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Vacations in Italy: Wine and Food
The food and wine tourism is one of the main motivations to spend vacations in Italy. Italy is the only one in the world to be able to offer 182 guarantees of origins by the European Union and 4471 local specialities included in the census by the regions. People can say that wine and food are among the most pleasant memories of vacations in Italy.
We love Italy not only for his history, nature and art, but also for his food and wine and his good things to eat and drink. Therefore, we would like to discover and know Italy more thoroughly. Above all, tourists ask for "a right balance between quality and price" and they are willing to pay more for some high-quality food products. Therefore, they are less careful with value for money and saving at all costs. They are careful with nutritional food aspects, but also with history and gastronomical culture.
Wine and salami are among the products that tourists want to know something more about origin, manufacturing process and brand. In fact, tourists have a real weakness for salami, Parma ham, “speck”, San Daniele ham, “mortadella” and “culatello”.
ROIS TRAVELS’s offers for food and wine tourism are waiting for you!
Vacations in Italy: Wine and Food in the Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet is a nutritional model inspired by traditional model dietary of European Mediterranean countries, especially in peninsular and insular regions and particularly in Italy.
It is a diet abandoned during the economic boom of the sixties, because it was considered poor and unattractive in comparison with other kinds of diet coming from America in particular. On the other hand, today the Mediterranean diet is an element of holiday in Italy: Italian wine and food, among nutritional models, are capturing the interest of consumers.
The Mediterranean Diet History
According to Wikipedia - http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieta_mediterranea - an Italian nutritionist, Doctor Lorenzo Piroddi (Genoa 1911-1999), was the first person to see, in 1939, the connection between diet and metabolism diseases such as diabetes, bulimia and obesity. A few years later, the American scientist Ancel Keys (1904-2004), author of Eat Well and Stay Well, the Mediterranean Way, noticed a very low incidence of coronary disease among Cilento and Crete island population, in spite of high consumption of olive oil. Therefore, he put forward the hypothesis that it was due to their kind of diet. People who choose to spend their holidays in Italy associate this features with delicious Italian products: wine and food typical of this geographical area.
Following Ancel Keys observation, it got underway the famous research "Seven Countries Study”. The research was based on a study of 12,000 people diets. People aged between 40 and 59 and scattered in seven countries around the world (Finland, Japan, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, United States and Yugoslavia). The survey results left us in no doubt: the mortality for ischemic cardiopathy (heart attack) is much lower in Mediterranean populations than countries like Finland, where diet is rich in food with saturated fats (butter, lard, milk and its derivatives, red meat). Ancel Keys kept up his studies mainly in Italy, in Cilento, where he continued to live for over 40 years. He lived to be a hundred, as the best proof of his theories. In 2004, he was awarded a medal of merit to the public welfare of Italian Country.
What you Can Enjoy during Vacations in Italy: Red Wine
Wine is a fermented alcoholic drink. It is only obtained from fermentation (total or partial) of the vine fruit, grapes (either pressed or not), or must. From the Latin word vinum took place many names in other languages, through the Celtic languages reworking, too.
Wine can be obtained from grapes belonging to the Vitis vinifera species or coming from a cross between this species and other species of the genus Vitis, like for example Vitis labrusca, Vitis rupestris, etc.; for the wine production in Italy it may be use only grapes belonging to Vitis vinifera.
Red Wine Production
Red wines have always been considered the wine par excellence, which - at least recently - have the greatest success.
http://www.diwinetaste.com/dwt/it2004070.php - s6r0 writes, “Every time you think of red wine, you always think about an important wine”. It is able to give magnificent emotions. This is due to historical and traditional notoriety of lots of wines - in most of cases red - or perhaps because of its more mysterious and impenetrable aspect, as if inside of it was hidden a precious secret. Certainly, there are many excellent red wines, but - to tell the truth - there are many red wines which pale in shame in front of many white wines or other types of wines. However, the magic of red wine is the result whose history is lost in the mists of time.
According to many people, the colour wine is index of high quality when it is dark, intense and impenetrable to light. On the contrary, according to another people it only represents one of many criteria, which permit the evaluation of a red wine. However, it is undeniable that the depth and the poor transparency of a red wine have a great charm for the consumers. It is probably more pleasing to see - just for the supposed promise of importance that this could have - a wine with a dark and intense colour rather than one transparent and little intense.
Red wine is only produced with red berry grapes. The must of the grape - any grape, even those with red berries – always has the same grey-green colour and it is certainly very distant from any resemblance to the red colour. Colouring matters of grapes - those able to make red wine red - are all concentrated in the skin. The amount of these substances - polyphenols commonly known as pigments - varies depending on the variety and the cultural and environment conditions.
What you Can Enjoy during Vacations in Italy: Italian Food
The citizens of Italy have in common a high consumption of bread, fruit, vegetables, aromatic herbs, cereals, olive oil, fish and wine (in moderate quantity). Therefore, people who live in Mediterranean countries consume relatively large amounts of fat. Nevertheless, they have lower rates of cardiovascular disease than American population, whose diet contains high levels of animal fat. It is a paradox (at least to the traditional nutritionism point of view). The explanation is that the large quantity of olive oil used in the Mediterranean cuisine, at least partially offsets the animal fat. In fact, olive oil seems to lower cholesterol levels in the blood. Moreover, people think that another protective factor is the moderate consumption of alcohol during meals (one drink twice a day for men and one drink daily for women). Perhaps it is because of the antioxidants content in alcoholic beverages.
According to the study LYON, which was performed by American Heart Association (AHA), the Mediterranean diet reduces the mortality rate of coronary disease by 50%.
Food in Italy: Legumes
Legumes often are called "the meat of the poor". Legumes are unfairly excluded or highly undervalued anyway. The legumes contain lots of slow release carbohydrates (low glycemic index) and more so protein. That is if we compared legumes with another vegetable food in particular. Considering dry food, this share normally exceeds the weight by 20%. Legumes also have the merit of containing good quantities of mineral salts, some vitamins and dietary fibre.
Lentils, chickpeas, beans and their variety (pinto bean, “cannellini”, ranner bean etc.), broad beans, peas and lupins (often called "fusaie”) are the legumes, which deserve a tasting during holiday in Italy.
Food in Italy: Fruit and Vegetables
By now it is well established the opinion that we should consume every day an ideal figures of five portions of fruit and vegetables. These foods produce a feeling of satiety in the face of a diminished caloric content. That is because of the presence of a large amount of dietary fibre, which increases the weight and volume of the meal, but not its caloric content.
It must be also emphasized the large quantity of water that these foods contain, often above 90% (in the fruit). That characteristic should tend to increase the consumption of these foods to supplement adequately lost fluids, even more so in the Mediterranean hot summer days.
Many fruits give us important benefits of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), which is a water-soluble essential vitamin. It is recommended to eat preferably fruit in season.
According to Wikipedia - http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieta_mediterranea – the Mediterranean diet has protective effects on the brain and it helps to prevent cognitive decline. It is very important for its beneficial effects on health. The Mediterranean diet prevents cardiovascular disease, tumour and probably allergies and asthma. The study reports possible protective effect on the brain. In fact, it is come out that among people who follows this type of diet the cognitive decline is less common.
Vacations in Italy: Wine and Food not to be missed!
ROIS TRAVELS’s offers are waiting for you!
We will offer you cooking lessons, culinary sessions, food and wine routes, but also mach culture, traditions and nature tours to have fulfilling sensory experiences and true escapes from the daily routine.
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