From USA Today:
Pizza and pasta may be the ubiquitous face of Italian cuisine, but the country’s culinary history is much more diverse, and is reflected in the great variety of its regional cuisines. Some dishes and ingredients have their roots in Italy’s ancient Etruscan and Roman civilizations, while others were brought from distant shores by merchants and conquerors, but all have merged to create one of the world’s most delicious and lauded cuisines.