The italian side of Narvik, Norway

The Italian side of Narvik has to do with all the tiny Italian influences that you can discover in this super fascinating town.

This story is closely related to the Balkan version: How to shock Italians in Belgrade. If you want to actually go to Italy, you can check out an alternative approach to Rome. More things in Narvik definitely worth mentioning is the mentality and the town hero.

1. Nugatti

Nutella is big. However, we have our personal chocolate butter that is much more popular than Nutella here in Norway. It's called Nugatti. I'm not sure why they put this name. ''Nu'' is North-Norwegian for ''Now'', and ''Gatti'' is Italian for ''Cats''. I don't get what to make of that. Maybe they made it only to have something related to the car ''Bugatti''. Or maybe it's a parody of Nutella which explains the ''Nu'' and a word play with ''Nugat''. It's probably the last explanation.

Fun Fact: Nugatti is also produced in India now! Also, I found imported Nugatti to Albir in Spain because there's a lot of Norwegians who either lives and who visits Albir. They have Grandiosa aswell!

2. Bella Napoli

First, we have Bella Napoli Narvik. This is a very central place that has long years of experience in Narvik. The restaurant is indeed very Italian. Just as the name and the food. These kinds of places are repeated throughout the north of Norway. The names vary between Milano, Venezia, and Napoli.

3. Grandiosa

Frozen pizza is Norwegian culture. We have a pizza called ''Grandiosa''. It is the 3rd most consumed meal on Christmas in Norway. You will find it in every single Norwegian supermarket that you attend. They even have Grandiosa in Sweden where it is also a success as you can see on the photo!

Fun fact: There's a frozen chocolate pizza in Norway called ''Dr. Øtker: Ristorante al Cioccolato''. On the front side, everything is written in Italian and it's manifested as an Italian-made food. On the back, when you look at how to prepare, and where the ingredients are, you will find it represented in each modern Latin and Germanic language except Italian! Because they couldn't foresee food patriots like Italians to put this in their mouth.

4. Milano

Far from the core of Narvik, we have a restaurant called Milano. It's on Ankenes, and they actually have a dedicated Italian style pizza called ''Ankenes''. It takes the best of both realms. The people who run these restaurants are usually not from Italy.

5. Caffe latte

You also have Caffe Latte. It's a coffee store as you may have guessed. They have the Cappuccino, Americano, and normal coffee here. It's necessary to put it here because we see how largely inspired we are by our Italian companions all over the world. Maybe not all over. Perhaps not so much in Japan.

Fun fact: The Latin phrase ''carpe diem'' is also the name of a great rap duo in Norway. They write it as ''Karpe Diem''.