With the start of April, Netflix is welcoming entertaining movies that will be available to stream for the foreseeable future. One of the new movies I’m ready to watch is Thrash, a new shark movie where the Jaws-like creatures wreak havoc on a coastal town during a hurricane. It might only be spring, but I’ll watch this type of survival thriller any time of the year.
Speaking of thrillers, there are several prominent movies featured on the genre page. My top pick for thrillers this week is a gritty punk-rock film, now streaming on Netflix in the U.S. The other two thrillers we want to spotlight are a twisty crime tale from the 1990s and an allegorical dystopian mystery set in prison.
3
The Platform
Maybe don’t watch on a full stomach
Read what I wrote under the title again. The Platformis not for viewers with queasy stomachs. I have a strong stomach, and yet there are several moments when certain prisoners chow down where I wanted to look away. Between that and the violence, watching before dinner might be the move.
In a dystopian future, there is a prison called the Vertical Self-Management Center. Two prisoners are stationed on each floor, and there is a giant hole in the center. Every day, a platform filled with food lowers to the floor. Prisoners can have as much food as they want when the platform is on their level. However, they can no longer eat when the platform lowers to the next floor. The higher you are in the building, the more food you’ll have at your disposal. The lower floors are left to eat the scraps.
The Platform has much to say about social inequality and greed. I did not expect the Spanish thriller to be as gory as it was. This movie reflects how society treats the rich and the poor, so I should have expected a few uprisings. Overall, it’s a surprisingly effective thriller.
2
Wild Things
A steamy thriller from the 1990s
The following phrase is meant as a compliment: Wild Thingsis sexy trash. It is unapologetically lustful. It’s like playing Mad Libs with an erotic thriller. Plus, its attractive cast—Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Kevin Bacon—adds to the appeal.
In Miami, high school counselor Sam Lombardo (Dillon) is accused of raping popular student Kelly Van Ryan (Richards) and outcast Suzie Toller (Campbell). Sam then hires sleazy lawyer Kenneth Bowden (Murray) to defend him at trial. As the case progresses, Detective Duquette (Bacon) remains suspicious of the girls’ motives and questions whether Sam is innocent.
I’m being intentionally vague in my synopsis because of the significant twists this movie takes. Even if you guess one of the twists, more will follow. It approaches parody with how ridiculous it is, but I’m a sucker for this movie. It’s a soap opera with scandal, murder, and sexual longing. Wild Things is a scripted version of your favorite reality TV show.
1
Caught Stealing
Austin Butler races around New York City
Austin Butler has the “it factor.” Ever since Elvis, Hollywood has been pushing Butler as one of its future stars. The 34-year-old has the looks and skills of an A-list talent. He has good taste, as evidenced by the directors he works with, a list that includes Quentin Tarantino, Jeff Nichols, Denis Villeneuve, Ari Aster, and Darren Aronofsky.
Butler headlined Aronofsky’s 2025 crime thriller Caught Stealing. In the late 1990s, Hank (Butler) is a bartender living in New York City. Hank had aspirations of playing in the MLB, but a car accident derailed his opportunity. One day, Hank’s neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to look after his cat. That small task somehow leads to Hank going on the run from Russian mobsters.
Butler is the perfect actor for this star-making performance that would have taken him to new heights had it come out in the 1990s. Caught Stealing was considered a box office flop—$32 million on an estimated budget of $40 million. I don’t necessarily blame Butler for the poor box office. I think the August 29 release date played a role in its poor performance. Butler’s inclusion in a project might not lead to significant financial gains. However, I appreciate that he made a grimy mid-budget crime thriller that has seemingly disappeared from today’s movie landscape. If Butler’s down to make more crime capers with breakneck action and frenetic pacing, sign me up.
Finding great restaurants in Italy isn’t just about food—it’s about not wasting your time or money on a disappointing meal.
Finding great places to eat when I travel is very important to me. Reason #1: I love to eat well, so I’m always on the hunt for the best restaurants who serve great food done authentically with fresh ingredients cooked on site. Reason #2: I am frugal and hate wasting money. I can’t stand being taken for a ride by a restaurateur who charges high prices for inferior quality food. I don’t want to leave a restaurant thinking that I could have made a better meal myself for cheaper.
Since food is an integral part of experiencing local culture, here are some tips to help you identify the best restaurants and places to eat. If you want to eat well in Italy—without falling into tourist traps—this guide will show you exactly how to spot the difference.
Look for restaurants locals actually eat in.
This is one of the best ways to find the best restaurants in Rome, Florence, and Venice. One of the easiest ways to spot a great restaurant in Italy is simple: look at who’s eating there. Find eateries that are filled with people who look local (or just don’t look like tourists). Do you hear Italian being spoken?
Are the diners mostly locals?
Is the place busy (but not chaotic)?
