This Italian city has been voted food capital of the world (2024)

Looking for best place to eat on the entire planet? It’s here, according to a survey of travellers

When you think of the world’s food capitals, the usual suspects from to mind. Paris and its intimate bistros. The overwhelming variety of Hong Kong’s street food. New York, with its multicultural blaze of everything and anything.

According to the readers of Condé Nast Traveller, however, the best city for food right now is none of those places. A CNT poll gave that title to the northern Italian city of Bologna, which is also the capital and largest metropolis of the Emilia-Romagna region.

And yes, there’s much more to Bologna than just ragù alla bolognese. Bologna and the wider Emilia-Romagna region are responsible for having given us balsamic vinegar, mortadella, parmesan cheese and parma ham. It’s also apparently where lasagne and tortellini in broth were first concocted.

Bologna’s culinary excellence isn’t all the past, either. These days, the city still prides itself on its food and is awash with places to eat: everything from locally-revered hideaways and dazzlingly fresh veg markets to Michelin-starred establishments. So it’s not surprising that it was votedthe world’sfood capital.

Plus, Bologna is worth a visit for much more than just its food. From its medieval old town and near-millennium-old university to its piazzas and iconic arcades,there are plenty of reasons the city gets over 1.5 million visitors every year. So if you’ve been looking foryour next Italian destination– and you love yourself some good nosh –get yourself there, right now.

Did you see that you can take a tour of this amazing Italian ghost town?

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• Ed Cunningham
  News Editor, Time Out UK and Time Out London

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