Italy: Emilia-Romagna

Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls are possibly the world’s most experienced travel writers on Italy. They first visited Emilia-Romagna in 1981, when they were living for three years in Umbria and exploring the country from Trieste to Lampedusa while researching several Cadogan guidebooks to Italy. For Bradt they have written the Emilia-Romagna guidebook, which was informed and inspired by their Cadogan Guide to Bologna and Emilia-Romagna, a title that ran to four editions. They have also produced a city guide, Bologna and Modena, as an app. Now living in France, one of the couple’s prize possessions is a small, well-thumbed cookery book on Emilia-Romagna’s traditional cuisine: one of Michael’s star turns as a chef is a decent rendition of tagliatelle al ragù that he makes when they aren’t able to get back to eat the real McCoy.