¡Delizia!

In recent decades, the advertising industry has helped to trace its origins to the vineyards and olive trees of Tuscany, but this charming story has little to do with reality. Italian cuisine is an urban cuisine that is born in the beautiful cities of Italy, in the centers of civilization where money, talent, ingredients and power converge: from the bustling medieval markets of Milan to the Renaissance halls of Ferrara, to the Neapolitan street stalls from the 19th century, to the noisy trattoria of postwar Rome. Based on an exhaustive research work, John Dickie elaborates a formidable narrative in which he shows us old maps that reveal the true origin of pasta, details the pantagruélic menus, of more than a hundred dishes, that were served at banquets Renaissance nuptials, share medieval recipes and many other curiosities that bring us closer to the most widespread gastronomic culture of the Mediterranean and reveal the history of Italy through the flavors of its cities.