Italy is a famous European country for art, literature, cultural wealth, fashion, food, among others. The country has the world’s largest number of World Heritage Sites (58) and is the fifth-most visited country.
The country is located in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and is delimitated by the Alps. It consists of 301,304 square kilometer peninsula with islands and the microstates of Vatican City and San Marino.
Rome is the largest city in the country and is the capital. Italy ranks highly in some international ranks (life expectancy, equality of life, healthcare) and is the eight-largest by nominal GDP and the third in the European Union. Its economy is based on tourism, automobile, machinery, food and fashion industry, manufacturing and it’s very competitive in the agricultural sector (with the world’s largest wine production).
It has a high unemployment rate and some of its areas have a large gap in their living conditions. It’s a parliamentary republic, Christianity leads the country (80.8%) and Italians represent the majority of the 60,317,116 inhabitants (91,5%).
— ITALIAN CUISINE —
Its cuisine is one of the best known and most appreciated worldwide, it’s a Mediterranean cuisine with some regional variants, but tomatoes, cheese, olives, pasta and fresh spices, fruits and vegetables are always present in some well-known dishes and yes, a good wine to accompany.
Breakfast in Italy is very special, restaurants don’t open until noon and coffee bars serve espresso coffees with pastries to visitors. It’s very normal to see Italians standing by the bar and having a quick shot of coffee early in the morning. Pastries are usually small and some examples I had are: sfogliatella (layered pastry filled with Nutella/chocolate, cannoncini (stuffed cream pastry) and cornetto (croissant filled with chocolate).
Bruschetta is a famous appetizer with Italian toasted bread and tomato, garlic, basil, olive oil and vinegar on top. The dish has some variations but the most classic tastes like a summer bite with all the freshness of the Italian cuisine.
The margherita pizza (tomatoes, cheese, basil) it was created in honor of the Queen Margherita and the idea was to represent the colors of the Italian flag on a dish (red, white and green). Nowadays, the round flat base of wheat-based dough is topped with many other ingredients such as mushrooms, meat, olives, and even fruits or vegetables, in my case I’m fan of seafood and enjoying the thin base pizza with rose wine was one the treats of Milan.
Tiramisu is a coffee flavoured dessert made with biscuits dipped in coffee, layered with mascarpone cheese and other ingredients such as cocoa, which give it a very smooth and creamy texture. The other famous delicacy is gelato (meaning frozen in Italian), a frozen dessert with less air, less milk fat and more flavoring than the rest in the market. The flavours of Stracciatella and salty pistacho are among my favorites.
After some visits to the country, I noticed that I still have to taste more of the Italian cuisine options, since its naturalness, simplicity and freshness are some of the aspects that I appreciate the most and that captivated me and the rest of the visitors in the country. You can check @mmmbycata on IG: www.instagram.com/mmmbycata/
