One of the open secrets about eating in Italy is this: The food in the touristed cities often isn’t great. If you’re walking Centro Storico in Rome and pick a dinner spot at random, chances are it’s going to be underwhelming, even if you have a hard time admitting it to yourself. Or underwhelming relative to the top-end places to eat in the city and nearby country.

It’s a similar story in New York, San Francisco, and in Phoenix. People like to ask me where I go in greater Phoenix for Italian food. They are especially curious if I've shared some of my connections to Italy (once worked on farms and vineyards there, first met my wife in Rome, have great-grandparents from the Italian south and Sicily ... ).