Italy is a real paradise for food lovers: no other country in the world has a similar variety of recipes, such a high quality of “traditional” food and such a love and care for food preparation and consumption. While in many Northern European countries eating is often considered more or less as a bodily function, in Italy it is one of the most important aspects of life. For Italians, a meal is not only a moment of enjoyment, but is also a very important social moment and a way to get to know people better.
While with many other countries the list of famous, must-taste specialities will include ten or twelve dishes, in Italy there are hundreds, and most of them will be different from region to region.
The first thing that must be said is about pizza: it is nearly impossible for Italians to find a decent pizza abroad, and it is also nearly impossible for people from Naples to find a decent pizza elsewhere in Italy. Therefore, if you want to know what pizza really is, you have to try it in Italy, and preferably in Naples, where it is prepared with a special kind of tomatoes, exclusively with ovens fueled with wood and with a special kind of mozzarella cheese made with buffalo milk (called “mozzarella di bufala”). This kind of mozzarella makes the pizza much softer and tasty.
Another main attraction of Italy's cuisine is pasta: it can be eaten with almost any kind of sauce, from vegetables to cheese, from meats to seafood. There are hundreds of different types of pasta and thus a million combinations.
Another special mention goes to Italian wines, which are (perhaps) second only to French wines; the best regions are Piemonte, Tuscany, Friuli, the Verona and Treviso areas in Veneto, and if you like strong red wines, Southern Italy.
