The familiar, comfort foods of Italia – pasta, pizza and dolce desserts – have emerged as the preferred cuisine among Europeans, topping the list for everyone from Germans, Brits, Spanish, Italians and the French.
In a new TripAdvisor survey that polled 7,665 Europeans, Italian food was ranked the overall favorite, with 62 percent of Spaniards particularly enamored by the country's cuisine.
The same was true for 55 percent of German respondents, 52 percent of Brits, and 48 percent of Italians.
Perhaps most striking, the French – for whom good food and gastronomy is a birthright – likewise rated Italian fare better than their own, with 40 percent of respondents saying they preferred the Mediterranean cuisine, followed by 38 percent identifying their own cuisine.
Thai food was the third favorite for 27 percent of French respondents.
Meanwhile, French cuisine is sliding in popularity among Europeans, most significantly among Italians, with only 16 percent naming French cuisine as their favorite. In rankings, that put French gastronomy in eighth place among Italians.
Countries polled included the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and France.
The latest survey confirms the findings of another worldwide poll conducted earlier this year by accommodation site Hotels.com, which also found that of the 27,000 people polled, Italian fare emerged the favorite, at 32 percent.
That was followed by French and Japanese cuisine.
