Fagiolina di Arsoli

Beans reached Italy in the first half of the 16th century by way of Charles V of Spain, whose empire ran across Europe, Africa and the Americas; the first varieties out of the New World went to Spain and thence to Rome as a gift for the pope. The Arsoli bean has been grown in that village since at least 1552, and it was stolen so persistently that Julius III had to send two magistrates. Over the centuries it settled into the slopes above the Fosso Bagnatore, and it turns up in documents, proverbs and songs.