To immerse into the land's culture during your travel
Italy another tick on your must-do list should be put next to
the 'visiting a ristorante with national cuisine' string.
Some of the first things that inevitably come to your mind when
thinking about Italian food are olives (hand-stripped from the trees),
pasta, wine and cappuccino.
Actually, as there are specialities almost in every town, say nothing
of regional trends, it's hard to speak about nation's common cuisine.
An explanation to this may be the fact that the country was unified
only about 1860 so here the cultural diversity and different influences
of other countries are reflected. Yet of course there are certain
dishes of eating and drinking in Italy that will be
called national and served practically everywhere.
Italians are really famous for their unique ability to enjoy life and
willingly share this cheerfulness with their friends. Drop into a cafe
and start with appetisers called antipasti, then have a tasty
risotto and some soup for the primo piatto, proceed to secondo piatto
with dressing and, to be sure it's really a dolce vita have some
ice-cream and a caffe corretto with some alcohol like sambuca for dolce.
Don't be surprised to learn that cafeterias don't work all week long,
they can be closed a weekday or two or work only in the evenings.
Prices can also grow by end of the day and toward weekends and the bill
is made up including service fees.
Another thing that may appear unusual to a foreigner is that you are
not likely to be offered a menu, day's dishes will be recounted to your
instead.
The Italians' fancies find their reverberation in the numerous holidays
followed by joyful feasts. For example, the New Year's Day (Capodanno)
is famous for its tasty tradition dating back to 1500s wartime when the
starving citizens had to seek for ways not to die of hunger and ate
animal food normally thrown to dogs. Since then stuffed and boiled pig
legs have been an invariable dish on the festive table.
And during Marino’s
grape festival travellers to Italy can admire a fountain
turning from water into wine at nightfall.
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