Incorporating details from a traditional Italian kitchen into your home doesn't have to mean installing a "Tuscan" cabinet design from a catalog or mimicking an Italian kitchen a la Disneyland. Some basic characteristics we think of in traditional Italian kitchens are timelessness, warmth, and utility. Which are all elements we can incorporate in our own kitchen at home without the cheese factor:
- Architectural detail - be it structural or applied - can bring a sense of age to a space. Be it wood cladding and plank floors (as in the otherwise contemporary kitchen above) or an arched doorway, a little architectural detail helps a room feel like it has a story to tell. Look to salvage shops and junk stores and see what you discover!
- Terra cotta floors add warmth to the space. Terra cotta tiles can vary from recycled antique ones with beautiful patina to basic red clay that can be found inexpensively at most home improvement stores.
- Utility can come in the form of good organization, quality cookware, or a workhorse appliance. In the last image above, an example of utility is the display (and easy access to) well-used cookware hanging on a wall-mounted rack.
What says "traditional Italian kitchen" to you? How can that manifest itself in your home kitchen?
Related: Kitchen Tour: LJ's Frittata Lab
(Images: Calfinder, Apartment Therapy, Michael Luppino/This Old House)
How to Bake a Potato: Three Easy Methods
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
One of my favorite kitchens that I have ever been in was a tiny Italian kitchen in my friends apartment in Rome. Terra cotta floors, turquoise walls....gorgeous and there was a yellow chair at the tiny table in a corner. I will never forget it.
I have terra cotta tiles on my kitchen floor (they were put in by the previous owner) and while they are pretty, they are absolute dirt and dust magnets. Within a day or so after mopping, they are dirty again. I don't like being barefoot in my kitchen because the tiles get gritty so easily. It's a shame because I love the warm color, but if I were redoing the kitchen, I would use some other flooring.
Most Italian kitchens are much, much smaller than that one!
I'm glad you posted learp17. I've always had a hankering to install real terra cotta tiles, but had no idea they collected grime the way you indicated. Now I know and I'll be sure to install in a low traffic area. Thanks~
Erin @ Cultivating Home
@Miriamc: The functional portion of that kitchen (counters, appliances, cabinets) is basically in an average-sized footprint, from what I can tell.
It seems to simply be in the corner of a much larger, lofted room.
I love the idea of hanging cookware in the open, but personally find it gets too sticky if cooking frequently in a small kitchen, or too dusty in dry Australia! Pity!
I have terracotta tiles like that in my kitchen, and I've never liked them because they seem so out of place in my 1900s brick victorian. They were installed by the previous owners, along with blonde wood ikea cabinets, green/blue countertops, and stainless steel appliances. We want to redo the kitchen, but think it would be too expensive to replace the floor--does anyone have a good idea about how to make terracotta tile fit ok in a fairly traditional victorian house?
I talked to the folks at the tile store about terracotta and they said that installing real terracotta is an art generally not found in NYC. I love the color, but maybe only somewhere that there's a tradition - and cheap help.
Seems that the charm of Italian cooking would be the same as an Italian kitchen...use what's available. And, use only a few things. With so few items, each one that's not of importance or quality would be quickly evident.