 60 years or so, the Rafanelli family hasn't changed its commitment to the fundamentals of Tuscan cooking: wide homemade noodles in hare sauce, wild boar cooked in red wine, and risotto with porcini mushrooms, all served in abundant portions.

Ristorante di Poggio Antico (near Montalcino; tel. 0577-849-200): The cheap, old trattoria on this famous wine estate shocked many when it reopened with a new minimalist interior and a talented nuova cucina chef spearheading the kitchen. Surrounded by vines that produce some of the silkiest Brunello wines in the region, you can dine on the most refined food in this part of Tuscany, where everything from the breadsticks to the dessert is homemade.

Fattoria Pulcino (outside Montepulciano; tel. 0578-758-711): If you're hankering for a country lunch on a working farm, come to this huge, sun-filled dining hall. You get the kind of rib-sticking food once dished out to the farm hands -- plates of homemade pici pasta, platters of grilled meats -- along with the owner's famous honeyed fruitcake for dessert.

Relais Il Falconiere (outside Cortona; tel. 0575/612-616 0575-612): The food and service are impeccable, and the atmosphere sophisticated. Classical music floats across your table; when it's warm and the tables are set on the lawn, crickets take over for Vivaldi. The chefs marry the best fresh ingredients, many cultivated by the owners themselves, with Tuscan recipes to make this one of the most popular restaurants in Tuscany. Follow the foodies who know which turnoff leads to this culinary hideaway.

La Stalla (outside Assisi; tel. 075-812-317): This is the quintessential countryside trattoria, the sort of place where scattered Italian families get together for monthly reunions. The low ceilings are black with centuries of wood smoke pouring from the open fire over which grilled meats sizzle. At the long wooden communal tables you can wash down a platter of homemade pasta and another of grilled lamb with copious quantities of the house red.