Anyone not fond of anything squiggly in their seafood appetizer, soup or risotto, should practice saying the words "senza polpo, per favore" 20 times a day before leaving home, "polpo" being the word for octopus in Italian. You might also want to know the word for squid: "totani" and "seppie".

These are popular delicacies in most regions of Italy, prepared in a great variety of ways: sometimes chopped, sometimes whole. As a matter of fact, the truly squeamish should prevent anyone sharing their table from ordering moscardini, a Ligurian seafood delight consisting of whole baby octopus, cooked and chilled into something resembling that dead spider you found curled behind the shoe box in the closet....