If you want French food, go to France.

It is difficult to find anything but Italian trattorias and ristorantes in some parts of Italy. During our recent 2,000 mile road trip through small towns and countrysides the length of the mainland’s Mediterranean coastline, and on the islands of  Sicily and Sardinia, we never saw restaurants featuring Mexican or Indian or Japanese or French or German motifs and menus, and we passed just one Chinese restaurant. While we love Italian fare, we also enjoy variety, which Italy appears to lack, at least outside its largest cities.

On a more positive note, we encountered in this thin slice of mostly rural Italy, very few outlets for the fast-food chains common in the USA and many other countries…..only a few McDonalds, only one KFC and one Burger King, and none of the pizza and sub-sandwich chains which have sprouted in sprawling strip malls across the USA and around many other parts of the world.

We speculate that the lack of menu diversity and Western fast food chains results from the dining traditions which still dominate Italian culture……the large mid-day meal…..the late evening meal….and in both cases, the communal commotion of those events. Eating is a group activity — a long, noisy, often festive process that works its way through antipasto choices, then the pasta course, followed by the meat or fish course, and then dessert and coffee and more.

Another positive spin on the lack of culinary diversity is that the small towns and country sides of Italy near the sea are intentional about being different than other countries and are maintaining a unique Italian identity. Globalization has led to finding the same foods everywhere, which takes something significant out of the adventure of travel. But in those parts of Italy where we recently traveled, the fare is Italian or it’s nothing at all.

Visitors to these less-traveled parts of Italy won’t find the same food they eat at home. There’s no room at the table for wiener schnitzel or a Big Mac.  It’s as if the official policy of Italy’s small-town Mediterranean coastline dictates: “If you want French food, go to France.”

JER