Fast Food's Southern Push Reaches a Region That Still Cooks

Fast food chains are expanding across Italy faster than at any time since they first arrived in the country, and the growth is increasingly concentrated in the south, according to an analysis published by The Local Italy on Friday. The outlet, which reports on Italy for an English-speaking readership, presented the spread in maps and identified the Mezzogiorno as the direction of travel for the major international brands.

The finding places Calabria inside a national shift rather than at its edge. The region's economy rests on citrus and bergamot groves, on tourism, on the port at Gioia Tauro and on remittances from those who have left; a cheap, standardised food offer fits a coastline that fills with visitors each summer and empties again in October.

The Local did not publish region-by-region figures for Calabria, and none should be assumed from its maps. What the outlet does establish is the direction of the expansion and its pace, which it describes as the fastest since the chains entered the Italian market.