Eating Up Italy (UK)Paperback - UK, 1 January 2005

In an epic scooter trip from the South to the North of Italy, award-winning food writer Matthew Fort explores the local gastronomy, culinary culture and tumultuous history of a country. mainland Italy, Fort eats, drinks, and talks his way through Calabria, rich in spices and Arabian-influences, and on to Campania, where he falls in love with Naples, but despairs of its Pizza. with their delicious cheeses and traditional lamb dishes. In Emilia-Romagna, he revels in La Salama da Sugo of Ferrara and Risotto alla Pilota of Mantua. He nips into Lombardy where he falls foul of heartless hoteliers and is refreshed at a trades union rally, finally passing through Piedmont where the cooking of France and Northern Europe fuses with that of Italy. the people who produce it. He discovers a land where regional differences are still vibrantly alive, and uncovers the rich connection between history, tradition and cuisine. The enticing sum of these parts - the dishes, producers, ingredients, consumers and eating occasions - is nothing less than a contemporary portrait of the country.