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Nowdays pasta is all around the world, you could say it’s global, let’s put the question: Where does the pasta come from? Is it so italian as many people think?

The legend says that Marco Polo introduced the pasta to Italy after his exploration of the East in the 13 century. But we can trace pasta back until the fourth century B.C., an Etruscan tomb showed a group of people making what appears to be pasta. Further yet the Greek mythology suggests that the Greek God Vulcan invented a device that made some kind of… spaghetti! 

In 2005 a big discovery was made: a 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles has appeared at an archaeological site in western China. Possible proof for the argument that China invented before Italy? "These are definitely the earliest noodles ever found," said Lu Houyuan, a researcher with the Institute of Geology in Beijing.

Now we understand why there are different theories on the matter, basically the following opinions (quotations of mentioned before Lu  Houyuan): " Chinese people say that Marco Polo brought noodles from China back to Italy and Italians say they had noodles before that". The chinese group that made the discover declared: ‘‘All this has been based on documentary material, on personal accounts and menus. But we’ve been unable to find any actual material, until now."

Despite that discovery, some people are inclined to say no to a ‘‘chinese born pasta’’ this, for a simple reason: Once you have begun to make flour, and bread, it seems an obvious next step to make a firm dough, roll it out, and dry it to produce something — pasta — that will keep very well, much better than either flour or bread. Therefore bit’s more likely to think that pasta has been discovered independently more than once in the course of history.
Moreover, Arabs were already making spaghetti at Trabia, in Sicily, in 1150, long before Marco set out, some others said.
As for ravioli, they’re mentioned in documents predating Marco Polo’s trip. So they didn’t come from China.

So at last the theories are many, but the truth is one, no matter who or when, who invented pasta gave us a great tasty legacy, and that taste is the real mystery.

Once you will visit Rome, do not forget to eat in a very famous restaurant Le mani in pasta in Trastevere, where you will be served typical roman pastasciutta al dente at reasonable price.