Although Brindisi has been a part of Morporkian knowledge for many years, and trade links have been numerous and beneficial to both sides, Ankhian society has only recently started taking an interest in our affairs. The links formed between Brindisi and high Ankh society probably have their roots in various commercial ventures, although the Ankh-Morpork assassins guild have been sending representatives to our lands since before the fall of the senate, most noticably a Dr. de Colleuse who famously inhumed one of our former emperors with a roll of wallpaper (incidentally, this is where the Chicochulan saying of 'go collus', meaning temporarily insane and violent, comes from).
Although the Assassins' Guild of Ankh-Morpork was founded by Sir Giles and Lady de Murtforte, who probably stole the idea from the Brotherhood of Assassins of the Orohai Penninsula, he himself almost certainly never set foot in Brindisi although stories of his expolits were told for entertainment in Brindisi at that time and may explain why so many noble Brindisi families thought that they'd be able to live comfortably among his countrymen.
From the start of the Klatchistani revolution, circa 1400 UC, Brindisi families have, for one reason or another, emmigrated and settled in foreign countries. The first wave of leaving noblemen went nominally as a protest against the changes that the Klatchistanis brought, it would, however, be fairer to say that without power and with dwindling incomes they simply became economic migrants. Many of these, with no skills yet with vast reserves of money and, more importantly, titles settled in the Morporkian speaking lands around and hubwards of Ankh-Morpork. Marrying into the local nobility these families are traceable in many cases, in Ankh-Morpork alone there are Venturiis, Vetinaris, and Selachiis, all of which have have verifiable yet vague Brindisian ancestory.
A second large wave of emmigration took place after the fall of the senate, and indeed, many noble families were created and deposed in that turbulent period of history, often a Visconte or even Conte would flee with little notice, leaving his lands open for a new lord, yet retaining hereditary titles. These families are much more Brindisian in character and still hold many of the old traditions, the first wave now often not even acknowledging their own heritage themselves sometimes. Examples of these more modern expatriot families are the Navarros, Risagallos and the D'Almavivas, after opera and food it would sometimes appear that the nobility is our most successful export.
As mentioned, Opera and food are what most Morporkians think of when they hear of Brindisi. Pizza and pasta, or at least some dishes they eat that resemble these fine staples of our culinary culture, can be found all over the disc. While Pasta, with a fine red wine can speak for itself, pizza could possibly be looked into a little further and something should probably be said about opera too.
Any schoolboy will be able to tell you that pizza was in fact invented by a Klatchian Mystic by the name of Ronron 'Revelation Joe' Shuwadhi, he was apparently (he claimed) given the idea by the creator of the discworld himself in a dream, adding that it was what the creator had had in mind all along and had gone over the top on the toppings. However, what is not so well known is that Revelation Joe had been living in the Muntab desert during his mystic isolation and by chance shared his vision first with the people of Chicochulo who not only had olives on hand but also sun dried tomatoes and cheese. It is possible, if while coming out of the wilderness he had chanced upon the sponge eating pigmies of the Orohai Peninnsula for example, that his vision could have been much different, but he probably wouldn't have enjoyed his free meal as much.
Opera, the national passtime of Brindisi, referred to by some (most noticably composers and opera promoters) as the music of the gods, began as an art form in the farming communities of Chicochulo, around the time of the Klatchistani revolution. It is unknown whether this form of entertainment (for entertainment it was to the villagers, no matter so important as it is for some today) was brought by the Klatchistanis or arose as a counterattack to the change in Brindisi culture that was happening at that time, however, seeing as the folk of Chicochulo held the newcomers in high regard it is more likely that there was a mixing of cultures, and that an increased amount of leisure time made refinement of older traditions possible.
The earliest known operas date from the fourteen hundereds and were quite short and comic by comparison to modern opera, although the hublandish tribes have had stories of opera singing valkryies since the dawn of man these are not considered true opera by those that think they know these things.