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The Italian Edit: hidden gems in Italy chosen by an architect
Hidden gems Italy keeps away from the crowds, chosen by an architect: farms, taverns and wineries where food is made the old way.
Hidden gems Italy: a collection chosen by an architect
The Italian Edit is ELRE Travel’s collection of the most authentic hidden gems Italy has to offer: the precious places I find as I travel through the country, where the food is real, the wine comes from the land and the place, when it is beautiful, is truly beautiful. Farms, farm taverns, wineries, workshops, country houses. Few addresses, chosen one at a time, through an architect’s eyes.
It is not a ranking and it is not a complete guide. It is a notebook that grows place by place: every region has its own page, every place has a short entry with its story, a real photograph and the reason it is worth the journey. The first stop is Merano and South Tyrol.
Hidden gems Italy at a glance
- What we collect: food, wine and wineries, places and architecture, with special attention to traditional, simple and beautiful things.
- How we choose: four declared criteria, the same for every region.
- Honesty: every place carries a label, «Seen by me» or «Recommended · to be verified».
- Where we are: Merano and South Tyrol is online; the next regions are in preparation.
Merano and South Tyrol
Merano restaurants
The regions
The collection, region by region
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Contact usHidden gems Italy: the manifesto of a culinary journey
I travel through Italy and stop where the food is real. Not the fashionable restaurant, but the gem: traditional cooking, sometimes humble, always beautiful. As an architect I look for beauty everywhere, and at the table it is twofold: the beauty of a dish made the old way and the beauty of the place where you eat it. The hidden gems Italy keeps, the ones I look for, are often small, away from the main roads, where quality comes from a family’s work rather than from marketing.
For visitors looking for hidden gems Italy has kept away from the crowds, and especially for those who reach Italy from north of the Alps, these stops tell a simple story: in Italy, living well means eating well, living in a good house and surrounding yourself with good architecture. The three belong together. A stube of stone and wood, a vineyard on a slope, a cellar dug into the hillside are design lessons as much as a signature building.
The criteria: how I choose the hidden gems Italy deserves to show
Every place that joins the hidden gems Italy collection has to pass four criteria. I state them here so that readers can judge the choices, and because they apply to every region, from the mountains to the sea.
- Real food. Traditional cooking, local ingredients, skilled hands. Not fashion.
- Tradition and restraint. Simple things done well: stone, fire, wood, bread, wine.
- The beauty of the place. When it is there I describe it with an architect’s eye; when it is not, I say so.
- Worth the journey. Even for a single dish, as long as it is the right one.
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Hidden gems Italy, seen by me or recommended: the rule of honesty
The collection always separates two things. «Seen by me» means I have been there in person and the photographs are mine: it is a full recommendation. «Recommended · to be verified» means the place has solid official sources but I have not tried it yet: I list it because it deserves attention, not because I vouch for it. When I visit, the label changes; if it does not convince me, the place leaves the collection.
No place pays to appear among the hidden gems Italy collection on ELRE. Practical information such as opening hours, seasons and addresses comes from official websites and is dated; the photographs are mine or carry a declared author and licence. It is the same method we use on ELRE for houses: declared sources, no invented praise.
The regions of the hidden gems Italy collection
Merano and South Tyrol
The first stop among the hidden gems Italy keeps is the Merano basin. The place I have seen is the Rauthof, a Buschenschank farm tavern in the hills above town, with bare stone walls, the farm’s own produce and its house wine. Alongside it, three recommended addresses still to be verified: the Prezioso restaurant at Castel Fragsburg, the Merano winery in Marling and the Kränzelhof in Tscherms, with its art garden. Everything is on the page Merano restaurants.
South Tyrol is a natural starting point: the farm tradition here is alive and organised, and the Red Rooster label has certified rural quality for years. It was a model for this collection, with one difference: Red Rooster covers the whole province, while I choose a few places, looking at the beauty of the place as well.
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The next regions
More stops of the hidden gems Italy collection are in preparation, always under the same rule: a region is published only when I have at least one place seen in person. The regions I am working on are Sicily, the Mantua area, the Veneto and Tuscany. I give no dates: a region arrives when it is ready.
Hidden gems Italy in four pillars: food, wine, places, architecture
Every entry belongs to one or more pillars. Food gathers farm taverns, farms and trattorias serving the cooking of their land. Wine gathers wineries and estates you can visit, with tastings and direct sales. Places gathers gardens, villages and landscapes worth a detour. Architecture is the point of view of the whole collection.
On ELRE, architecture does not mean reviewing other practices: it is the view of the Federico Cappellina studio, which designs bespoke villas in the Veneto and on Lake Garda. On the regional pages you will find some of the studio’s projects next to the places, because people who love the hidden gems Italy offers often look for a home that speaks the same language of stone, wood and light.
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How to read a hidden gems Italy entry
Every entry has the same structure: the name and the place, the «Seen by me» or «Recommended» label, a real photograph, a short note on what makes the place special and the link to its official website. Where useful I add a practical tip: the right season, whether to book, how to get there. Entries do not go into the site menu: they live inside their region’s page, so the collection stays tidy as it grows.
If you know a place that should join the hidden gems Italy collection, write to us from the contact page: we will add it to the list of visits, labelled «recommended» until we have seen it.
How the hidden gems Italy collection grows
The collection grows in the simplest way: when I find a place that deserves it, I photograph it, write two lines on what struck me and note the location. That becomes the entry, which I check against official sources before publishing: address, season, website, any awards.
If a detail cannot be confirmed, I leave it out. It is slow work by choice, because the hidden gems Italy keeps cannot be counted by the dozen in a week: they are found one at a time, often by chance, almost always thanks to the people who live there.
Every page is published in Italian and English, for those who come to discover Italy from abroad; German will follow, with South Tyrol and travellers from north of the Alps in mind. Entries are updated when something changes: opening hours, a season, a label moving from «recommended» to «seen by me». At the bottom of every page you will find the sources and the date we consulted them.
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Hidden gems Italy: frequently asked questions
What is ELRE's Italian Edit?
A collection of hidden gems Italy keeps, chosen by an architect: farm taverns, farms, wineries and places where the food is real and the setting is beautiful, region by region.
How are the places chosen?
Hidden gems Italy entries are chosen with four declared criteria: real food, tradition and restraint, beauty of the place, worth the journey. Every place carries the label «Seen by me» or «Recommended · to be verified».
Do places pay to appear?
No. No place pays to join the hidden gems Italy collection; practical information comes from official websites and photographs carry a declared author.
Which regions are available?
For now Merano and South Tyrol. Sicily, the Mantua area, the Veneto and Tuscany are in preparation and will be published when ready.
What does an architect have to do with food?
Where people eat well, material, light and landscape matter too. An architect’s eye helps recognise the places where cooking and beauty belong together.
A home that speaks the same language
Stone, wood, light and landscape: the same qualities as the hidden gems Italy offers in this collection are the material of a bespoke villa. Discover the studio’s projects or read how we work in Signature Architecture.
Sources, consulted on 12 November 2026: Red Rooster / Roter Hahn and South Tyrol tourism board; the sources for each place are on its region’s page. Photos: Rauthof, Federico Cappellina; Marling vineyards, Luigino, public domain, Wikimedia Commons; Kränzelhof, ManfredK, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. No place paid to appear in this collection.
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