SteveWebel [dot] Com

Okay, I’m in Italy right now, albeit, north of Rome, but I knew nothing of the boycott! I sure am glad that I ordered a pizza for lunch and not pasta!

ROME (Reuters) - Many Italians excluded their beloved pasta from their supermarket shopping on Thursday in protest at forthcoming price rises and consumer groups hailed the boycott as an excellent result.

Italians are in a state of outrage that rising wheat prices mean a plate of spaghetti in the next few months will almost certainly go up, even if by only a few cents, as many families eat pasta every day of the week.

“Pasta, bread, milk — these are the most important things. We are not protesting for perfumes or jewels, but for pasta and bread,” said one of demonstrators, Marisa, at a Rome protest.

“It is the government’s fault, they’ve eaten everything.”

Justice Minister Clemente Mastella promised to support the cause by skipping his favourite Neapolitan dish of pasta tubes stuffed with tomatoes and ricotta.

But there were few signs of his compatriots making a similar sacrifice at lunchtime, with hungry workers eating their usual pasta dishes at Rome restaurants that ignored the boycott.