The Italian Culture is much more than Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, the Colosseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa . It engulfs every little thing of the every day life of the average Italian. Italian Culture is the Italian Food with the big family dinners, the opera singing at the dinner table, the "Mafia" accent, but it's also the great Italian history starting with the Greeks and the Etruscans and the way they influenced the later Roman Empire, the great Caesar, the equally important Constantine the Great, Garibaldi and many more.
What makes Italian food and Italian Culture important is the way it transformed the world the way we know it today. Looking around us we can see all the "important" or "unimportant" things that the Italian Food and the Italian Culture brought in our lives, from pizza, pasta and Italian Recipes to Frank Sinantra and Madonna, from Niccolo Machiavelli and Volta to the italian fashion of Versace and Armani, from Ferrari and Lamborghini to Sofia Loren and Roberto Benigni.
The Italian Food and Italian Culture is all around us! The times of Charlemagne restored the status of Italian cuisine as the food of nobility. During the Renaissance, Italy became a culinary world leader, with the publication of the cookbook entitled, Libro per cuoco by a Venetian author.The SouthItalian Food with the Italian tradition of using olive oil in its cooking was introduced to Europe. The marital union of Catherine de Medici and the King of France introduced the French nobility to the Florentine custom of using the eating implement, the fork, during mealtimes.
Christopher Columbus , brought from the Americas tomato and potatoes, which added to the flavors and international standing of Renaissance Italy. Marco Polo also brought the noodle from Asia, which is now, in the foreign world. The 19th Century saw the introduction of mass-produced Italian pasta, with the invention of special-purpose machines.
Parmesan cheese as a garnish for most dishes was introduced in 1840. Extending from the North to the South, Italians pride themselves in using ingredients native to each region in their Italian Cooking, The use of onions in almost all of their dishesadds a rich flavor to its cuisine.
Cheeses from this region such as gorgonzola, marscapone and lodigiano have risen in reputation world-wide.Veneto, Fruili-Venezia, Guilia and Trentino-Alto Adige are the three main regions of the north-east. Each region has distinct Italian Recipes, Italian Cooking and Italian Foods characteristics.
