Pizza for UNESCO 'great opportunity'

(ANSA) - Rome, March 4 - UNESCO's decision to include the art of the Neapolitan pizza-maker as a contender to join its World Heritage List is a "great opportunity", said Culture Minister Dario Franceschini on Friday.
    The candidacy for the UN organisation's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage is based on a proposal by the agriculture ministry with the backing of the foreign, university, environment and economy ministries.
    "Becoming world heritage isn't just the way to recognise a true art, but also the way to claim pizza as Italian," Franceschini said.
    "Pizza has become such a global product that many countries have, as a matter of fact, forgotten that it's Italian or Neapolitan," he said.