Italy

The Piedmont region of Italy is home to one of the world's most beautiful red wines—along with hilltop castles, extraordinary restaurants and valleys full of vines. Time to drink it all in.

Napolitano pies—huge, soupy and piled with bufala—are usually the first stop for any traveler to Southern Italy. But the cuisine in and around Naples goes deeper than pizza. Campania is a fertile agricultural region, providing produce—like its famous zucchini, tomatoes and citrus—to the rest of Italy. The Tyrrhenian sea to the west teems with octopus, anchovies and mussels, and windswept hills are studded with vineyards and olive orchards. Generations of farmers have maintained indigenous livestock breeds, providing meat and dairy products like the region’s beloved cheeses.What’s the best way to sample this region’s rich history and cuisine? In a perfect world, we’d all be able to take a road trip down the Italian coast—red convertible, wind in our hair, Sofia Loren-style. If this isn’t in the cards, fear not: You can still cook your way around Campania with Naples and the Amalfi Coast (April 2017), the latest in Phaidon’s Silver Spoon series on Italian cooking. The book, available now for pre-order, offers a culinary tour with recipes from each of Campania’s five provinces—check out a sneak peek below. —Hannah Walhout