Gambero Rosso online said in February that Paola Budel, the chef who made Venissa what it is/was, is leaving.

This has happened before, and it hasn't become any less annoying. I'm not even on the Chow site and have to listen to an endless succession of Chow Tips,

Please do something to stop this1

Poretta Terme is not now and never was near the historic center of Bologna. As far as La Capannina goes, I think I read in Bill Buford's book, in which he went to all the places where Batali had worked in Italy, that the couple who had owned La Capannina had found it more and more difficult to make an economic go of it and now owned a ristorante-pizzeria. The Italian Yellow pages list a ristorante-pizzeria called La Capannina in Granaglione, 3.2 km from Poretta Terme. I doubt that it's worth a trip from Bologna to eat there.

Have a look at this post: http://www.puntarellarossa.it/2012/09.... The emphasis is on booking a table, but it seems the second and the third (which is also available for Android) have reviews by people who have actually eaten at the places. How much of Italy is covered, how good or how reliable the apps are, I evidently can't say.

I think only the newish location, the premises on the Zattere formerly occupied by Riviera, has closed. A few weeks ago, Fontego's Web site showed both locations; now it only shows the one on Calle Priuli: http://www.alfontego.com/

The naming of clams as of much else in Italian cooking is not an exact science, and the same thing can go under different names, depending on the region. My Italian food dictionary says that arsella, of Genovese origin, is sometimes a name for the vongola verace, but it also says that it is sometimes a name for the tellina, a very small clam, which is itself a misnomer, because the clam commonly known as the tellina does not belong to the Tellinidae family of clam.

Edited: Just saw that Jinx added the photo.

In his order (he divides his Rome recommendations by area), here are Fred Plotkin's suggestions that I know people still agree with to a greater or lesser degree: Forno di Campo dei Fiori, Tazza d'Oro, Caffe Farnese, Antico Caffe Greco (for history), Agata e Romeo, Cavour 313, La Campana, Armando al Pantheon, Da Gino (I suggest it for lunch only), Da Sergio (a SlowFood pick, I think), Enoteca Corsi (he calls it Osteria Fabrizio Corsi), La Matricianella (also SlowFood, but some disagreement here in the forum), Da Tonio (he calls it Trattoria Antonio Bassetti), Margutta Vegetariano, Cul de Sac, Osteria dell'Angelo, Perilli a Testaccio (I'm in the Checchino camp myself), Volpetti Piu, Gastronomia Volpetti (Via Marmorata), Castroni, Gelateria Fatamorgana, Enoteca Achilli (he calls it al Parlamento), Palatium.

Many of his suggestions are still valid; the problem is that he doesn't have any of the new or now trendy places.

For Venice, I'd rely on PBSF's recommendations here.

The wisest advice in this thread. If you want to optimize your eating in Italy, rather than look for a dish you've had in Colorado, read up on the cooking of Rome, Florence, Bologna and Venice - they're all very different from each other - and eat the local dishes,

Why doesn’t someone actually look at what EM wrote about Palazzo Margherita for T&L?

She was there to check it out for T&L’s so-called “It List”, which, like so many of T&L’s features, is nothing more than fluff and hype, no matter who pays the bill. She could, in theory, have told T&L that Palazzo Margherita did not qualify for the “It List”, but realistically, how likely was she to give it a negative review? Her blog entries about her visit make it clear that she was thrilled to bits that T&L sent her there.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/artic...

I don't know about La Tavernaccia, but Perilli made its carbonara with rigatoni 15 years ago and probably still does.

It's been in its present location in Monti about a year and half, I think. Before that, it was in Monteverde (Rome) for a year or two. And before that, it made a name for itself in Orvieto (Umbria). Maybe it's just not the type of restaurant that a St. Regis concierge recommends to guests.

But can we assume that Antico Arco (always) uses truffle oil? Nancy S. writes that the dish was "overwhelmed with the acrid taste that truffle oil imparts", but Ricardo Malocchio describes the same dish as "Not intensely truffly tasting, alas, but a very mild dish in all respects."

Perhaps the moral of the story is that it is better not to order truffle dishes except when genuine white truffles are in season, which they are not in March.

I suggest you double-check where your reservation is for. Riccioli Cafe on Piazza delle Coppelle, a fairly pricey fish restaurant, is no more, and its premises have been taken over by Maxela, a meat-focused restaurant with somewhat lower prices. But be aware that some cuts are sold by weight.

