Snacking your way through Italy: Roadtrip Version

Are you as much of a fan of snacking on a road trip as I am? Love a little grocery store shop on a holiday? Same. I’m sharing what snacks we ate on our northern Italy road trip and reviewing what I thought of each!

I like to start any road trip with a good local grocery haul. The usual offenders include a bag of mixed unsalted nuts, a selection of seasonal fruits, crisps, and something sweet. I’ll usually add to the collection as we stop at gas stations on route to places too.

Sweet

Let’s start with some classic Italian cookies. Gocciole chocolate cookies are simple shortbread treats filled with chocolate chips, ideal for dunking in tea or coffee. Typically, Italians enjoy a few of these with milk for breakfast.

During my trip, the Baiocchi cookies became my preferred snack, featuring two buttery cookies sandwiched together with a hazelnut filling reminiscent of Loacker chocolate. They offer a delightful biscuit crunch and a delicious filling - I brought some home for my friends and family to sample, and they were all very impressed!

Another worthwhile mention were these Bahlsen biscuits we found! They are a German company that produces amazing biscuits. This particular type was very tasty with the perfect chocolate-to-wafer ratio. We also tried the white chocolate variety, which was less to our liking (but I am less of a fan of white chocolate).

It is also worth checking out the pastry section of supermarkets! We tried a pistachio cream filled croissant at one which was delicious paired with a coffee on one of our pit stops.

Savory

Next up are the savory snack items which are always my favorite. I always love to try the local flavors/brands and pair them with a crunchy baguette sandwich (again made with the ingredients I find in the supermarket - easy combinations are cheese/tomato/lettuce or avocado/hummus/tofu).

The Rustica San Carlo crisps are a high-quality crisp with few ingredients, great wavy texture, good thickness, and simple flavors.An Italian classic and great with some wine as a pre-dinner snack.

Salati Preziosi had us hooked on their barbecue-flavored crisps - perfect crunch, amazing strong but not overpowering flavor (subtle light dusting of BBQ sort of between the strength of flavor of a Walkers and McCoys), and consistently good. I love the crinkle cut texture which was not too hard yet not too soft. They had many other flavors but we kept going back to these because they were so delicious!

The Paprika crisps in the middle picture were a thinner texture with no crinkles and had a much stronger flavor profile, feeling more on the heavily seasoned side. Tasty, but our least favorite of the trip.

Plant Based

I eat mostly plant-based food but I am not completely strict about it. When I travel, I do like to look for alternative vegan products, and I have to say that I was very impressed by the selections.

I found a really tasty tofu-based salami substitute that went really well in sandwiches and even just by itself as a snack with tea! It had great flavor and a good texture too, with lots of black pepper and garlic.

I came across an excellent plant-based yogurt alternative by Alpro! I tried a few, but the coconut stracciatella was the best in my eyes, especially because of the small crunchy chocolate pieces inside.

I also particularly liked the Bio Bevanda Soya Milk, but honestly, in most places we went, they had soya milk as an option.

Especially on hiking trips, it’s important to carry a few protein bars with you, and I am still on the hunt for healthy but tasty ones. Raw-Bite has pure ingredients but tasted too healthy for me, similar to the Naked bars in the UK. If anyone knows of good options, please tell me in the comments below!

And as always, I would love to hear about your road trip food favorites and hope this helps you find some snacks for your next trip to Italy!

Until next time,

Gaby