How to eat in Italy, without scaring the Italians

I thought you all might benefit from this: http://blog.studentsville.it/top-10-tips/e...g-the-italians/

It is written by an American, and it is surprisingly accurate. So lads, take notes!

Lots of good advice. I hate it when people cover my meal with sauce so I cant taste it. And when I eat out I do follow the water or wine rule with my meal, but I may have a beer before or after (both is its someone elses shout )

Bah!

What's this about "not being mistaken for a foreigner". It's not drinking the "wrong" type of coffee that's gonna mark you, I can guarantee that.
I'm a Finn and I'm effing proud of it. You'll damned well notice me when I'm abroad or I'm not doing things right!

And I drink milk with my food whether Italians or anyone else approves.
What's wrong with doing what you like over slavishly following other people's preconceptions?

Please note that the blog entry was about how to eat in Italy. When you're in Rome, you do as the Romans.

Here, drinking cappuccino during a meal is like going to Lohja and asking for an espresso in your regular kahvila.

I have no idea where to start....


OT. Is your custom title a dig at the absolute stupidity of Metallica(and their lyrics) if so well done son.

I am the tableEAH!

No when in Rome *I* eat as *I* like. And if you have a problem with that, then my money is going some place else. I want to see you put your money where your mouth is and eat British food (and curry doesn't count as British!) since your there, all the time. When in England, eat the pies?

Also I'm sure even in Lohja they serve espresso in the cafeteria. I'm not sure why that should be a problem, Finns drink speciality coffees. Hell, it's almost you can't get normal coffee anywhere anymore. If I had a car I'd do a day-trip just to test that proposition out.
But that espresso will taste like crap compared to what you get in Rome, which is why anyone from elsewhere wants to drink as much of it as they can on site! WTH is wrong with that?

I hate absolutely everything that goes along the lines of "well, this is the way it's done because... umm... yeah... umm... like... it just is!".

I eat with the fork in my right hand and it's not wrong. It's convenient. Anyone disagreeing can find out first hand how skilful I am with a fork in my dominant hand as I pluck out an eyeball with it. Screw etiquette.
Drinking coffee with a weird grip with the pinky finger isn't smart is effing weird. Screw etiquette.
You can also drink red wine to fish, or beer, or water, or milk.
And so on and on.
My mother uses the phrase ",but you can't do that" a lot. So far it turns out in fact I bloody well can.

So hand me my pasta with meatballs, a bottle of ketchup and get back into the kitchen or there'll be a scene like in Lady and the Tramp (the Xmas one, which incidentally is better in Swedish than original English oddly enough).

Also this rant isn't specifically about Italians, I only know like two: Kawazu and Berlusconi (word know is used rather broadly) and so far Italy gets a score of 50%. Incidentally that was a big mistake from Mr.B. you don't tell Scandinavians how to do things, we already know better than you do. In just about every matter. That may be one of our few flaws actually.

Why do you get so snappy? It was intended to be humorous

Nobody is telling you not to order a cappuccino while you're eating in Rome, you'll just some eyebrows when you do. Or maybe not, we're used to tourists. Personally I think it's about understanding the local customs, and while in many occasions in Finland my attitude was "I'm an Italian, does not compute", I tried really hard to understand. It was my own personal way to show respect, which is why I also struggled as much as I could to speak Finnish.

Then again, it's all about your attitude.

It touches upon a number of things I really detest. Obviously. Which is why it doesn't seem funny to me. It is after all not written as humour so I take it as it's presented.

Actually there's an American woman sitting Florence telling me exactly that. That is in fact the main message of this article, rules of conduct. It's flat out saying do this, don't order a cappuccino with food. All to show how cool you are for following arbitrary "rules", at the end there she's lording it over everyone else by knowing how to act "the right way™". This seems to be at the heart of the article's rules. It sort of insinuates you're a bad person unless you do it the cool way. And of course the only way to do it is whatever the way was presented there.

What I don't understand is why anyone is interested in when and how I'd drink cappuccino as the article suggests. Seriously, so what?

Half the article is pure rubbish, the rest could do with a rewrite for it to be actually usable as a piece of information. And not insulting to the reader.

Look, whatever, I did not want to impose the "Italian way" over anyone. I just found that funny, also because it could be applicable to any Italian living abroad, end of the story.

I thought it was a fun read.

Lol, never read it before, and as Italian I can say almost everything is correct but:

1) u can find the "continental breakfast" as we call it, in almost every hotel restaurant. We appreciate that, but for sure we consider it too heavy to sustain just after u woke up

2) not all breads are without salt, to be honest just the Tuscany one is. We have a monstruos food tradition, and wheat derivates (pasta, pizza, biscuits and so on) over all. If you go in the middle-south country (from Rome down), you'll find a bread experience you'll never taste again in ur life, in most villages and cities there's nothing better than a "panino condito", bread filled with what u like best, obviously fresh and or handmade

3) Italy became a single country since the half of the 1800s, we were a moltitude of selfish little-states, each with its tradition expecially in the kitchen. Wherever you go in Italy, you'll hear people saying they have the best kitchen, and probably it's true, we have a tons of specialities and way of eating.

4) we have a drink for every hour and a drink for every occasion, it takes a life to manage that!

Try as much as u can if u go to Italy, eating won't have the same meaning anymore

This post has been edited by Shylat on Feb 13 2013, 02:01 PM