Di Maio eats 'pizza of friendship' with French envoy

(ANSA) - Rome, March 4 - Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday ate a 'pizza of friendship' with French Ambassador Christian Masset a day after bilateral relations were strained by a French TV channel showing a 'coronavirus pizza' being made by a pizzaiolo who coughed up green phlegm onto it in what both sides said later had been a regrettable piece of alleged satire.
    The two men met in a noted pizzeria in the centre of Rome to bury the hatchet over what some observers called 'pizzagate'.
    The satirical sketch on Canal+ sparked protests from Italy.
    The French embassy then distanced itself from the episode and Canal+ apologised.
    "This is the pizza of friendship and I thank the minister for inviting me to eat one of the best pizzas there are," said Masset.
    In the pizzeria, the two men ate a pizza starter called 'a portafoglio' before eating the main pizza.
    The 'Corona Pizza' sketch was broadcast on Canal+'s popular satirical show Groland Le Zapoi.
    Di Maio said "yesterday a French TV channel broadcast a video that offended Italian pizza and our country.
    "To respond to that shameful image, today in the company of the French ambassador to Italy, whom I thank, we ate together a good Neapolitan pizza, one of the Italian excellences that all the world envies us for".
    "Now enough polemics, let's defend with all our might our products, our qualities, our Made in Italy".