European dining is a matter of hours, not stars. Italy shuts its kitchens between three and seven; Spain does not start dinner until nine; France will serve you the same four-course lunch on a Tuesday that it serves on a Saturday, and consider it normal. Getting the timing right matters more than getting the reservation.
We plan European meals around the day you are actually having — which is why a two-hour lunch in Tuscany works on a driving day and not on a museum day.
Italy
Lunch is the main meal in the countryside, dinner is late in the cities, and the best food is usually one town away from the sight you came to see. A trattoria with a handwritten menu and no English is a good sign. Coffee standing at the bar costs a fraction of coffee at a table.
France
The menu du jour at lunch is the best value in the country and the fastest way to eat well. Many excellent places close on Sunday and Monday. In Paris, the difference between a good and a great meal is often a twenty-minute walk out of the tourist centre.
Spain and Portugal
Dinner at nine or later, lunch at two, and a menu del día that is still the working person’s lunch rather than a tourist set. In Portugal, the tascas — tiled, unpretentious, cheap — are where the food is.
Germany, Austria and Central Europe
Heavier, earlier and more seasonal than the Mediterranean. Asparagus in May, game in autumn, and a coffee-house culture in Vienna that is worth planning an afternoon around.
How we handle it
We book where a booking matters, and we tell you where it does not — a market lunch, a hill-town osteria, a bakery that sells out by eleven. Wine is chosen by the region you are driving through, not by a list.
Tell us where you are going and what you like to eat — we will build the days around it.
BLISS TRAVEL — Private Tours Worldwide
