If you think of Emilia Romagna, you say tortellino. This is the identikit of the food and wine tourist traced by the Italian Food and Wine Tourism Report 2023 by Roberta Garibaldi (president of the Italian Food and Wine Tourism Association), which will be presented in May, but of which some previews arrive.
Wines, meats and cold cuts, pasta and cheeses are in order the most mentioned categories. Wine is the most identifiable product for Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as appearing in the top 3 for other Italian regions in the Center-North.
Salumi excel in Calabria, Lazio is the queen of pasta, with three specialties (carbonara, amatriciana and cacio e pepe), while Valle d'Aosta is associated with cheese, fondue and fontina above all. And again, oil enters the ranking with Puglia.
The results show Italian regions whose typical dishes are immediately associated with territorial excellence, while for other regions there are difficulties in identifying a representative dish. As mentioned, few doubts when it comes to Emilia-Romagna, where in 80 percent of cases, respondents indicated at least one typical dish from the region. And the best known is tortellino (39 percent), ahead of piadina (17 percent). In second place is Campania (77 percent), thanks to pizza (37 percent) and mozzarella di bufala campana (18 percent). Bronze medal for Sicily with 76%: the best known product is cannolo (23%) and only to follow arancini/ne (18%). In fourth place is another southern region, Calabria, which comes in tied with Lazio at 73 percent, with a leap of no less than seven positions from the 2021 edition of the Report to the current one thanks in part to 'nduja. The sixth place is for Liguria traced immediately to pesto, indicated by one in two intervIstates.
The other regions: in Puglia orecchiette, in Lombardy the idea of risotto dominates, in Tuscany steak triumphs, while for Sardinia people think of pane carasau, porceddu and pecorino cheese. The second part of the ranking opens with Piedmont (bagna cauda at the top), which precedes Trentino-Alto Adige (canederli) and Veneto (reconnected with wine). For 'Abruzzo, arrosticini (34 percent) dominate, with less recognition, on the other hand, that is, with less than one in two respondents able to associate a dish with a region, we find Friuli-Venezia Giulia (wine), Valle d'Aosta (fondue), Umbria (truffle), Marche (ascolane olives) and Basilicata (peperone crusco).
