Bacon? Awesome.
Even today, Speck, a dry-cured and lightly smoked ham, is a typical South Tyrol product, the same area in northern Italy where Otzi has been found. The German word Speck "has its roots in the Middle High German word “spec” and the Ancient High German word “spek” and actually translates into “something thick, fat." But the German Speck is different from the South Tyrolean Speck.
According to the Speck Alto Adige/South Tyrol Consortium:
"
Speck Alto Adige/South Tyrol is in no way related to the standard fatty pork belly speck described by the common German term. Speck is the result of a combination of two methods used to preserve meat: the standard Mediterranean style curing process for raw ham and smoking, which is a process typically used in Northern Europe."
South Tyrolean speck is like an Italian ham (the Italian "spalla" not the "coscia") plus the northern European smoking. Just like Otzi who lived probably at the intersection of the two worlds (the Mediterranean and the Alpine one). According to some source the salting/curing of pig's or a wild boar's hind leg or thigh is attested at least since the Etruscans, but it's clearly older.
Yes Central Italy, strictly speaking Southern Tuscany, most likely Colline Metallifere (from where the HGDP sample comes from). Italian Colline Metallifere = Metal-bearing Hills. The metal deposits of southern Tuscany are considered crucial for the development of the Etruscan civilization, which is much later time when Otzi lived.
Otzi was likely part of the Remedello culture, and Remedello culture, according to an old Treccani article (1965) written by Italian archaeologist Alba Palmieri, had extensions in Emilia and Toscana. Also Rinaldone culture in northern Lazio (one of the two or three proto-Etruscan cultures) and Gaudo culture in Campania (in Salerno area, exactly in the Etruria Campana) were both considered "remedelliane" by Palmieri. The main difference, according to Palmieri, is that Remedello had more western relations ("elementi ibero-mediterranei"), on the other hand both Rinaldone and Gaudo had more Balkans relations.
Italian archaeologists have always believed that the copper for Remedello axes came precisely from Tuscany, as written by Alba Palmieri on 1965.
Source:
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/civilta-di-remedello_(Enciclopedia-dell'-Arte-Antica)/
Studio Unipd: il metallo dell’ascia dell’uomo del Similaun proviene dalla Toscana
http://www.unipd.it/ilbo/studio-unipd-metallo-dell’ascia-dell’uomo-similaun-proviene-dalla-toscana
There is a Special Exhibition from 02 February 2016 to 14 January 2018 at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano.