This is John Batchelor, a conversation with my longtime colleague and guide in Italy, Lorenzo Fiore,

about traveling to Italy but not the over-tourism worries of the Italian government, Rome and Ferenzi and Milan.

But out-of-the-way places to foreign visitors, well-known to Italian vacationers. Avoid all of these in

August, of course, but the recommendation is for June and July and especially for September and

October because of the mild climate. This is Tropeia, which is on the toe of the boot. It is a seaside resort with a vast white sand beach in front of the hotels filled with

ruins, I'm told.

Roman, Byzantine, the Crusaders.

Everybody's been tootropaya for 2,000 years and before.

And then I always ask Lorenzo for a meal to recommend

going to these out-of-the-way places that only Italians go in August.

And he came up with a red and white onion, a long onion,

not a round one as we have here.

And how to prepare it, the heat, the garlic, the

olive oil, the breadcrumbs, the kinds of cheese, and then he adds a wine. I don't know

wine, but he does, and I listen to him. Here's Lorenzo on a meal for Tropeia and perhaps

also for America.

Much more of this later and in coming weeks.

Well, I do recommend a wine that comes from Sicily, which is just a few miles from Tropeia.

I mean, crossing the Messina Channel and in Sicily there is Marsala.

Marsala is made with dry raisin.

It's a typical wine for dessert, sweet a bit of liquidous,

but perfect to join, let's say, the sour

...