I agree with most of your post, but I wouldn't agree with the part, "steak in Italy will taste different than most American steaks because the Italian beef is grass finished, rather than corn finished." I say this because there is no such thing as steak in Italy.

I agree with this because food in Venice, Torino, Puglia, Napoli, Palermo, Le Marche is fundamentally different food. All of it can't be gathered under an "Italian" umbrella.

They use different sub-species of cows, feed them differently, raise them at different altitudes, etc. The difference between a steak in Tuscany and a steak in Piemonte is probably greater than a steak from Le March and a steak from Boston.

I'm no expert in this, but it's not so much what they feed them, but what is the race of the cow? In Tuscany, Chianina is a type of cow that became popular 4-5 years ago. Too popular. You even find it in fast food burgers at McDonalds in Florence. It is a fairly small and weak looking cow. Now there barely enough of these cows left to just feed Tuscans.

In Piemonte you eat a different type of steak. It's going to taste different from chianina because it's a different type of cow. It is a fassona. A male fassona. A chianina standing next to a fassona looks like a baby. Fassone are extremely muscular, almost like a bull. The only scandal is that sometimes unscrupulous venders sell a female, but it must be a male to be fassona, because you are really eating a giant muscular cow in Piemonte. About 10-15% are counterfeit, because they are female fassone, and a Piemontese can taste the difference.

The difference between the way these two cows taste has more to do with the fact that they are different "races" than whether they are fed corn or grass. Again, there is really no such thing as Italian food. Just regions.

And now, the hot steak in Italy is Angus. If you order it, it probably comes in a cellophane packet packaged in Scotland, and you don't know how it was raised or fed.

So I still question referring to things as Italian. The bread in Siena, the pasta in Siena, is not the same as the bread and pasta in Le Marche, just as the pizza in Venice and the pizza in Naples are not the same.

A Chianina is not a Fassona, a Romagnola, a Marchegiani, grigio alpina, maremanna, etc, because these are all different races of cows that are used for steak in Italy, and that has more impact than whether they eat grass or corn. What also has more impact than race/breed, grass/corn, is the quality of the breeder.

Between breeder, race of the animal, and how the breeder raises the animals (in large by what they feed them). Breeder is the most important. No matter what they feed the animal, if it comes from a bad breeder, you're getting a bad steak.

Also factor in the vendor. Does the vendor have access to the best bred animals?

There are three rules for meats; "Da dove viene, qui ha levata, come ha levata." Where did the meat come from (race), who raised it, and how was it raised.

Those factors vary from region to region, and cannot be put into one tent as, "Italian steak." A fatty Tuscan chianina is not going to taste anything like a densely muscled fassona.

It other words, there isn't much you can say about Italian steak, because there is no such thing. You can only talk about the steaks eaten in different regions. I don't think there are enough people in Rome going out for steak that there is particular high breeding culture there, although there will be a few since it's the capital.