PalQ

The 'best bread' in Italy, according to a NYTimes article, is kneaded, baked and sold in Altamura, way down the boot near Bari. Road signs to the city trumpets it as "The City of Bread". The coarse-grain focaccia bread has been famous for ages - Horace in 37 BC pontificated that the bread was "far the best bread to be had, so good that the wise traveler takes a supply of it on for his onward journey."

ekscrunchy

This may well be, but having never been to Bari, my vote for the best bread in Italy is the crescentine that I ate last Saturday night at Da Cesari in Bologna.

AP6380

That's the "Altamura Killed McDonald's" article. Apparently the people of the town banded together and promoted their cuisine and McDonald's went closed down due to a lack of business.

PalQ

It may seem there was more dough in the bread business than in the Golden Arches but it was kind of a stacked deck - the article says Micky D was paying top euro for its prime main square location whilst nearby the bakery, around since the 1400s or some such incredible baloney, was getting free rent from this relative or friend, the same landlord who was gauging McDonalds. Another victory for the slow cities slow food movement in Italy! and then they will wonder why their young people move away to more hip for them cities.

PalQ

The article says that this is an old story as the McDonald's closed in 2002 - it also says there are 340 McDonalds in Italy - many inherited when they bought the Burghy fast-food places several years ago and that plans are to double the number in the next few years - so McDonalds may have lost the battle but seems sure to win the war!