When Italy was in fact a country of city-states controlled by the church and/or royal families, geese (and all good cuts of all meats) were reserved for those in power, like members of the clergy, royalty, or the “seigneurs,” the landed gentry who owned the fields and farms on which the tenant farmers worked. Yet after the harvest, as an act of gratitude for their toil, the seigneurs gifted a certain number of geese to the farmers, on which the farmers would feast for one night. These geese were roasted in the large communal oven.
