As in all of the Italian penninsula, the more local you eat, the more art you can find. Here in le Marche, the cuisine is quite different in the micro regional sense, particularly between the more experimental and modern touches apparent in the coastal cuisine versus the neoclassical cooking of the interior Apennines. My faves start on the southern coast, where several towns house nearly all of the great restaurants, the first of which is San Benedetto del Tronto. One of the most enticing things along the entire Costa Marchigiana is the offering of what is one of my favorite meal starters, raw or marinated seafood. The raw bounty of the Adriatic is well represented on many menus, particularly at Messer Chichibio (via Tiepolo 5 …tel 0735584001). Do not let the decor keep you away; the food is really good here. I love the marinated tuna with wild fennel, the great pastas, and the fact that the secondi, whether grilled or sautéed, often come with contorni and the odd vinaigrette. On the Piazza Nardone, number 8, is Ristorante Roma, a classic since 1948, where, apart from the sushi rice on one appetizer, I loved nearly everything. In particular, I loved the maccheroncini with cuttlefish and the mind bending eggplant involtino with monkfish and basil. They also served me a wacky dessert wine called visciolato, a kind of a cherry infusion that paired beautifully with a prickly pear sorbetto.

Up the coast a touch is the town of Grottamare where Lacche (via Procida, 1 tel…0735582728), is right on the lungomare and serves simple classic seafood at fair prices. Up the hill, a bit off of the tourist path, is Osteria dell’Arancio (piazza Peretti tel…0735631059), where they offer a killer prix-fixe menu for about 35 euro that may begin with a combo of local salumi, alici marinati, and some great takes on vegetables; followed by simple pasta and a choice of the main course of the day, which can include fish, guinea hen, or goose or other game. The meal finishes with delicious desserts.

Up past the not-so-pretty port town of Ancona is another treasure of a town, Senigallia. The guidebooks rave about La Madonnina del Pescatore, but I did not enjoy my experience there. I loved Al Cuoco di Bordo (Dante Aligheri 94 tel… 0717929661), where the verbal menu changes daily and always includes some interesting crudo, spectacular pastas like black spaghetti alla chitarra with squash blossoms and tiny shrimp, or a surprising orecchiette with clams and sea beans, or a great salt crusted bass. A couple of kilometers to the north is a pretty special country house, hotel and restaurant called Strada della Marina in a town called Scapezzano (tel… 0716608633). The rooms are a good deal and the food is definitely worth an overnight stay. My most recent meal started with a classic octopus salad with waxy potatoes, then went into a poetic gnocchi with a bug like shellfish called cannocchie cooked in a light tomato sauce that sang the song of sirens. The secondo sealed the deal; a monkfish in a red wine broth with snails and tiny trumpet mushrooms that was matched brilliantly with a young rosso piceno. There is a separate cheese tasting room for fanatics and a killer cellar to run up the check if you so desire.

Further north is truffle country, particularly white truffle country, as well as the zona di produzione di prosciutto carpegna and the cooking matches the ingredients. A place I did not want to like but could not resist is called Symposium Quattro Stagioni, in Serrungarina (tel…. 0721898320). Pricey and tiny at 36 seats, you definitely need to call in advance and bring plenty of money. The 5 menus are at least 110 euros each plus wine, and you will want wine. There are the oddities like foie gras, but the vast basis of the menus is local with a capital L. I still dream of a meal that started with a simple lentil soup with breast of thrush and truffles, followed by a dish of potato pappardelle with game bird ragù and lemon thyme, continued on with wild boar with an ethereal potato and celery puree, then a taste of some pecorino that had been buried a couple of months in a divine ditch, and finished with a cool zabaglione on a piece of bitter chocolate. After a meal here, spend a couple of days on the prosciutto carpegna diet at an osteria called L’Angolo Divino (via Sant’Andrea 12 tel…0722327559) in Urbino and your wallet may heal.

The widely known varieties today include the petit-gris. Fresh snails are available year round and can be found in specialty markets. If you cannot find fresh snails, other sea critters such as whelks or even conch work well in recipes. In a pinch, you can always use canned snails.