Roscioli on Via dei Giubbonari is still there, but it's never been a budget choice.

I agree with the two previous posters that a reservation at 9:30 pm on your arrival day is pushing it.

You seem to be getting the idea that two full-course meals per day are more than most people can manage, but I wonder if you're realizing the time involved in avoiding ZTLs and parking. Giampe e Ciccio is in the historic center (ZTL zone) of Bologna. I would not expect to get out of a full-service restaurant, which a trattoria is, under an hour, even if I only had a primo, which I personally would not do.

In the meantime, it's 4 pm in Rome and no one else has replied, so here are my thoughts: Steak is not something that is done very well in Rome, except at Tuscan restaurants, although almost any restaurant can do a fairly acceptable filetto di manzo. The closest Tuscan restaurant to Termini is probably (the fairly pricey) Da Nino on Via Borgogna near the Spanish Steps. Further away is Cesare on Via Crescenzio in the Vatican area; it's possibly a little less expensive. There's an Italian chain of "American" steakhouses called Roadhouse Grill. Its closest branch is on Via Galvani in Testaccio, but it's generally considered mediocre to gawdawful. Or you can try a "French" restaurant called Charly's Sauciere on Via San Giovanni in Laterano; their steaks should be acceptable, and it's the closest to Termini.

Edited to add: I didn't see Jen's reply when I started writing.

Nope. The owner is Alessandro Pistoia. Here's a review from Puntarella Rossa:
http://www.puntarellarossa.it/2012/05...
It's fairly straightforward, so Google Translate shouldn't have problems with it.

My guess is that the "dough" was crespelle or crepes, which had been cooked before the log was rolled, so the log slices only had to be heated and browned.

I don't know it personally, but see what you can find about The Silver Spoon. It's a translation of an Italian cookbook, and I gather that in the most recent edition measurements have been converted from metric, which they hadn't been in the first American edition. It has recipes from all the Italian regions, not just Emilia Romagna, but being Italian and much more recent, it probably assumes - rightly or wrongly - that the correct ingredients are available, which it seems Kasper's much older book couldn't and didn't.

Some of the recipes are online in Italian at http://www.cucchiaio.it/; you could take a look at a few with the help of Google Translate to see if they appeal.

Osteria Francescana is not, in any case, the place to go in search of traditional cooking. It offers a traditional menu, but its I Classici is a menu of Bottura's creations. They are deeply rooted in local tradition, but traditional they are not. Go elsewhere for (less expensive) traditional cooking; go to Osteria Francescana for creative cuisine.

Frankly, I doubt it, A menu di degustazione is generally made up of a restaurant's best or best-known dishes, and it's unlikely that all or most of them would be vegetarian. Besides, most restaurants that serve a tasting menu ask that it be ordered by everyone at the table.

Dal Pescatore was No. 38 in 2011; it's still a drop of 32 places, but it's not a drop from the top 10. Osteria Francescana was No. 4 last year. The year-by-year listings are here:

http://www.theworlds50best.com/

As far as I can tell from reading food blogs and online food magazines by people who know far more about it than I do (one of them votes in the World's Best selection), there are changing trends in what is considered "top" in international haute cuisine, and there are also wheels within wheels, lobbies, politics. In other words, a drop in the ratings does not mean a similar drop in quality. Or a rise a similar rise in qualty: The No. 4 restaurant this year was up 11 places last year and is up another 7 places this year.

Read what you can about the two restaurants and what they have to offer and choose the one whose menu and approach appeal to you more. Neither is likely to disappoint you, if you have a fairly good idea going in of what to expect and not to expect.

You're probably thinking of the classic hill towns of the Val d'Orcia: Pienza, Montalcino, Montepulciano. They will not be less crowded then Greve, a classic Chianti hill town.

I hope you are aware that most agriturismos serve a set dinner.

I haven’t had much experience eating in Sorrento (I once spent three days there on a German-organized “cultural tour” of Campania), and almost all our (gawdawful) meals were in the hotel. Sorrento caters primarily to package tours from the UK and other northern European countries, and the food in restaurants as well as hotels tends to suffer as a result.

Trattoria da Emilia on Via Marina Grande was at one time (I don’t know if it still is) SlowFood’s only recommendation in Sorrento, and a SlowFood pick is generally fairly reliable as an indicator of the kind of place you’re looking for.

