I recently had the opportunity to chat with Matthew Fort about his new book Eating Up Italy. This wonderfully written and amusing work is part travelogue, part history book, and part cookbook. Armed with a Vesper scooter Matthew eats his way through Italy.

Simon Barrett: Matthew, I loved the book, it is so well done, and the mental pictures you create through your writing had me rolling on the floor in places. It was also very interesting and packed with information about Italy and it's history.

Matthew Fort: First of all let me thank you for you delightful, intelligent, perceptive appreciation of my book. Well, I suppose I would say that, but I have to remind myself that I really wanted to do the journey that I had dreamed of for so long, that the only way I could justify this to my family and my employer was to say that I would write a book. That someone else should get some pleasure out of what I did for purely selfish reasons is pure gold dust.

If I read it correctly you split your journey into three sections, one month for each. How many miles did you actually travel on that scooter? I did note that the 50cc did not last long - why did you change up to the 125cc?

The total journey was roughly 3,000 miles. I had delegated the job of finding me a scooter to my nephew George, who lived in Rome. Make it a 125cc, I said. He consulted his mother on the advisability of 125cc. "Uncle Matt will kill himself," it seems he told his mother."

I'll get him a 50cc. He'll never notice." And I didn't. Not until I got a 125 for the second and third legs of the journey. This was kindly lent to me by Piaggio,

From reading the book it seemed that for the most part you had very clear goals, not only of the towns and villages that you wanted to visit, but the actual restaurants, and in some cases even the actual people involved. This takes a lot of planning. How long did you spend planning this wonderful adventure, and how did you do your research?

I think the sense of purpose, direction and orderly control is slightly misleading. I had a general idea of where I wanted to go before I set off, and some key places in mind, but I wanted to leave as much as possible to chance. Chance looked very favorably on me.