If you've been hanging out with Italians, chances are you might have felt confused hearing the sentence 'In bocca al lupo!' thrown with enthusiasm among the other things they say at the end of a gathering. Literally meaning 'in the mouth of the wolf!', this popular colloquialism is just another way of wishing good luck to someone who is about to step into something new that might present a challenge—be it an exam, the beginning of a new job or project, or an adventurous trip.
This famous quote synthetizes the whole period of Festivity Season, or Christmas Holidays – Feste di Natale e Nuovo Anno- for Italians. The holidays, which are public holidays for school students starting around from 23 December and ending on 8th January depending on the Italian region, include religious and lay festivities, like Christmas’ Eve (Vigilia di Natale) and Christmas (Natale) itself, Santo Stefano (Box Day), New Year’s Eve (San Silvestro, 31st December, or Vigilia di Capodanno), and New Year, or Capodanno (the Head/Start of the Year). A very happy period for Italian children, not going to school, and enjoying family, games, presents and food with their families!
Wine represents a very important but also an indispensable component in the Italian cultural and social tradition. Wine occupies a fortunate place in Italian gastronomy, no wonder, since long ago vines found here the ideal conditions and for this reason the Greeks called this territory “Enotria – Terra del Vino” (Enotria – Land of wine), a
sign that the vine and the production of wine were already well present in Italy since the times of Greek colonization.
Let's set the record straight from the beginning: the invention of pasta cannot be credited to the Chinese, and it did not find its way to Italians through Marco Polo. Instead, its origins can be traced back to Arab Sicily, from where it gradually spread throughout Italy, making notable stops in Naples and Genoa. This is the intriguing tale behind the dish that symbolizes Italian cuisine.
