Even with the high standard of food in France, Italy can still rule the food world. There's a strong tendency to promote local foods and,  the local food and wine always matches.

Food in Bergamo, Italy 
America Blog; by Chris in Paris; Saturday, March 06, 2010   

Even with the high standard of food in France, Italy can still rule the food world. There's a strong tendency to promote local foods and, as in France, the local food and wine always matches. I was eager to try the local offerings and managed to bring home a few goodies. What is nice down there is that it's polenta country. Jojo is allergic to wheat so her pasta and bread days are over. I brought home some local polenta and am working on new recipes that use it.

I was also curious about corn polenta since it obviously wasn't always used. Before corn was introduced from the Americas, they used either chestnut or chickpea flour. In Liguria (along the coast) they still use chickpeas just as they do over in Nice where you can find delicious panisse to fry up. I'm pretty sure the chickpeas were introduced to Europe from the North Africans centuries ago so you can see how the food has had many influences over time.

Also interesting is that they offer so much organic food. The Italians spend a lot of money on organic. Even the non-organic products have an incredibly high level of quality. Wow, the Italians really do food right.
The local specialty of Bergamo by the name of casoncelli..... It's a stuffed pasta that is tossed with butter, sage and pancetta. If there is a tastier pasta dish out there, I haven't tried it. (Not that I'm not interested in exploring.) I asked the waiter for local food and this was one of the items he suggested. I also tried a local braised beef served on polenta which was quite nice as well plus a regional wine.

http://www.americablog.com/2010/03/food-in-bergamo-italy.html

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