From ‘pizza and mandolin’ to ‘spritz and tiramisu’

Do you want to know how the image of Italy has changed over the years?

I’ll take you on a short tour of the collective imagination of our country in the Far East. But in the end, few of us know the Far East: China, Korea, Japan or Singapore are often just names on the map.

First, let’s distinguish the image of Italy between the West (America and Europe) and the Far East: we will find some useful surprises for all those who are interested in approaching this world.

For everyone, however, Italy and food are an inseparable pair.

For an incredible story, Donna Vittori (and therefore us) was selected as the protagonist of an episode of a high-budget Korean reality TV show, produced by Disney+. In the episode, the famous Jennie Kim had to live Maria's life for 72 hours (and in fact the episode is called My name is Maria) doing everything that a girl who runs a winery and a farmhouse does on a daily basis.

One of the focal points was the welcome and the preparation of typical Italian recipes, so for a month we showed recipes of Italian cuisine.

I made gnocchi dozens of times while Maria sent the videos to Korea so they could fully understand all the steps. We made fini fini, the egg pasta of the Ciociaria tradition (I don't know yet if they will be broadcast), but a request came directly from Korea and we couldn't reply: spritz and tiramisu.

On the one hand, I felt proud of my Venetian roots, on the other, I started to think about how much times have changed since the image of Italy was a gun on a plate of spaghetti from the German magazine, the neorealist cinema of Vittorio de Sica, the film The Godfather and TV series like The Sopranos. We continue to show Vacanze Romane - Roman Holidays (with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn) but the world has moved on and for the kids it is just an old black and white movie where the protagonist was the Vespa!

And I see this change in the eyes and questions of all the tourists who come to visit us at Donna Vittori or that I meet on my journey as a blogger of the Town Ambassador Award.

If in the West we are still tied to an Italy with a dark soul that cannot be fathom, in the East we are a sunny and creative country that knows how to live well and is capable of creating a contagious joyful atmosphere.

For the West we are an old country, for the East we are a young country.

May this image be useful to all those who want to get in touch with or learn about the Eastern world.

PS: when the troupe came to shoot with Jennie they realized that one thing was missing: a Vespa. I thank my friend Marcellino Bianchi for promptly bringing it!