Peperoncini can be pickled or dried or cooked or eaten raw. There are many varieties.

This is an old thread! The original poster has had time to plant, grow, harvest, dry, and bottle his own peperoncini by now.

LOL cmt, I noticed !

"The original poster has had time to plant, grow, harvest, dry, and bottle his own peperoncini by now."

And in fact brought this thread back to the top to tell us that he or she had actually done so.

Thanks for the follow-up, aclareb.

Well, so far we have one substance that could qualify as an "Italian spice" in the sense that it's used in Italian cuisine - but also in many others. Nothing else I can think of is unique to Italy either - saffron (not a ground seed, but close enough), very common spices like peppercorns, nutmeg and cinnamon and maybe coriander and cumin in Sicily (?) - but what else could there be?