In Pianello, Marche, they celebrate the Sagra della Lumaca, which features an outdoor snail eating festival, complete with music and dancing.

You can purchase live snails at Wild Edibles in New York City. Make sure to call beforehand as they take a couple of days to arrive after ordering.

To prepare live snails for use, sprinkle bread crumbs over the bottom of a cardboard box or tightly woven basket (both should be tightly covered– despite their reputation for being painfully slow moving, snails can actually cover more ground than you would think). Place the snails in the box and let them rest for 24 hours, during which time they will begin to cleanse their digestive tracks. Next, wash them well in cold running water and then thoroughly drain them. Clean out the basket or box, sprinkle again with break crumbs and allow the snails to purge themselves over an additional five day period, cleaning and sprinkling the container with fresh breadcrumbs daily.

Rinse the snails well and then follow the instructions for our spaghetti with snails.

Friuli is one of the most active regions in the Movimento Turismo del Vino, a tourism promotion initiative with chapters in each of the country’s twenty-one regions. This is the group that organizes the annual Cantine Aperte (Open Wineries) day held on the last Sunday of May each year, during which wineries that might not normally do so open their doors to visitors.

Should you not be in Friuli for Cantine Aperte, a few more tourist-friendly wineries in Friuli-Venezia Giulia include Marco Felluga’s Castello di Buttrio (Via Morpugo, 9, Buttrio; 0432-673-015), a renovated castle with a restaurant on-site, and the Conti Formentini property in the heights of San Floriano (Via Oslavia 5, San Floriano; 0481-884-4131), which has a restaurant, agriturismo, and even a golf course. And if you’re looking simply for a centrally located place to stay amid Friuli’s vineyards, there’s the homey Agriturismo Scacciapensieri, nestled in the hills of Buttrio (0432-674-907).

To eat and drink, head for the Enoteca di Cormòns, where a wide variety of Friulian wines and foods can be sampled (and bought) in a sunny osteria. Just outside of Cormòns is one of Friuli’s great restaurants, La Subida (011-39-0481-60531), which serves hearty Friulian mountain food and has an extensive Friulian wine list, while right in Cormons is the elegant Al Giardinetto (Via Matteotti, 54-56; 0481-60257), where you’ll sample some of the most delicate pasta you’ve ever eaten. There’s also the rustic, Austrian-influenced Al Capello in Udine (Via P. Sarpi, 2, Udine; 0432-504-186), and our friend Valter Scarbolo’s raucous La Frasca in Pavia di Udine (Viale Grado, 10, Pavia di Udine; 0432-875-150).

Also not to be missed is a trip to a prosciutificio (prosciutto factory) in the little town of San Daniele, northwest of Udine. San Daniele hams are among the best of Italian prosciutti, and after touring one of the factories there are a number of small osterie in San Daniele where you can sample a wood paddle-full of prosciutto à mano (cut by hand), complimented with a caraffe of tocai friulano. Contact the Consorzio del Prosciutto di San Daniele (tel: 011-39-0432-957-515) for more information.

And should you want to come down from the hills and check out the Adriatic coast, be sure to stop into the resort town of Grado on your way down to Trieste. One of Grado’s many great seafood restaurants is De Toni (Piazza Duca d’Aosta, 37, Grado; 0431-80104), while in Trieste be sure to check out Da Giovanni (Via San Lazzaro, 14; 040-639-936).

For more on Friulian travel, check out Fred Plotkin’s “Italy For The Gourmet Traveler” and the newer “La Terra Fortunata.” Fred is a great lover of Friuli and has explored its every nook and cranny.

The only DOP cheese of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Montasio was born in Carnia, the northern portion of the province of Udine where the Alps tumble onto the shores of the Adriatic Sea. The cheese originated about 300 years ago in and around the Carnian village of Tolmezzo, supposedly the invention of a lonely Alpine monk with a herd of cows to milk and some free time on his hands. Today, the official production zone also extends to portions of the Veneto, but Friulians justly claim Montasio as their own.

