Italy

When To Eat

Breakfast (La Colazione or La Prima Colazione)

Hotels and pensione usually serve a Continental breakfast that consists of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, fresh rolls, butter, and preserves. Sometimes juice and cheese are included. Cheap Eaters should try to get their hotel to deduct this cost—which can be as much as $15 per person—from their bill and eat their breakfast at a bar or caffe. It will cost half of what a hotel will charge, and the coffee will be better, the pastry fresher, and the local scene far more interesting. Remember: If you sit down, the price will increase by 50 to 250 percent more per person than if you stand at the bar with all the other Italians.

Lunch (Pranzo or Colazione)

Lunch usually starts at 12:30 P.M. And lasts anywhere from thirty minutes (stand up) to three hours. Last order is supposed to be the time the restaurants lists as closing, but more often the last order will be taken about thirty minutes before closing.

Lunch can be anything from a quick sandwich eaten standing at the corner bar to a full-blown four- or five- course meal ending with a strong coffee under the umbrellas on a busy piazza...which has to be one of the true pleasures of eating in Italy. Time, cost, calories, location, and hunger are the factors that will help you decide what to do for lunch.

Sandwiches are available in a paninoteca, a bar selling sandwiches either made to order or ready made and found displayed under napkins in a case. If you are staying in one place for a few days, it is fun to become a "local" by eating your lunch each day in the same small restaurant or trattoria. The first day you will be treated with politeness. The second, your waiter will be pleased to see you back, and on the third, you will be treated as a "regular" and your waiter will already know what type of wine you like. Try it...you will be surprised. In most places, the menus for lunch and dinner are the same, and there is no price break offered at lunch.

Dinner (La Cena)

Dinner is usually served from 7:30 P.M. on. If you want to eat with other foreigners, reserve a table for 7:30. If you want a more Italian experience, dine at 8:30 or later.

From:
Cheap Eats in Italy
by Sandra A. Gustafson
Paperback, 206 pp, $10.95
Chronicle Books, 1996
ISBN: 0-8118-1070-4
Reprinted with permission

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Italy

• Backgrounder
• When To Eat
• Where To Eat
• How To Order Italian Coffee
• How To Eat Italian-Style
• About Cheap Eats in Italy and Cheap Sleeps in Italy

Italian Recipes

• Asparagus Omelet (Asparagus Frittata)
• Cornmeal Bread (Polenta)
• Fresh Pasta
• Hazelnut Dipping Cookies (Hazelnut Biscotti)
• Italian Wine Sherbet (Vin Santo Sorbet)
• Lemon Ricotta
• Marinated Mozzarella
• Creamy Mushroom Rice (Risotto al Funghi)
• Pasta and Bean Soup (Pasta di Fagioli)
• Pasta in Rich Sauce (Pasta Carbonara)
• Pasta with Sausage (Pasta alla Campidanese)
• Pizza Crust (Focaccia)
• Potato Pasta (Potato Gnocchi)
• Ricotta Cheesecake (Torta di Ricotta)
• Shrimp in Garlic Butter (Shrimp alla Griglia)
• Spaghetti with Olives and Capers (Spaghetti alla puttanesca)
• Stuffed Zucchini (Zucchini Ripiene al Prosciutto)
• Mocha Ladyfinger Cake (Tiramisu)
• Veal Scallops with Tomatoes and Basil (Veal Scaloppine)
• White Bean Salad

Pasta, Risotto & You (with recipes)

from Kate's Global Kitchen:

• Italy: Angels on Strings
• Cooking with Kids...Italian Style

Italian Cookbooks

• Italian Country Cooking by Susanna Gelmetti
  • Baked Asparagus (Asparagi Al Forno)
  • Penne with Ricotta, Lemon and Basil
             (Penne con Ricotta, Limone e Basilico)

More Cookbooks

• 99% Fat-Free Italian Cooking by Barry Bluestein & Kevin Morrissey
• Betty Crocker's Italian Cooking by Antonio Cecconi
• Biba's Italy by Biba Caggiano
• Biba's Taste of Italy by Biba Caggiano
• Cooking the Roman Way by David Downie
• Cucina Ebraica by Joyce Goldstein
• David Ruggerio's Italian Kitchen
• Flavors of Italy: Emilia Romagna by Rosalba Gioffré
• Gusto Italiano by Ursula Ferrigno
• How to Cook Italian by Giuliano Hazan
• Insalate by Susan Simon
• Italian Family Cooking by Father Joseph Orsini
• Italian Farmhouse Cookbook by Susan Herrmann Loomis
• Italian Festival Food by Anne Bianchi
• Italy Anywhere by Lori De Mori, Jean-Louis De Mori and Antonio Tommasi
• Little Foods of the Mediterranean by Clifford A. Wright
• Mangia by Ricardo Diaz & Nancy Jessup
• Naples at Table by Arthur Schwartz
• Nick Stellino's Passione
• Saveur Cooks Authentic Italian by the Editors of Saveur Magazine
• Simple Italian Food by Mario Batali
• Sweet Sicily by Victoria Granof
• The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen by Paula Wolfert
• Umbria by Julia della Croce

 

Back to the main Italy page

Italy on Wikipedia

More country Destinations

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This page modified January 2007

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