Try Home Food in Italy This Summer

I’ve mentioned how much I love the Home Food organization before, and even wrote about attending a Home Food dinner in Milan, so with the busy summer travel season ahead of us I wanted to remind everyone who’ll be in Italy this summer of this exceptionally cool opportunity to dine in a real Italian home and eat real Italian food. I just received the calendar for Home Food’s July 2008 dinners, and here are a few of the highlights.

Rome, July 5 - In this case you get a pair of cooks (Emanuala and Carlo), and some traditionally Roman dishes. (€39.90/person)

Bologna, July 6 - In the city where Home Food began, this meal is presented by Luisina and is representative of some of Italy’s most famous food. (€39.90/person)

Rome, July 13 - Flavia is the hostess of this dinner, which is a bit of a twist on long-held food traditions. (€39.90/person)

Florence, July 13 or July 30 - Carla is your hostess here in the heart of Florence, and she’s serving up some of her mother’s recipes. (€39.90/person)

Lucca, July 15 - Just outside the walled Tuscan city of Lucca, Antonietta is making up some Lucca specialties. (€34.90/person)

Venice, July 16 - Your hostess is Mercedes, who lives in the Cannregio district, and the meal focuses on some of Venice’s seafood specialties. (€39.90/person)

Naples, July 19 - A pair of hostesses (Assunta and Rosanna) present you with Neapolitan cuisine and (it sounds like) quite a view. (€39.90/person)

To sign up for one of these meals (or any of the others that are scheduled), you’ve just got to apply for a monthly membership with the Home Food folks - they’re very responsive, in my experience, and if you apply long enough before your trip they’ll mail you the necessary paperwork before you leave home. (Otherwise you can have it mailed to a hotel where you’ll be staying, and they also sent mine via email.) The monthly memberships, which are available to non-Italians only, are really inexpensive at about €7 per person, and that membership allows you to go to as many Home Food dinners in that month as you’d like (you still have to pay the fee for the meal, like those listed above).

You’ll find my tips about registering for Home Food at the bottom of the post about my Milan dinner, and you can also email the Home Food people for more information (see the Home Food website). It’s a really interesting way to experience a slice of Italian life that most tourists don’t get to see, and to make new friends in the process. So what are you waiting for? Book that Rome airfare and don’t forget to bring your appetite!