For anyone who loves Italy, the phrase Dream of Italy has a certain magic to it. It suggests the Italy so many travelers carry in their imagination: hill towns, long meals, local stories, ancestral roots, beautiful landscapes and the possibility that a trip might become something much deeper than a vacation.

That's exactly what happened to Kathy McCabe, founder of Dream of Italy, when she first traveled to Italy with her mother to search for her grandfather's ancestral hometown. Her grandfather had dreamed of finding that village for most of his life. Kathy and her mother found it, and just 36 hours later, he passed away.

As Kathy told me in our conversation, it felt almost metaphysical, as though her grandfather had left Italy to her. What began as a personal journey soon became a lifelong obsession, and in 2002 Kathy founded Dream of Italy as a travel magazine and membership website. Today, more than two decades later, Dream of Italy has grown into a rich travel platform with more than 210 magazine issues, PBS television series and specials, travel planning services, moving-to-Italy resources, and now an expanding presence on YouTube and Substack.

If you love baking, Italy, and the kind of cookbook that offers much more than a stack of recipes, Domenica Marchetti's new book Italian Cookies sounds like a real delight. In this recent Flavor of Italy podcast conversation, Domenica joined me to talk about her ninth cookbook, a beautiful and deeply researched exploration of Italian cookies that goes far beyond the familiar idea of biscotti. What emerges from our conversation is a portrait of Italy told through butter cookies, almond cookies, olive oil doughs, rustic biscuits for dunking, and small-town specialties that carry generations of memory and pride.

If there is one flavor that quietly defines the Italian table from north to south, it's bitterness. Not harshness, and not austerity, but a layered, balancing bitterness that sharpens appetite, supports digestion, and brings depth to everything from aperitivo to dessert. Understanding bitter in Italian cuisine means understanding something essential about how Italians taste the world.

During a recent conversation with Lolly Martyn, we explored how bitterness runs through Italian food culture in surprising and beautiful ways - from wild greens gathered in fields to amari served after dinner, from espresso to radicchio risotto. For many visitors, bitterness is the most unfamiliar Italian flavor. For Italians, it's indispensable.