Good evening

There’s no denying, good food is an essential part of a great holiday - and this week, our writer Mina Holland followed her tastebuds on a foodie tour in Italy, exploring the osmiza scene in the countryside outside of Trieste.

In a centuries-old tradition, smallholdings (known as osmize) in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia open up to visitors at certain times of the year, offering their own wine and platters of local cheese and home-cured meats.

As she explores the Karst Plateau, Mina meets wine producers like Jacob Zidarich, who welcomes her to his family farm, serving delicious glasses of vitovska, a white wine indigenous to the area. She enjoys views of the Gulf of Trieste from Verginella Dean, where locals and visitors share carafes of wine with pork cuts and salty cheese.

The tradition is also found over the border in Slovenia – indeed the word derives from the Slovenian osem, meaning “eight”, a reference to an 18th-century decree that farmers in the Karst could sell their wares for eight consecutive days each year. Today you’re likely to find some osmize open year-round – especially over the warmer months – all offering an affordable flavour of the region.

Trieste itself has plenty to offer hungry travellers too. From its coffee culture to its seafood restaurants, Mina finds plenty to get her teeth into. Courgette frittas and fresh pasta at Mimì e Cocotte, a restaurant which “combines the humility of home-cooked food with a sense of occasion” and razor clams on the beach at Duino, just outside town, are among her culinary highlights.

Buon appetito!