Italians love their pasta. It is a staple of their daily lives, like bread and wine. For centuries historians believed that pasta was brought back to Italy from China by Marco Polo. The famous Venetian, merchant, explorer, and writer, who traveled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295, returned to Italy with an abundance of unknown products.

The wealthy were willing to pay a great deal of money for a variety of new spices such as cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, mace, peppercorns, fennel seed and ginger. He also came back with noodles which may have promoted the belief that pasta developed from this discovery.