4) Espresso (Campania)

Short, no sugar and very warm. That’s how Italian drink their favorite addiction.

There’s no morning starting without.

Italians have invented it and are the highest consumer pro-capita per day in the world.

In the Italian bars you don’t order an espresso. But a coffee. And they’ll serve you the short powerful drink. With or without water, any large city has its own way of drinking it, with Naples leading in the rules and rituals also given it holds with proud the invention. Of the real espresso.

3) Risotto alla Milanese (Lombardy)

Risotto alla Milanese, or Risotto giallo as it’s called in Lombardy quite often.

Giallo, as its color, yellow. A bright yellow color due to saffron, spice that in Italy has often met great favor in Italian cuisine. Everything else comes from centuries of improvement.

The genesis of the risotto alla milanese is unlikely until the eighteenth century. The Moors arrived in Sicily and southern Spain in the 9th century AD and introduced the original rice, China variety, initially cultivated under Frederick II, who is said to be fond of arancini too.

2) Gelato (Tuscany)

What could be called the first ice cream cup was found in Egypt inside a 2nd Dynasty tomb (2,700 BC).

In ancient Rome there were ice and snow wells that slaves carried from the mountains. Among the ruins of Pompeii there are traces that suggest shops selling ice (from Vesuvius) minced and sweetened with honey.

But this was simple ice-cream. Today the worldwide name for a quality, creamy in a sweet cone-shaped biscuit is gelato.

And gelato, apparently invented by Bernardo Buontalenti, in Florence (Tuscany), during the Renaissance period. The Buontalenti created the dessert for the Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, who wanted him to organize an opulent banquet to celebrate the Spanish deputation.

Discover now the most iconic Italian food of all time

OR

Look back at previous positions