The History of Italian Food: Delizia!

The history of Italian food is an adventure that takes us a long, long way from advertising's cosy tales of mamma rolling gnocchi for the bambini, or the peasants eating pizza under the pergola. The idea that Italian food issues from a world of timeless rustic simplicity is false. This series drives a single, simple insight: Italian food is city food. While the peasants starved, the cities concentrated everything needed to create a superb cuisine: money, resources, markets, political power, commercial nous, talented chefs, and discriminating eaters. Italian identity, and with it the Italian flair for food, were shaped amid the grandeur of Rome's ruins, and the silent beauty of Venice's canals; in Naples's putrid alleys, and under Bologna's solemn porticos; amid the Renaissance splendours of Florence, and the throbbing factories of Milan. (Viasat)