According to the tradition, Alexander the Great ( IV century b. C. ), through the conquest of India, introduced rice in the western world. But, neither Romans, nor Greeks, cultivated rice; actually, it spread in the Mediterranean basin, thanks to the Arabs.
Documents, dated 1200, give evidence that, at that time, in Italy, noble families already used it and that rice was farmed in convents and monasteries.
In 1250, they considered it a precious and expensive food, excellent to prepare sweets.
It is right in the Po Plain, near Pavia, that rice was, for the first time, intensive farmed.
From then on, rice-growing, in Italy, became more and more important!

* This is the map of Italy. Green coloured parts indicate
rice farming lands; They extend for 226.710,23 hectares,
this area is, more or less, as large as Aosta Valley!!