Well, actually we are super traditionalist when cooking, the exact opposite of exotic xD.. Try to propose some variation on Italian dishes, most of the people will look at you very strangely, some of them might get offended too :) Also, there is a big debate on spaghetti with meatballs (whether they are authentic Italian food or not) according to where you live : in the south, where I come from, people cook them but the meatballs are way smaller than in the US version, while in Northern Italy, most of the time people will tell you that is not an Italian dish.. We're a complicated country :)