If there’s one thing we love more than apps, it’s different cultures. We have a tonne of language games helping people learn languages from all over the world. In this series, we look at some of the locations that fascinated us so much that we created language games for them. They are helpful for students, teachers, and travellers. Last week, we looked at Germany. This week, let’s take a look at Italy.
Italy boasts of having one of the most popular cuisines in the world which is characterised by regional diversity and abundance in different tastes. Italy has been known for pasta, cheese, wine and other food (especially pizza). Your trip to Italy will not be complete if you haven’t got to taste their Italian pizza freshly baked from the traditional wood-fired brick oven.
The ancestor of Pizza probably was the focaccia which is a flat bread to which toppings were then added. In the 16th century, Naples in Italy referred to this flatbread as pizza. It was known as the dish for poor people and was sold in the streets. In the late 18th century, the poor people around Naples used tomatoes as toppings to their yeast-based flat bread which started the story of pizza. It gained popularity and became a tourist attraction as a local specialty of the poorer areas of Naples.
There are 2 pizzas preferred by many Italians today and they call them the “pure pizzas”.
The oldest is the “Marinara” with toppings like tomato, oregano, garlic and extra virgin olive oil. It was considered to be the food prepared by the seaman’s wife for her seafaring husband after returning from fishing trips in the Bay of Naples.
The second is called “Margherita” which is named after Queen Margherita. On June 11, 1889, the Neapolitan pizza maker Raffaele Esposito created a pizza for Queen Margherita and garnished it with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil to represent the national colours of Italy .
Since then, Naples was globally known to be the birthplace of pizza and where the best pizza can be found. In 1995, the first pizza day was arranged. Nowadays, Naples organises the world’s largest pizza celebration every September.
Pizzafest is held for 5 to 7 days where the most famous pizzeria from all over the world competes against the local pizzaioli in Italy. They set up tables where people can taste different varieties of pizzas and a jury will judge at the end of the celebration so they can proclaim the best pizzaioli or pizza maker in the world.
That information might leave you mouth-watering and be longing for a taste of that superb pizza or you may be thinking of travelling to Italy in September next year to witness the world’s largest pizza event, but wait! You will need to learn some Italian words to describe how satisfying their pizza are. You can say “delizioso” for delicious and “mi piace” for I like it.
If you want to learn more, you can download Learn Italian Bubble Bath Game which makes learning Italian fun and easy. It helps you learn over 600 words and phrases spread over 63 language categories.
So get there and grab the best pizza. Don’t forget to build friendships too!
Grazie e arrivederci!
Photo credits:
- Queen Margherita of Savoy
By পৰশমণি বড়া (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
- Pizza Marinara
Di Peter Van den Bossche from Mechelen, Belgium – Pizza MarinaraUploaded by Diádoco, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11363846
If you have insights or comments about the article, please leave a comment below.
Please don’t forget to like us on Facebook , follow us on Twitter & Instagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel — A Minute Of Overpass
Leave a Reply