Abstract
In some future cultural history of Italy, the early 1980s may appear as a seminal point in that tendency known as Americanisation. Its characteristic monuments will be seen as McDonalds in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome (1985), the Dandy-burger in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna (1984) or that entirely American chain of fast food known as Italy, Italy. This transformation of the architectural face of Italian cities would not have been possible, cultural historians will remark, without a transformation of the eating habits of at least some Italians and perhaps even their perception of the very nature of food itself. This Americanisation of Italian habits, it will be remarked, is even more evident in the interior of Italian homes — not so much in the appearance of increasing numbers of cornflakes on breakfast tables, but in types of television habits and television programs.
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