My research project intends to investigate the early steps of the agriculture in Bronze Age Italy and the human diet. The study of dietary patterns is a mean of investigating both the social and environmental factors affecting the economic choices of farmers and herders. Italy is characterized by high biodiversity and a mosaic of ecosystems and landscapes: the study of human dietary patterns is fundamental to better understand food resources management and dietary variability at the beginning of the development of a productive economy. Stable isotopes analysis is performed at this aim, as the stable isotopes ratio measured in bones and teeth reflects the ratio originally present during the life. Focus of this project is to understand the relations among different populations and economies in Italy. Isotopic studies on Italian Bronze Age skeletal remains have been recently carried out. Further data from a wider geographical range will help to elucidate the methods of subsistence. Identifying the paleodietary patterns, the sources of consumption and the dynamics of cereal spreading it will be possible to shed light on the dynamics of contact and cultural exchanges that characterized early Italian communities. The project fits well into research programs recently developed in the European scientific community.