Montasio producers will tell you that its unique characteristics are the result of three basic ingredients: the sweet grasses and hay of the land, the crisp air of the mountains, and the milk that results from this happy combination. The consortium that governs the production of Montasio monitors the cheese making process with a watchful eye; only milk from dairy farms within the DOP production area may be used. The cheeses are shaped into large, flat wheels, each bearing the official consortium stamp and numbered to identify the producer and the date of production. Montasio is classified and sold according to its age. At 2 months the interior is ivory-white, soft, dotted with holes and considered fresco, or fresh, with a tangy, grassy flavor. After 5 months, it transitions to mezzano or semi-aged; the color turns slightly golden, the texture becomes firmer, and the flavor begins to deepen. After 10 months or more, Montasio becomes stagionato, or aged, with a deeper, nuttier flavor, straw-like color and firm texture.

Montasio is a wonderful table cheese. It’s perfect for enjoying with one of Friuli-Venezia Giulias excellent white wines, a savorymostarda, or one of the luscious stone fruits that are grown in Friuli, such as peaches, plums, and cherries. Try grating some Montasio over hot pasta or potato gnocchi in a simple butter sauce with a sprinkling of poppy seeds, or melting it over roasted wild mushrooms. Montasio is the also the cheese that is used to make fricco, a beloved dish that is relatively unknown outside of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, but somewhat of an icon of Friulian cuisine. A fricco is basically a thin cake of grated Montasio, cooked in hot pan with a bit of olive oil. An aged Montasio will result in a crispy fricco,while a younger cheese will result in a soft fricco that melts in the center.

The food of Toscana is often deceptively simple, the following places vary from fancy to downright country and form a good cross section of some of my fave places to eat, but do not be afraid to follow your nose. As in most of rural Italy, the sign of a great place is the presence of the local workers, especially at lunch. Just 20 minutes south of Florence in a quick car there is the small town of San Casciano where a temple of Tuscan tradition called Antica Posta practices the art. Here you will find the classic simple cooking of the region replete with cavolo nero, the local black cabbage, as well as crostini toscani, zuppa di farro, brilliant local salumi and exquisite pici (handmade short spaghetti) with rabbit ragu.

Just 10 minutes down the road, in Cerbaia Val di Pesa, there is a special place named La Tenda Rossa. Not 100 percent traditional on the plate, the food is more the creative, freewheeling style I associate with Babbo. Delicious and intriguing, this is not the place for the fiorentina, but is exciting and stylish dining in a country setting.

Twenty miles southeast is the classic Chianti town of Greve where Domenico Baldi creates a blend of classic and modern cooking in a beautiful rustic setting with a defintive terrace view of the surrounding vineyards at Il Vescovino. For the pure classics da Padellina serves ribollita, pappardelle with wild boar and the classic fiorentina with simple trattoria style at quite easy prices. In Radda, where from the piazza you can easily see the vines of one of my favorite wineries in all of Toscana, Monte Vertine, there are two choices. The first, Vignale, is in a Relais et Chateaux hotel with classically flavored but modernly presented variations on la cucina Toscana. The second, Al Chiasso dei Portici, just outside of town, has a small menu of delicious country dishes including great salumi and the classic fennel scented pork roast “Arista Toscana”.

In Panzano there is a must stop for any serious meat lover at the butcher shop of a great friend of mine named Dario Checchini. His shop, Antica Maccelleria Checchini, is the fantasy of salted, cured and fresh meats with a theatrical setting and the very handsome and fascinating man himself presiding over the counter with advice and tastes for anyone with a smile. His torpedo sized soppressata lies on the counter, tempting you to take some on the road for a vineyard picnic… submit…..resistance is useless. In the piazza of Gaiole there is a mythic family run trattoria called lo Sfizio where all that is Tuscan comes together with a simplicity and family run pride that makes it one of my faves in all of Italy. The porchetta alone will bring you to your knees with tears of joy and near religious fervor, the wine list is an expression of the very soil and perfect for every dish on the menu. To the south, Siena…… Nothing can prepare you for the breathtaking beauty of the main piazza in Siena….. nothing. Buon Appetito.