In order to fully appreciate your trip to Italy, you must learn to appreciate Italian food. Tourists are usually pleasantly surprised to learn that there is a lot more to Italian food than what is found in the typical foreign Italian restaurant. While you certainly will find pastas and pizzas in Italy, there are many other fine Italian foods available in each part of the country. In fact, the best regional Italian foods are made with regional Italian produce. You can classify Italian food as being from central, northern, and southern Italy. The foods that you might find in a typical foreign Italian restaurant are particularly different from the food of the North. Such ingredients as pasta, tomato sauce, cheeses, and oil are less common, while rice and corn polenta, fowl, rabbit, seafood, quail, and butter are more common.