Gambero Rosso in Livorno, Italy is certainly one candidate for the world's best Italian restaurants. For 28 years, the chef-patron Fulvio Pierangelini has been serving up gourmet dishes such as burrata soup with ravioli of herring and roe and chickpea puree and prawns, against a beautiful backdrop of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Arguably New York City's best Italian restaurant is 'Cesca, which offers big, hearty portions of lamb shank and gnocchi with braised-veal-breast ragu. It has a real party atmosphere to match the flamboyance of the food.

Based in Mantova, Italy, Del Pescatore has been run by various generations of the Santini family for over 80 years. The restaurant is known equally for its commitments to both innovation and tradition, offering mouthwatering dishes such as spicy lardo and rosemary, roast pigeon with port and pan-fried foie gras with raisin wine and pears. An interesting fact is that the city of Mantova, where Del Pescatore is based, features in both 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'The Taming of the Shrew' by William Shakespeare.

Enoteca Pinchiorri is an unintentionally retro-looking restaurant in Florence that, from a cooking point of view, moves with the times. Recently it opened a sister restaurant in Japan and signed up the acclaimed pastry chef Loretta Fanella. Its wine list is certainly something to get excited about, as are its double ravioli filled with burrata cheese and guinea fowl, or peach and lemon liquer gelatine served with delicious meringue and black sesame ice cream.

Run by the same company that owns the Ivy, Daphne's in Draycott Avenue, London, is beautifully decorated in an understated manner, with cinnamon-style walls and a spacious conservatory at its rear. The service is well-renowned, as is the food, ranging from basic starters such as baby artichokes with lemon and rosemary to amazing mains like tagliatelle with boar ragu. Save space for dessert and choose the tiramisu.

It's back to Italy with Ristorante Cracco, serving up puntarella rice salad, buffalo mozzarella-crusted oyster with cream and mortadella black tartufo. Chef-owner Carlo Cracco has reinterpreted tradional Milanese cooking in his own unique and modern way. He used to be partners with the Stoppani family with whom he founded the Cracco-Peck restaurant, he is now devoting himself to his personal vision of cuisine. Ristorante Cracco has been gorgeously updated by the architects Roberto Beretta and Gian Maria. Not a lot of people know that Carlo Cracco attended Scuola Alberghiera, opting to study cooking there simply because he liked the look of the purple building the hotel management school was housed in.

If you want real quality and don't mind paying for it, then try Le Calandre, located in the small Italian village of Sarmeola di Rubano. You can pick up a bottle of 1995 Dom Perignon for around $10,000, but the dishes, such as beef seasoned with truffled egg is thankfully cheaper.