Italy is a country famous for its diverse culinary traditions, where each region has given the world a famous dish and each house has a different recipe to prepare it. Foods from Northern Italy are more fat and dairy-laden, thanks to neighboring borders and former colonial occupations (via Zicasso).
Southern Italy on the other hand, flanked by the Mediterranean sea on three sides, has a bounty of seafood and foods typical of coastal areas. Central Italy is famed for cucina povera — a frugal cooking style developed by poor farmers of the region — and the Italian islands are a mishmash of Mediterranean cuisines due to a large immigrant population.
