torta

Can mean a million different things, savoury (torta salata) or sweet, including wedding and birthday cakes.

Some famous ones:

torta cò becchi: a sweet/savoury specialty of Lucca, made with chard, pine nuts, cheese, bread crumbs, and currants, especially associated with Easter and the feast of Santa Croce.

torta caprese: popular chocolate cake originating in Capri in 1920, when pastry chef Carmine Di Fiore forgot to add the flour to the mix of ground almonds, dark chocolate, butter and egg, and realizing his error belatedly, claimed he had done it on purpose, especially when it became instead, ground almonds, butter and egg. Similar to a brownie.

torta di Padre Pio: the ten-day-in-the-making Italian version of Herman the German Friendship cake, with apples and raisins.

torta Donizetti: a ring cake made with apricots and pineapple in Bergamo (Lombardy). The story goes Rossini's chef invented it when the two composers were together, and named in honour of Bergamo's hometown hero.