The Mediterranean diet is a sustainable and healthy eating pattern, but only in a few cases is it fully followed by Italians. Showing excellent adherence is only 5% of adults, while the vast majority are at a moderate level. These are the main data of a survey called Arianna (Adherence to the Mediterranean Diet in Italy), conducted by the National Institute of Health, released on the occasion of World Food Day on October 16 and recently published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition. The survey included 3,732 adult volunteers, of whom 87.7% (3,273) were women and 71.3% were between the ages of 17 and 40. Most respondents (83.8%) showed moderate adherence to the Mediterranean diet, while 11.3% showed low adherence. Only 5% reported excellent adherence. In addition, the analyses conducted identified female sex, being under 40 years of age, being a student or without employment, and following a vegan and vegetarian diet as the characteristics of greater adherence to this dietary pattern. In particular, for women, experts hypothesize that this is due to greater attention to and knowledge about nutrition than men, while the result for vegetarians and vegans is related to the prevalent or exclusive consumption of foods of plant origin, predominant in the Mediterranean model. Also emerging from the research is an aspect related to poor adherence to the Mediterranean diet by those who work, full-time and part-time, as they spend more time outside the home and have fewer moments available for meal preparation.