Foreign minister Luigi Di Maio went for a pizza with France's envoy Christian Masset in a show of support for Italy after a French TV channel pilloried supposed pizza chef "spreaders" of the current coronavirus, Di Maio stated on Wednesday
"Yesterday, a French TV channel aired a video that caused offence to Italian pizza and our country," read a post by Di Maio on Facebook.
Di Maio was referring to the Canal + spoof in which a pizza chef was seen sneezing onto a pizza.
"To respond to that shameful image, today, with the French ambassador to Italy, whom I thank, we enjoyed an excellent Neapolitan pizza - an excellent product that the entire world envies us for," added the post.
"Enough polemics, we will defend our quality Italian products with all our might," the post went on.
Di Maio vowed to "limit the damage" to Italy's economy and businesses caused by the dramatic coronavirus outbreak in the country - one of the worst outside China.
