Sicily

Beginning with Sicily, the biggest region  in Italy, was a great idea, in the fact that we have gone from eating meat with most of our lunches, to mainly making fish and fresh vegetables.

Sicily was inhabited 1000 years before christ, colonized by the Phoenicians and the Arabs, whom ended up spreading their culture throughout Italy. After the Phoenicians and Arabs, you guessed it, the Romans dominated the region, using it as a Port for trade and war. When the Barbarians came, the Normans were the ones to dominate this part of the region, but due to the landscape, their rule was short lived and they moved to the other side of the Ionian, Puglia. Though they left early, they created a culture that lived on in Southern Italy, which later dominated their beliefs and Cuisine.

In terms of Cuisine and Culture, it was very mixed, due to the fact that many different bodies of people ruled over this area. One of the main culture that truly stuck was the Greeks, as they had taken over this area, and named it Magna Grecia, which means Great Greece in latin. Through the Greek domination, many different art forms were brought in. While also involving food, they brought a lot of different ways of architecture and art.

In terms of Cuisine, however, there is a diverse food seen ranging from small bites to large plates. An interesting thing I found was the lack of meat in their diet, as you can see, since they live right along the water. However, the cuisine does include many different types of meat, but it is mostly used either to flavor sauces or for Salumi. However, Sicily is best known for their Olives and Almonds, as they grow very abundantly around the region, including in the mountains to the north.

With their cuisine being deeply rooted into the Sea, many old traditions still stand in terms of Fishing and cooking said fish. An instance of this tradition is the Mattanza del Tonno. The fisherman and Sicily would wait until the tuna came to the mediterranean to breed, and would trap them in nets and bring them up onto land. Today, due to overfishing, this practice can only be held once a year, as tuna population has decreased significantly. Since they take forever to grow, and their food supply also happens to be one of Italy's favorite (Sardines), they are being fished into extinction, and should already know how I feel about this (Read my post about fish from advanced cooking if you don't).