2 million signatures to UNESCO for Neapolitan Pizza

Neapolitan pizza is probably one of the most, if not the most well known Italian product in the world. A true symbol of the Italian culture and cuisine, it is famous worldwide and often imitated with poor results. But for Italy, pizza is such an important manifesto that a recent petition has collected over 2 million of signatures to recognize it as UNESCO’s heritage.

The source of the petition is Coldiretti, and now we can only wait and see if their effort will bring some fruits. The decision is expected on December 4th, in South Korea.

The art of Neapolitan pizza-makers, very ancient and so appreciated everywhere, is the only Italian art among the 34 applications that will be examined by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage.

In February 2010, Italian pizza has been officially recognized as a traditional specialty guaranteed by the EU, but it still lacks a “real” international recognition because it is extremely subjected to piracy attempt to its ingredients, especially tomatoes and mozzarella.

But what about the Italians? 39% of them believes pizza is, more than anything else, the emblem of their cuisine, according to a survey by Coldiretti. Another survey by Dante Alighieri Company reveals how, abroad, pizza is the most famous Italian food, followed by cappuccino, spaghetti and espresso.

Even today, Italians eat 5 million pizzas every day through the 63,000 pizzerias spread all over the country.