Rome:
So what do tomatoes, spaghetti and extra-virgin olive oil have to do with a list including India's Taj Majal, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, The Great Wall of China, and the Old City of Jerusalem ?
Not much.
But there is another part of the list that is less well known. It is called the "intangibles." and includes cultural traditions like dancing, basket-weaving, and festivals.
Some items on the list include "the vimbuza healing dance in Malawi," "Mak Yong theatre" in Malaysia, and the "Art of Akyn", Kyrgyz Epic story-telling.
Italy's Sicilian Puppet theatre and Sardinian Tenor singing are already on UNESCO'S intangible list.
From the small Trattoria Corsi in the centre of Rome to the most exclusive restaurants on Rome's famed Via Veneto, the chefs of Italy believe the basic mediterranean diet also belongs on the list.
Owner Agostino Corsi of the Corsi Trattoria says that it is the basic ingredients that make it mediterranean.
"By the Mediterranean diet one means made with ingredients that are very natural that are abundant in Italy. If you want to talk about first courses, we suggest a pasta , spaghetti, or whatever you want, but the sauce must be light, made with fresh tomatoes, basil, oregano, capers, olives, whatever you want but nothing that is fried, elaborated, and no pancetta (bacon cubes), it has to be light, and dressed with extra virgin olive oil." he says.
Pasta, fresh tomatoes, oregano, olive oil, bread and wine.
Every day Corsi's small trattoria is packed with customers eager to lunch on his simple menus written on a chalkboard.
Professor Carlo Canella is a Food Scientist at the University of Rome Sapienza.
"The mediterranean diet is a cultural and important heritage. It is not just food, but the way you eat it, the importance of seasons, the simplicity. It is a bunch of behaviours making this food health, if eaten with moderation." he says.
Filippo La Mantia is one of Italy's most famous chefs.
He presides over the kitchen at his chic restaurant on Via Veneto.
But despite the location and the price, La Mantia insists it is the simplicity of the mediterranean diet that counts.
He whips up a quick plate of pasta with fresh tomatoes, olives, capers and basil to prove his point.
La Mantia explains that the diet evolved as a farmer's diet relying on fresh seasonal products and not on elaborate preparation.
"The Mediterranean Diet, in the true sense of the word, has always existed, has always been. The mediterranean diet means extraordinary basic ingredients --like pasta which is an incredible energy source. I take it back to the diet used by the farmers --feed yourself well using seasonal products, and do not exaggerate with onions, garlic and herbs browned in oil. "
"The ingredients for the mediterranean diet are principally: pasta, fresh vegetables, uncooked oil, tomatoes (that contain lots of anti-oxidants), basil, mint, capers." he continues.
The Italian and Spanish governments first proposed putting the Mediterranean Diet on the World Heritage list in 2007. Greece and Morocco have also supported the proposal.
UNESCO'S Executive Committee of the Convention on Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity need to ratify the proposal in a meeting in Nairobi on November 14-19, 2010.