Rice

Today, rice is grown in only one area of the country, the Po River delta. In the early days, its cultivation was brutal work. Harvesters worked long days, and were plagued by malaria from the mosquito-infested stagnant waters and by pellagra from a poor diet. (Two well-regarded Italian films, Bitter Rice and The Tree of Wooden Clogs, dramatize the grim lives of the rice pickers.) In time, production was modernized, and now Italy is Europe’s largest rice producer. The centers for cultivation are in the Piedmont, around Vercelli and Novara, in eastern Lombardy, and in parts of the Veneto.