You are probably used to this rotation just because you grew up in the US. As someone who has grown up in Italy we don't think about food this way, not even regionally. I.e. don't expect a great risotto in Naples or a decent carbonara in Milan...

This isn't a US thing, it's about cities with cosmopolitan tradition. Italians are the complete opposite of this culture.

I think there is a spectrum, the US being a country of immigrants is on one extreme, Italy having been several different independent states up to 160 years ago and having many different climates and cultures is on the other. While it's true that the Italian approach to cuisine might be overly provincial I think that most of the world is closer to Italy than the US.

Being in rural France, I like trying some new foreign cuisine once in while as much as anybody else, but it wouldn't come to my mind to make it my daily routine.

Going out of your way to not eat local stuff is completely pointless to me. People take quite a lot of pride in having good stuff specific to their area.

In the Bay Area you can get, in the same weekend, excellent Vietnamese, excellent Peruvian, and excellent patisserie.

The ingredients are sourced locally for the most part, and the imports are about as good as they can get, and substitutions are sober.

The Bay Area is three or four times the size my département. It could be a country. I don't even walk more than five minutes to buy all I eat...

It's hard to share scales with Americans.