Scotland has surprisingly strong Italian links - which means that there are plenty of places there to enjoy excellent Italian food and drink
Scots all over the world celebrate Burns Night on 25th January – the birthday of their national poet, Robert Burns. But while Scotland’s craggy mountains, glacial lochs and brooding castles seem a world away from images of sunny Italy – there are surprisingly strong links between the two countries.
In the 19th century, Italians began to leave Italy to escape drought, famine and poverty. Some came to Scotland, frequently making a living by selling plaster religious statues. (Though there’s an urban myth that some arrived by mistake – getting off ships at Greenock on Scotland’s west coast in the belief they were in New York.)
Numbers increased around the 1860s, and again around the time of the First World War. These hard working Italians established businesses selling ice cream (sometimes from bicycles, sometimes from premises) and also opened shops serving the great British dish – fish and chips. Scots would even talk of hokey-pokey instead of ice cream, a corruption of the street cry of the ice-cream sellers (perhaps hoco uno poco – which means something like ‘try a little’).
Family and friends gradually joined them, and soon there were thriving Italian communities with lots of fish and chip shops and lively ice cream cafes – particularly in Glasgow, Edinburgh and along the west coast of Ayrshire. These communities came, in the main, from two villages in Italy: Barga, a hilltop town near Lucca in Tuscany; and Picinisco, a village in Lazio, south of Rome. They say the Glasgow Italians were mostly from Barga, and the Edinburgh Italians from Lazio. Today, Barga is known as 'the most Scottish place in Italy' and even holds a fish and chip festival every summer.
These settlers established a tradition for authentic Italian food in Scotland – and today there are plenty of places specialising in Italian cuisine. In Edinburgh there’s the famous deli Valvona and Crolla, on Elm Row at the top of Leith Walk, which opened in 1934. One of the founders, Benedetto Valvona, began importing Italian food to Scotland in the 1860s. The bustling deli stocks a vast range of Italian produce – from Italian wines to salamis and cheeses. They’ve also opened a café/bar in the city centre.
In Glasgow restaurants include:
La Parmigiana, Great Western Road - regularly lauded by Italian newspapers and often cited as one of the best Italian restaurants outside Italy. So much so that, when an Italian club or national football team plays in Glasgow, Italian journalists can often be found there. Click here for info.
Fratelli Sarti, Wellington St – opened by descendants of the Fazzi family from Lucca, Tuscany and a lovely, relaxed place to eat. Click here for info.
Sanninos, Bath St – a busy pizzeria and one of Glasgow’s favourite Italian eateries. Click here.
Famous Scottish-Italians include actors Tom Conti, Peter Capaldi and the singer Sharleen Spiteri. Then there’s the actress Daniella Nardini, whose family started a celebrated art deco café, Nardini’s in Largs, in Ayrshire – the birthplace of Robert Burns. The original cafe closed down a few years ago – but there’s talk that it will re-open in 2007.
