The average Christmas Day meal is enough to fill your belly for a good few days. Turkey. Meats. Vegetables. Potatoes. Italians have the right idea by abstaining from meat on Christmas Eve. Instead, the tradition is for Italians to eat fish dishes.

But even with this common practice, another tradition is to go to town with the fish meals on 24th December. Families can serve up the likes of capitone (eel – il capitone is a fried eel dish and is very popular), baccala (salted and dried cod), calamari (squid), and scungili (conch). Depending on the region, a wealth of fish dishes can be prepared, with some areas eating more than 10!