Enjoy the following regional sayings and poems which illustrate the Italians’ love for food
| Quote | Meaning |
| Quando un contadino mangia un pollo, o è ammalato l’uno o è ammalato l’altro | When a peasant eats a chicken, either one or the other is sick (since chickens produce eggs, killing one to eat it only makes sense if the chicken is sick, or if it is needed to make a sick person well.) |
| Insalata, ben salata, poco aceto, molto oliata, mille volte rivoltata. | Greens, well salted, little vinegar, well-oiled, tossed one thousand times!
An old expression describing the best way to prepare a salad. Notice ben salata – the Romans liked to use a lot of salt, since salt was money and it showed that they had wealth. Both the word insalata and our Englishword ‘salary’ come from the Italian word for salt: sale |
| Il magnar non vale un’acca se alla fine non sa di vacca. | A meal is worthless if it doesn’t taste of milk at the conclusion
Lombardo expression, denoting their love for cheese at the end of a meal |
| El vin bon, l’omo bravo, e la dona bela, dura poco | Good wine, the trustworthy man, and the beautiful woman don’t last long
–Old Proverb from Friuli |