Manu

I think that novita' only means that it is a new listing not necessarly a new restaurant. I of couse have to admit that I did not eat (unfortunatelly) to all 1700 restaurant presented in this guide, and I am sure that some are featuring somewhat more a homecooking then other. The ones that I ate are not a good representation of a Italian homecooking. I can give you a couple of examples: Osteria dell'Arancio in Grottamare, near Ascoli Piceno and La Mescita in Pisa. My grandmother did not have aged cheese in caves.

I had many wonderful meals listed in the Osteria D'Italia guide. I don't think this book is about home cooking at all, but it is also not about strongly French influenced Italian restaurant. The book is about a new group of restaurants that want to give new life to Italian cooking. Top ingredients, creative chefs, the pride of the owners of doing something special with the food they offer, and often togher with great wine lists. Very often the restaurants listed in this guide are popular places for Italian, and you can also touch a little Italian culture there. Yes, the guide is only in Italian so far, and there is no rating, but I guarantee you that they only list very interesting places. To understand what type of ambiance you will find I usually check the average price for a meal listed at the beginning of each restaurant description. I also look for the wine and cheese symbol that means that the restaurant has a great wine list and a fantastic cheese card. Few key words you need to know in Italian if you are consulting this book are "chiuso" (closed) and the days of the week (lunedi 'Mon', martedi 'Tue', mercoledi, giovedi, venerdi, sabato and domenica), because every restaurant in Italy has one or two rest day a week.