Known for its fresh ingredients and immaculate taste, Italian food has received a surprising honour from the UN's cultural agency.
On Wednesday, December 10, UNESCO recognised Italian cooking as an "intangible cultural heritage", which many believe will help boost the country's tourism.
The agency added the rituals surrounding Italian cuisine to its list of the world's traditional practices and expressions.
Pier Luigi Petrillo, a member of the Italian UNESCO campaign and professor of comparative law at Rome's La Sapienza University, said, "Cooking is a gesture of love, a way in which we tell something about ourselves to others and how we take care of others."
"This tradition of being at the table, of stopping for a while at lunch, a bit longer at dinner, and even longer for big occasions, it's not very common around the world," he noted.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose hard-right government has championed "Made in Italy" products as part of her nationalist agenda, hailed the recognition that she said "honours who we are and our identity".
"Because for us Italians, cuisine is not just food or a collection of recipes. It is much more: it is culture, tradition, work, wealth," she said in a statement.
UNESCO meets every year to consider adding new cultural practices or expressions onto its list of "intangible heritage."
There are three types: a representative list, a list of practices that are in "urgent" need of safeguarding, and the third is a list of good safeguarding practices.
This year's session was held in the Indian capital, Delhi, and considered 53 nominations for the representative list. Other nominees included Chile's family circuses, the handloom weaving technique used to make Bangladesh's Tangail sarees, and Swiss yodelling.
