Italy is an excellent country to visit. This time it was a short trip in the Northen Italy including Venice, Bologna, Imola and San-Marino. Everything is great about this country, except a few things.
I really enjoy italian cuisine. Usually it is very simple, fresh and maybe even healthy if you eat it with moderation (I don’t think pizza every day would be good for you). But the great cusine always come with strict eating rules.
When my italian friend invited everyone for the breakfast I definetly could not imagine going to a coffee bar or a pasticceria bar (cake shop). But it turns out that in Italy for the breakfast you usually drink an espresso or cappuccino and optionally you can get a brioche or another sweet thing. If you are not in the place with lots of tourists it would be very hard to get a burger for the breakfast.
The next shocking event happened during the lunch. It was probably equally shocking for both locals and us. Try to order cappuccino after your lunch. You might even get it, but people around would not approve it. Apparently you allowed to drink cappuccino only for breakfast. After the lunch you can get either espresso or espresso macchiato (which is just a small cappuccino if you ask me).
As a russian I like to have a hot drink with my dessert. But Italians have another eating rule which does not allow me to do it. No coffee or tea with dessert, only after.
After dinner we had some pizza left and got a box to go for it. I can eat cold pizza even for a breakfast. The italian friend said that he would not eat it the next day because it would not be fresh enough.
Of course you can break all these rules as a tourist. But if you ever consider to live in Italy then you better learn how to eat.
Since I live in the Netherlands I always compare different countries against it. Some people might say that cuisine in the Netherlands is almost non-existent. But at least here you have no rules: you can eat what you like and when you like. Try to find a place to eat in Italy between 4pm and 7pm.