I’ve been traveling with my family to Paderno del Grappa, a small Italian town north of Venice, for a month each summer for the past few years.

There are many things to like about Italy, but what do I like most? That’s easy — the food. I especially like gnocchi and risotto. Gnocchi is a kind of potato dumpling and is served with different sauces, my favorite being gorgonzola cheese. Risotto is a type of Italian rice. Trust me, it doesn’t taste anything like Minute Rice. Like gnocchi, you can get risotto with lots of different sauces, including a Venice specialty, risotto nero, which is risotto-colored and flavored with black ink from squids.

Let’s talk about one of Italy’s more famous foods — pizza. Unless you’re not very hungry, don’t plan on splitting a pizza with anyone. Italian pizzas are fairly thin, and people typically order a whole pizza for themselves. What kinds of pizza should you order? Don’t make a mistake and order a peperoni pizza thinking you’re going to get the usual cheese and pepperoni from back home. What you’ll get is a pizza stacked with mountains of peppers. If you want something like pepperoni pizza from the United States, order a pizze alla diavolo.

I used to always get a Margherita pizza, which is your basic cheese (formaggio) pizza. It was named after an Italian queen (Margherita) and is symbolic of Italy, featuring the colors of the flag which are red (the tomato or pomodori sauce), white (the formaggio) and green (basil). I’ve also enjoyed the frutti di mare pizza, which is not, as you might think, pizza with fruit. Instead, it is a pizza topped with the fruits of the sea, things like shrimp, octopus and squid. There are vegetable (verdure) pizzas, mushroom (funghi) pizzas, ham (prosciutto) pizzas, four seasons (quattro stagioni — four seasonal toppings in the four quarters of the pizza).

Recently, my personal favorites have included, four cheese (quattro formaggi) pizza and pizza with french fries (pizze con patate fritte).

What might be better than the pizza in Italy? Can you say gelato? There are so many wonderful flavors to this ice cream. Many of the gelato stands have 20 or 30 flavors to choose from. I’ve been to one that had more than 60. Gelato comes in many of the same flavors that you find in America. Some of the flavors you often find include amaretto, caffe espresso (coffee), cannella (cinnamon), cioccolato (chocolate), cocco (coconut), croccantino (chocolate crunch), mandorle (almond), menta (mint), meringhe (meringue), nocciola (hazelnut), pistacchio (pistachio), stracciatella (mixed together — chocolate and vanilla), torroncino (honey hazelnut), crema (vanilla), ananas (pineapple), arancia (orange), cilegia (cherry), fragola (strawberry), frutta di bosco (wild berries), limone (lemon), lampone (raspberry), melone (cantaloupe), noce (walnut), pera (pear) and pesca (peach). The best gelato I ever had was cheese cake, but it’s not a flavor found in your typical gelateria. In fact, you may be forced to sample gelato from dozens of gelaterias before you find it.

Dylan Guthrie, 11, Allesandro Andreatta, 10, and Julia Guthrie, 10 eat gelato at Cafe Canova in Crespano del Grappa, Italy. Dylan and Julia live in Lawrence. Allesandro lives in Paderno del Grappa, Italy.

Buon Apetito.

— Dylan Guthrie is a sixth-grader at Hillcrest School.

The Joyce family from Lawrence takes a break on the road between Whistler, British Columbia, and Vancouver. Standing in back, from left, are Jim Joyce, Alek Joyce, 11, and Kale Joyce, 9. In front is Will Esplin, Alek's and Kale's grandfather.

Jackson Mercer and his sister, Chloe Mercer, of Lawrence, visit Rocky Mountain National Park.

Alyssa Crider, Yoshika Crider and Marika Crider of Lawrence stand in front of the Golden Temple in Kyoto, Japan.