This is the Untold Italy travel podcast and you're listening to episode number 146.

Ciao at all and benvenuti to Untold Italy, the travel podcast where you go to the towns and villages,

mountains and lakes, hills and coastlines

of Bella Italia.

Each week your host, Katie Clark, takes you on a journey in search of magical landscapes,

history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course, a whole lot of pasta.

If you're dreaming of Italy and planning future adventures there,

you've come to the right place.

Ciao everyone. I'm just back from a whirlwind trip to Italy, where I visited Rome,

Sicily and Florence. I wouldn't recommend this type of trip to anyone on vacation, by the way.

I was there on business. But of course, even though it was fast-paced, I had an amazing time.

And when I was in Florence, I made a new friend. I do love that about this podcast, so many new friends.

Anyway, my new friend's name is Tony Mazzalia and she runs Taste Florence, a food and wine tour

company based in the Renaissance city. I had the pleasure of joining a Taste Florence tour with Tony,

and it inspired several ideas for podcast episodes, so of course I had to invite her

onto the show. So today Tony and I are going to be chatting about food gifts for friends,

family or yourself, ha ha, that you might bring back from your trip to Italy. There are so many

amazing Italian foodstuffs that you can't likely get at home, so it's a good idea to stock up

while you're there.

But as it's almost Christmas time, and many of us have already been to Italy this year,

we'll give you some ideas of where you can order them online too.

Otherwise, this episode would be a bit of a tease, don't you think?

...