Otherwise, consider taking the Circumvesuviana to Vico Equense, which caters primarily to Italians and for that reason is likely to have better food. I can’t give you specific restaurant names, but I seem to recall that there were two or three SlowFood recommendations. You could try looking in a bookstore at the current (Italian) edition of Osterie d’Italia; even if you don’t read Italian, you’d get the names of recommended places in the area.

Failing specific recommendations, you might look at the agriturismi with restaurants in the Gubbio area listed here: http://www.agriturismo.it/en/farmhous...

In my experience, most agriturismi will accept dinner reservations from non-guests, but more often than not, it will be a set menu.

I don't think there's much choice in the way of restaurants on Murano. One Italian online restaurant guide that I've generally found reliable recommends only three: two inexpensive osterie/trattorie and one higher-priced one that might be suitable for a Motherig Sunday lunch: Busa alla Torre da Lele. It's on a campo, has outdoor tables and serves Venetian cuisine.

Anchovies, mache, sundried tomatoes and parsnip or turnip? I can't say I've ever come across it, and it's not a classic Roman combination. (Neither restaurant calls itself Roman; Papagio says Mediterranean and predominantly fish; Pace del Palato says national.) Maybe the owners are related? Maybe one "borrowed" it from the other? It's surprising that you came across the identical unusual combination in two restaurants.

Perhaps your expectations need to be adjusted. La Gensola is not a "highly rated restaurant"; it's a trattoria, better than most perhaps, but in a broad classification of Roman dining establishments, a trattoria ranks near the bottom of the list. Also, fish and seafood are not part of traditional Roman cooking and will always cost more than meat dishes.

Giggetto could possibly have prepared the artichokes more carefully - trimmed them better, drained them on absorbent paper - but artichokes per se, even the Roman globe artichokes now in season, are not a vegetable with a pronounced taste.

At Checchino, I'd have coda alla vaccinara (braised oxtail) and one of the classic Roman primi without tomato: cacio e pepe, alla gricia, alla carbonara.. Bear in mind, though, that Roman cooking, like most regional Italian cooking, is a "cucina povera", i.e., poor cuisine. It is simple and rustic (if one can call a city-based cuisine rustic); it is not a refined cuisine, in flavour or presentation. Also, Checchino is a ristorante, so prices will be somewhat higher than for the same dish in a trattoria. You may find them priced above their value and not worth the money. Even higher in price are some of the restaurants that do lighter, more creative cooking and place higher value on presentation, such as Roscioli, Antico Arco and Settembrini. They may respond more closely to your expectations, and I think all three are open on Monday.

What Mbfant and Vinoroma have said.

Two more aspects to consider: your appetite and your budget. If either is limited, it will not be possible for you to eat two full-course meals a day in restaurants. But Romans don't either, and they will often order only two courses, one of which will be a primo or a secondo. For inexpensive meals, consider pizza al taglio or a panino that you can have made up in the deli section of most supermarkets; even sit-down pizza in the evening is an inexpensive option. There are take-out places for prepared foods, which are also available in most grocery-store deli sections. A tavola calda, something like a cafeteria, is inexpensive and open throughout the day.

It's true that quality wines, sometimes also available by the glass, are better than house wines (in carafes or bottles) and have much less of a mark-up than in the US or (I assume) Japan, but mineral water, flat or fizzy, is an inexpensive and perfectly acceptable alternative to wine. Beer is often the preferred option with pizza, but it will possibly cost more than wine, as will soft drinks in restaurants.

If you're in Rome for six weeks, you do not have to and may not want to eat only Roman food. There are restaurants in Rome that specialize in other regional cuisines: Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Sicily, Campania, Le Marche, Sardinia. The regional restaurants are not all equally good, but some are very good indeed. And there are fish restaurants. Although Rome is close to the sea, fish, with the exception of only one dish that I can think of, is not part of traditional Roman cooking. It's best eaten in restaurants that specialize in it, and it will always be more expensive, whether priced by the portion or by weight (per etto or hg or 100 g). Ethnic food is also available, but it varies very widely in quality.

They're very different. Antico Arco is creative; Checchino is very traditional. Antico Arco is maybe more of a special-occasion place, but I find Checchino quite nice enough, even for a special occasion.