THE UNTOLD ITALY APP

But somewhere between the third Tuscany article that names the same five towns, and the AI guide that sounds like it was scraped from another AI-written guide, the joy starts leaving the room.

Italy lovers know there are tiny osterias in Parma where you can try the most delicate prosciutto with mouthwatering gnocco fritto that will never appear in any guidebook.

That there is a lemon festival in Monterosso that happens to be on the weekend you are there. And there is a way to find out when Trenitalia drivers have voted to strike on the Wednesday you were planning to take the train from Naples to Rome.

All of this is in the Untold Italy app.

Most Italy guides on the internet these days are AI tools scraping Google and serving the results back as a guide. The Untold Italy app is the opposite of that.

Our team are Italy obsessed travelers and locals who have walked the streets we recommend. We know which Sicilian sagre (food festivals) are worth changing your trip dates for.

When you open the app on a Tuesday in Urbino with no hotel booked, the answer is there. When you arrive in Puglia and want to know what to order, the food guide is waiting for you.

This is the Italy that real people, who love it, find for you.

✦ Travel guides that go where others stop

Rome, Florence, Venice, the Amalfi Coast and every other classic destination, covered with the depth they deserve. Then the places other guides skip or skim. Le Marche, Liguria past Cinque Terre, Puglia, Sicily, and every other Italian region, all 20, covered the way locals would tell you about them.

✦ Local events and festivals

Patron saint feasts, sagre food festivals, and the small-town celebrations that change the feel of a place when you happen to be there. These are very hard to find anywhere else online, and the app organizes them by region and by date so you know what is happening when you are visiting.

✦ Places worth your time

Restaurants, hotels, wineries, and experiences mapped by destination, all chosen by people who have been there. These are recommendations for travelers who want the restaurant overlooking the Val d'Orcia that inspired a dozen proposals and the bar in Florence right neat the Ponte Vecchio that pours vintage Chianti by the glass beyond apertivo hour.

✦ Real-time strike alerts

One Untold Italy app reviewer wrote: “Having notifications of scheduled strikes is worth the price of the app alone.” Italian transport strikes are common, are not in any guidebook, and can derail a travel day. The app sends you the alert before they hit, so you can replan before you reach the station.

✦ Food and wine guides for every region

What to order in Puglia. What is in season in Piedmont in October. The wines of the Langhe explained. The regional specialties most travelers miss because nobody tells them what to look for. The app also covers eating with allergies and food preferences with tips for celiacs and lactose intolerant travelers.

✦ Practical details that matter

Regional train and bus information that is hard to find online, cultural context, timing advice, and an interactive Italian phrasebook.

✦ Full podcast access

300+ episodes organized by destination and topic, with Italian tour guides, winemakers, cooks and historians.

We are a group of travelers, expats and locals who have spent years walking, eating and getting lost in Italy on purpose.

Some of us live in Italy now. Some of us fly back twice a year. Some of us have spent two decades chasing the best plate of pasta in a single region and have opinions we are willing to defend.

We have devoured the gnocco fritto and caught the slow train along the Ligurian coast. We have watched the sunset from the walls of Certaldo wondering whether this town might be the best one in Italy, and then doing the same thing in Cortona the following week.