Coming on a long-haul flight to Italy with the family? The kids might not understand how lucky they are to be coming to Italy, they might just be wondering why on earth would someone sit on a plane for upwards of 18 hours just to go to a place where pizza was born? Prime everyone in the fam with these fun food facts to help the time pass a little faster on the plane.

1. Chef Boyardee was a real person, from Italy! Piacenza to be exact.

2. Pizza was born in Naples and it’s signature pizza pie “La Margherita” was named after a Queen! (Queen Margherita!)

3. Italians eat on average half a pound of bread- daily!

4. The estimated annual pasta consumption is Italy is 30 kilos or 70 pounds per person!

5. Pizza was born in 1889 in Naples! That’s an old world recipe if I ever saw one!

6. Tomatoes are not native to Italy- they were brought over from the Americas.

7. Tomato Sauce was first recorded in food history sometime in the late 18th Century

8. Before pasta sauce was invented, the infamous dish was a sort of finger food! No forks needed as the sauce-less pasta was eaten by hand.

9. There is no such thing as Italian food. There are 20 regions of Italy each with their own, unique cuisine. What you may eat in Rome, you may not find easily in Florence. Example: Pasta Carbonara is a Roman dish.

Caprese Salad (Wikipedia Commons)

10. The famous appetizer “Caprese” of mozzarella, tomatoes and basil is named “Insalata Caprese” because it was created by a local chef on the island of Capri.

Buon Appetito!