The Guardian: Rustic Italy: places to stay for food lovers

Alastair Sawday, of Sawday’s guides, picks 15 places to stay where the food is as wonderful as the surroundings

Try talking to a group of Italian foodies about French food, and you quickly unearth enough tension to create an international incident.

There is little love lost, which is strange and sad, for each country has vast culinary strengths, enough for the rest of us to stand in awe. I am one of the lucky ones who has been to Terra Madre (terramadre.org), the giant Italian Slow Food festival in Turin, and can vouch for the astonishing vitality in the world of artisanal food.

The Slow Food movement began in Italy and has been responsible for rescuing threatened foods – such as Ligurian honey and Dominici apples – and beaten the drum for local and small - scale production.