A line out the door is a great sign (but note that some restaurants seat a lot of people so this isn’t always a defining factor). Quick tip: If you only hear English, keep walking.
Ask locals.
If you’re wondering where to eat in Rome or Florence, asking locals is one of the most reliable strategies.Not all recommendations are equal. Instead of asking hotel staff (who often send tourists to the same places), try: shop owners, baristas, market vendors. Be specific:
What are you craving?
What’s your budget?
This helps locals give you tailored, meaningful suggestions—not generic ones. Want really great advice? Take a food tour (or any tour) and ask the guide (a local expert) for their recommendations. I’ve never met a guide who wasn’t ecstatic to share more. I recommend LivTours, The Tour Guy, Viator tours with “badge of excellence,” and highly-rated Get Your Guide tours.
Read the menu like a local.
Menus in Italy tell you everything—if you know what to look for.
Short menus. If a menu is too long, the quality is likely to suffer. Kitchens can’t prepare tons of dishes excellently and will resort to microwaving or using pre-made food. Short menus equal good quality.
Seasonal ingredients=higher quality
Fresh ingredients—if a restaurant serves frozen food they must note it on the menu. You don’t need to avoid places if they have a frozen ingredient or two but I wouldn’t eat at a place that had many.
Handwritten boards or paper menus = excellent sign
Proper Italian spellings (like lasagne, not lasagna)
In Italy, simplicity signals quality. One more tip about menus—avoid restaurants with posterboard menus out front with laminated pictures of food. If there’s a laminated picture of food, then they’re not changing with the seasons. I avoid those places ardently. Also, if a restaurant boasts that they have the menu in several languages then I avoid them, too. It’s normal, in tourist areas, to have a menu in English and Italian but if they’re printing the menu in many languages then they’re focusing on tourist traffic, not local.
Know what each region does best.
Italy’s cuisine is deeply regional. Ordering the right dish in the right place makes all the difference.
Rome → carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, gricia, supplie
Naples → pizza, pasta alla Genovese, sfogliatella, pasta all puttanesca
Florence → bistecca alla Fiorentina, lampredotto, pasta cinghiale, pappa al pomodoro, peposo
Venice→ seafood, risotto, cicchetti, risi e bisi
Bologna→ tagliatelle al ragu (aka Bolognese), mortadella, tortellini, parmigiano Reggiano
Trying a region’s specialties is one of the best ways to experience local culture through food. There is no such thing as “Italian” food; there are only regional dishes. Different areas have vastly different sauces for pasta; they prepare fish differently and serve different cuts of meat, so embrace the diversity and sink your teeth into regional cuisine.
Where to eat in Italy’s most popular cities
If you’re searching for the best restaurants in Rome, Florence, or Venice, the same principles above apply—but each city has its own food culture and standout dishes.
Where to eat in Rome
Rome is one of the best food cities in the world—but it’s also full of tourist traps. If you want the best restaurants in Rome, focus on traditional Roman dishes like carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, gricia, and supplì.
Florence is known for hearty, rustic cuisine. When searching for the best restaurants in Florence, look for places serving bistecca alla Fiorentina, wild boar pasta, and traditional Tuscan soups.
Venice can be tricky—but incredible food does exist. To find non-touristy restaurants in Venice, look for cicchetti bars and seafood-focused menus away from the busiest squares.
Do smart research before you go
A little prep work can save you from a lot of bad meals. Here’s my exact system:
Watch food-focused tv shows or from YouTube vloggers.
Read local blogs and travel guides.
Check reviews for patterns (not just ratings). Make sure you’re looking at recent ratings since places can change over time.
Save restaurants by location for easy access later (Google Maps, TripAdvisor, etc).
I will look for restaurants near the place I’m staying and the attractions I’ll be at. I create an itinerary for each city with food by location and type of food. This way, if we’re done touring the Vatican and starving, I already have places vetted for us to check out. Or, if we’re craving good pizza, I have a list of restaurants to check out. This may sound like overkill—but it has helped me eat well almost 100% of the time.
If you’re specifically looking for the best restaurants in Rome or where to eat in Florence, I’ve created detailed guides with my personal recommendations:
Conventional wisdom says to avoid eating near tourist attractions. It is true that you are more likely to find tourist traps near major sites, but avoiding restaurants in those areas is sometimes impossible. After hours wandering around the Colosseum/Roman Forum, I am hungry (bordering on hangry) and just want to sit down, rest, have a glass of wine, and eat a good meal. Good places to eat—although harder to find around tourist attractions—are not impossible to come by; this is where my aforementioned restaurant categorization comes in handy
Instead of avoiding these areas completely, use your saved list to check nearby options quickly. If you don’t have a list, then use the signs I’ve noted above to find a quality place. Good food does exist near major sites—you just have to know how to find it.
