Italian food isn’t the result of a single culinary style. It is a delectable mosaic of many regional cooking traditions that stem from each province’s geography and climate, agriculture, history, and culture. Each region provides a different flair—the truffles in Piedmont as authentically Italian as the gelato in Rome, inside the Lazio region.

While Italian food, with its myriad regional flavors, does not have a national character, the Italian way of eating does: a reverence for local ingredients, sensitively and simply prepared, and enjoyed alongside family and friends, slowly, and with gusto. Here are 10 signature tastes of Italy.