In fact, Italians were probably already quite familiar with pasta. The misconception seems to come from a passage in his famous book, "The Travels of Marco Polo," in which he describes a pasta tree.

What's more, pasta seems not to be a doppelgänger of Asian noodles, but rather a direct descendant. The question is, how did this evolution occur? Many have heard the story that Marco Polo ...

Pasta’s ethnic roots have been long debated. Many theories have been put forward, some notably far-fetched. An enduring myth, based on the writings of the 13th-century explorer Marco Polo ...