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Importers of Fine Wines Since 1919 | Resources for the Trade |
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La Dolce Vita
The country has an extraordinarily rich cultural heritage. Here art, food, drink, music and life cannot be separated from one another. Whereas many people live to work, Italians truly work just to live. A Land Unlike Any OtherItaly is a boot-shaped peninsula that juts out into the heart of the Mediterranean. It is separated from the rest of continental Europe by the Alps and is divided down its length by the Apennines. The Adriatic, Ionian, Ligurian, and Tyrrhenian Seas surround it—and all of its 20 regions have access to one of these waters except Umbria and Trentino-Alto Adige. Politically, Italy is a new country, having been unified only in 1861. As a result, there are strong and disparate regional traditions and many differences midst its peoples. When in Rome…Grapes are native to Italy, but wine culture was promoted by the Greeks who frequented its shores. In fact, the Greeks named Italy (specifically Calabria) Enotria Tellus or "Land of Wine" because the land and climate were so aptly suited to the vine.
Single handedly, Rome with its power and influence, established a vinous legacy of almost global proportions. Unlike French cuisine where everything is written down, including cooking technique, recipes in Italy are passed down by seeing and doing…and remembering. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 Previous| Next
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Most Italian homes have gardens (with fruit trees). Most apartments have, as bare minimum, potted herbs. Italy initiated the ?Slow Food? movement. The symbol for this organization is the snail. Combating the fast food mentality, members of Slow Food glory in dining vs. eating and sipping and savoring vs. guzzling. In Italy, there are over 200 types of pasta, 450 types of cheese, and thousands of different wines. The country is divided spiritually and economically into the industrial north and the agricultural south, also known as Il Mezzogiorno or ?Land of the Midday Sun?. Rice and polenta dominate the cooking of the north, while pasta prevails in the south?but it?s a little more complicated than that. There is pasta in the north too, but it?s egg-based. The pasta of the south is water-based.
Three quarters of Italy is mountainous. It was considered barbaric to drink wine straight in the days of the Roman Empire. Wine was always cut with water. Fortunately, its antibacterial properties, particularly that of red wine, neutralized the cholera, dysentery and typhus bacteria in the water and kept the populace healthy. Unfortunately, even red wine was no match for the lead that leeched into the drinking water as it traveled into the city along the lead-lined aqueducts! Balsamic vinegar was originally developed as an after dinner drink. 
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Italy is the land of Roman Gods and Roman legions, Michelangelo and Marco Polo, Leonardo da Vinci and Lavazza, pasta and polenta, cappuccino and Columbus, Ferrari and fontina, Gucci and gladiators, gorgonzola and Galileo, pesto and Perugina.
Roman Legions took vine (and wine) culture wherever they went throughout Europe during the days of the Empire. During the Dark Ages and well into the Renaissance, the Church, headquartered in Vatican City in Rome, maintained the vineyards—and took the vine to the New World.
Butter and lard accent the cooking of the northern regions. Olive oil rules the south.