One way to generally find bad food though, is to eat at a place where they’re begging you to come in. Avoid places where hawkers are out front trying to drag you in. You will generally find this in tourist areas and they’re hoping that you’re just too tired and hungry to say “no,” so they draw you in. Don’t fall for it.
Avoid these restaurant red flags
Some warning signs are universal:
Hosts aggressively trying to pull you in
Huge menus with dozens of options
Photos of food displayed outside
“Tourist menu” signs
If a restaurant has to beg for customers, the food usually speaks for itself—and not in a good way.
Want to easily find incredible food? Join a food tour
If you’re overwhelmed trying to choose between the many options when searching for the best restaurants in Rome or Florence, one of the best ways to find incredible food in Italy is to join a local food tour.
You’ll:
Taste multiple authentic dishes
Learn about regional cuisine
Discover hidden gems you’d never find alone
I personally recommend LivTours for high-quality, small-group experiences. Use my code AMYRH10 for a discount when booking two or more tours. It’s one of the easiest ways to elevate your entire trip—and your future dining decisions.
How Dining Works in Italy (What Tourists Get Wrong)
Eating in Italy isn’t just a meal—it’s an experience. Once you’ve found that amazing Italian restaurant, you’ll want to get a meal to remember. Understanding how dining works will help you order confidently and avoid confusion. When dining in an Italian restaurant you will notice that they offer a series of courses on the menu. Traditional meals follow a sequence:
Antipasto—at this course, you may dine on toasted bread gently scented with garlic and drizzled with olive oil (bruschetta), lovely cured meats like sweet and salty prosciutto, marinated vegetables, or some other delightful nibble to tantalize your tastebuds and get them ready for the next course.
Primo—for the primo (first) course, you will definitely see pasta on the menu and may see gnocchi, risotto, a hearty soup, or pizza, too. This tends to be my favorite course. One is expected to clear their plate (no doggy bags) so when you’re finished use the bread to sop up any remaining sauce. Heaven!
Secondo—the secondo (second) course is where you will find meat or fish. This would be your chance to order meatballs (polpette), because in most authentic Italian restaurants you wouldn’t find them with spaghetti–a primo dish. If you ordered potatoes, vegetables, a salad, or another contorno (side dish), you would be served it with this course.
Dolci—something sweet is perfect to cap off a fabulous four-course meal. In restaurants, you might find macerated fruit, a lovely tiramisu, a decadent torte, or other dessert offered as part of their dolci (sweets) selection. Alternatively, you may want to order cheese after the main part of the meal is finished. You will likely be asked if you want caffè or a digestivo (grappa or limoncello are two popular choices) to finish off your meal and help aid with digestion.
You don’t have to order every course—but knowing the structure helps you eat like a local. If you decide to have a belt-busting adventure and try every course, make it the focus of your evening’s entertainment. The entirety of the meal will likely take a couple of hours. Enjoy having course after delectable course delivered to your table and laid before you like you were part of a royal court.
Tip: you can split courses, if you wish. Jon and I often split an antipasto and then each have a dish (primo or secondo) on our own. If we’re both ordering a secondo, then we split the contorno.
Gelato Tip (Don’t Skip This)
I advise taking an evening walk before you have dessert and then getting gelato. Or, if you have late dinner reservations, then you could take a walk around 4 pm and have some gelato. But remember—not all gelato is created equal.
Avoid: bright, artificial colors and large, piled-high displays
Look for: muted, natural colors, smooth, creamy texture, and smaller batches (this indicates they’re being made fresh daily, if not more frequently).
Paying the Bill in Italy
One thing that surprises many travelers: Your server won’t bring the bill unless you ask. This isn’t rude—it’s intentional. Dining in Italy is meant to be relaxed, so you’ll need to request it: “Il conto, per favore.” Or just make a writing motion—it works every time.
When I first started traveling frequently, I ate some truly horrendous meals—in some cities world-renown for their cuisine! Now, I follow my system and eat well almost 100% of the time. My travels are infinitely more enjoyable and I come home dreaming about the fabulous food I ate.
Eating in Italy should never feel like a gamble.
With a little strategy, you can: avoid tourist traps, discover incredible restaurants, and enjoy meals you’ll be thinking about long after your trip ends
Honestly? That’s one of the best parts of traveling. I hope these tips heighten your travel-eating game and lead you to discover culinary delights that leave you craving more.
Buon appetito!
Cheat Sheet—5 Signs You’ve Found a Great Italian Restaurant (Anywhere—from Rome to Venice)
Locals are eating there
Menu is short and seasonal
No one is trying to pull you inside
Dishes match regional specialties
The vibe feels relaxed—not rushed
Amy French, Ph.D., is the voice behind Roaming Historian. A professional historian and seasoned traveler, she shares stories that blend history and travel to give readers a deeper understanding of the places they explore.
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