We're taking another cyber-ride on my version of "www"--worldwide weddings--this time to Italy, which gave us two very popular wedding traditions!

I honeymooned in Italy, and it was "molto magnifico!' Not a big drinker at the time, I somehow managed to be tiddly all over Italy, because the grape is revered and wine flows like water, and I was there to celebrate! The ambience, the food, the history, the people--I was completely charmed, and I was getting my fill of pizza and gelato. On a day trip to an island off the coast near Venice, we saw a bride and groom and their wedding guests walking through the town to the church--an Italian wedding custom. They apparently have no problem with the groom seeing the bride just before the wedding. So romantic!

One of our favorite traditions--the engagement ring--was born in Italy. In 860 A.D., Pope Nicholas I proclaimed that not only was an engagement ring required to seal the agreement to be married, but that the engagement ring must be made of gold to signify that the groom was willing to make a financial sacrifice for his bride-to-be. The diamond was added 617 years later when King Maximillian gave Mary of Burgundy an engagement ring with a "girl's best friend". We've been best friends ever since!

It was also in Italy, the land of "amore", that gold wedding rings first became popular and the tradition of the wedding cake began when, in the first century B.C., a cake or bread was broken over the bride's head to insure fertility. Now the bride and groom just smear wedding cake on each other. Thank you, Title IX!

According to Italian folklore, an Italian groom might carry a piece of iron in his pocket to ward off evil spirits. The bride wears a veil to hide her face from jealous spirits, and tearing the veil is considered good luck. I have no idea why. I assume Italians consider Sunday marriages to be the luckiest because of its religious implications. Their symbolic foods for good luck and fertility are "confetti", which is Jordan almonds tied in mesh bags to toss at the couple, and twists of fried dough powdered with sugar called wanda (bow ties).

Ooooh, just imagine the wedding reception! Fresh Italian bread dipped in fine, Tuscan olive oil, antipastos, pastas, seafood, cannoli--Mamma Mia! That's It-aly for now! I'm off to lunch...