The cuisine in Italy has really and truly been some of the best I’ve ever had in my life. At the beginning I was pretty skeptical because I was so used to how Italian food in America tasted that my expectations were hindered by it. However, after opening my taste buds up a bit and actually taking the time to find some really great places, I believe that I’ve made some amazing food memories here in Italy and I’d like to share my best of choices.

Best Spaghetti: The best spaghetti that I had was at the Dino restaurant in Florence. They prepared the spaghetti with fresh ricotta cheese and a tomato mint sauce. The mint accented the tomato sauce perfectly and the ricotta added a fresh creamy texture to the whole dish that just brought it to another level.

Best Pizza: We often ate at a locally owned pizza place in Urbino called Noi e Voi. They had some of the best pizza. It took me a while to find my favorite topping combination, but I finally decided it was the four cheese pizza with sausage. The four cheese pizza has a creamy sauce along with the tomato sauce you usually get with a pizza. It complemented the sausage, which was slightly spicy. I’m really going to miss this pizza when I go back to America.

Best Gelato: I think that I got gelato probably every day when I was in Urbino. It is so much better than ice cream. I think this is mostly due to the fact that each gelateria makes the flavors fresh each day. My favorite flavor was stracciatella, which was basically French vanilla gelato with dark chocolate strands. Romana gelateria in Urbino made it the best and I often ate it more than three times a week.

I’m so thankful for my food journey in Italy. There were so many great dishes and not enough meals to eat them all. I really loved Italy, but I’m even more excited to return to Knoxville and show off my new awareness of how to use fresh ingredients to create a masterpiece of a dish. Plus, I now know how to make a spaghetti dish that would make my Italian professor proud.

Jessica Carr is a rising junior in journalism and electronic media. She can be reached at [email protected].