Sardinia & Corsica: Islands of Italy and France

You're on your way. Two islands – one Italian, one French – both shaped by millennia of outside influence and still entirely their own world. Sardinia and Corsica sit at the heart of the Mediterranean, close enough to see each other across the Strait, worlds apart in language, culture, and table. Start letting go of what you think you know about Italian food: Sardinia shares its pantry with the mainland but cooks by its own rules entirely. No cacio e pepe, no tiramisu. What you'll find instead are ancient pasta shapes, lamb slow-cooked over open fires, wild boar, fresh fish, and tables loaded with vegetables, legumes, and lean protein in small portions of everything — the very rhythm of eating that has made this island one of the world's Blue Zones, home to one of the highest concentrations of centenarians on earth.