Who doesn't dream of a trip to Italy? For the scenery, the museums ... okay, for the eating. But consider this: If Italian food is twice as delicious in Italy, then it's twice as good as even that if you seek out specialties in their region of origin. Here is a map to the best meals of your life, whether you're planning a trip or simply window shopping.

Osso buco, a stewed veal shin, and risotto alla Milanese, which gets its bright yellow hue and perfume from saffron, represent a perfect confluence of Milanese cooking — a love of offal and transforming lowly cuts of meat into deliciousness, and the pervasiveness of rice here, not pasta. While there is much debate about whether this is the proper risotto to serve with the meat (some locals claim a more delicate plain risotto, seasoned just with cheese, is a better partner) it sure is hard to argue when alternating bites between the two.

Though a relatively modern recipe, dating to the 1960s, the true origin of tiramisu is often debated. What is known, however, is that mascarpone, the sweet, creamy cheese, that is a key ingredient, originated here, and that there is a strong love of coffee, the starring flavor, in the Veneto town of Padua. Put it all together in a fluffy layered dessert that tastes like exactly what you should be eating in an outdoor café in Venice's Piazza San Marco, and the case feels all but open-and-shut.

In this picturesque tiny town that can boast about being the home of two Italian masterpieces — Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and prosciutto di Parma — another signature culinary achievement is utter devotion to making intense meat broths and homemade egg noodles to float in them. Filled pastas are a particular specialty (tortellini's brethern tortelli, cappelletti or anolini might just as easily be on the menu); note how the delicacy of the noodles shows the filling right through them. Regardless of what they're called, when you see filled pasta in broth on the menu around these parts, order it.