La costruzione interazionale dell’Italian Heritage e dell’Italian legacy: il caso della ristorazione italiana nel Regno Unito

This paper investigates the use of Italian and English in some Italian restaurants settled in two different British cities, London and Bedford. It aims to verify if and to what extend the use of Italian instead of English promotes the link with Italy and if this connection can be described in terms of Italian heritage, Italian legacy or Italian affection as previously defined by Turchetta. The results of the analysis shown that, in both cities, Italian is used only by 1st generation migrants in order to promote the respect of Italian traditions, while the use of English to express an Italian legacy is found in those restaurants that are hold by Anglo-Italians. In this case, their connection to Italy is guaranteed by their personal history that is well known in close communities such as the one in Bedford. Italian is also used by non-Italian manager, who select this language in order to pretend an Italian identity and sell a false Made in Italy to their customers.