Ciabatta at La Dolce Vita in London

I looked up ciabatta in Wikipedia and this is what I found:

Ciabatta was first produced in 1982 by Arnaldo Cavallari, a baker and miller from Adria, a small town close to Venice in Veneto. Cavallari and other bakers in Italy were concerned by the popularity of sandwiches made from baguettes imported from France, which were endangering their businesses, so set about trying to create an Italian alternative to make sandwiches.