Eating Up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa

I have never read a book that made me hungry until I read Eating up Italy: Voyages on a Vespa by Matthew Fort. Eating up Italy is an entertaining and fast paced read about Fort’s travels from the southernmost tip of the mainland of Italy to the northernmost tip. What makes this different from other travelogues I have read is that Fort focuses on the food he eats along the way to truly understand the country. Eating up Italy is full of rich descriptions of everything Fort experiences, with the most focus on the experience of his meals. To make the book even more enjoyable, recipes of some of the foods Fort writes about is included at the conclusion of each chapter.

What I enjoyed most about Eating up Italy were some of Fort's clever insights and I found myself giggling at some of the situations he got himself into. I also appreciated the honest and truthful descriptions of the places Fort visited and foods he ate. There was no sugarcoating of descriptions of any foods that were not to his liking or places that were less than stellar. But even with these blunt descriptions and after finishing Fort’s story, my desire to travel to Italy and experience the country the way it was meant to be experienced has deepened. ( )