Breakfast should also be given to the enemy
Having rewrite the well-known proverb, in Italy not only dinner should be left to the enemy, but also breakfast: the first meal in this country is traditionally very modest and easy. Although it is not without sweets, most often accompanied by a cup of coffee. In rare cases, breakfast will be a little more plentiful and include yogurt and fruit, but nothing more. No buffets!
Do not mix dishes and do not change their order
This country has a different order of dishes.
The meal begins with antipasti - snacks to sort out the appetite. Then it's the turn of pasta or rice, rarely fish. Soup – by. The second course may be meat or fish with appropriate vegetables. Next – fruits and desserts.
An important detail: the techniques can not be mixed, such a kind of separate food is obtained. Except for jokes, but the inhabitants of this country are convinced: mixing everything on a plate is harmful (and it does not matter that the stomach is still mixed).
Fruit instead of dessert
In this country, it is customary to finish a feast with fruits, and not use them as a light snack. This is a kind of dessert - while the inhabitants of the Apennines themselves do not like sweets, limiting themselves to cookies or a couple of brioches for breakfast. Everything sweet is an inseparable part of the festive table. And that's it.
After eating, you can not swim
After meals, you should take a break of several hours - two or three. Italians are convinced that, going into the abyss of waters immediately after eating, a person risks getting a volvulus of the intestines - and drowning. A similar rule applies to sleep or sports. Ate? Put devi digerire – in other words, just sit.
Cappuccino in Italy do not drink after 12
Coffee drinks are not customary to drink during meals - this is either part of breakfast or a separate event after the end of lunch gatherings. As an option - a separate meeting with comrades, not tied to meals.
There are other differences: if it is customary for us to snack on coffee sweet, then the Italians wash it down the biggest - a glass of water is a mandatory application to the cup of this fragrant drink.
They prefer strong and rich tastes and aromas. In short, espresso or even ristretto, not lattes with Americano all sorts.
Returning to sweetened coffee with cream or milk: it is not customary to drink it in the afternoon, because it is believed that milk weakens, so you can drink it only for breakfast (where is the logic? Spend the whole day in search of a toilet?).
Italians strictly observe the diet
For the inhabitant of this country, in general, very cheerful, noisy and stupid, three things remained from the ancient Romans: architecture, roads and a fixed meal time.
The time in a particular house may vary, but from day to day everything is fixed and unchanged. From here, restaurants and cafes closed from three o'clock until dinner are everywhere, except for the most popular tourist cities and destinations.
It is not customary to intercept something on the way home - otherwise you will have an appetite!
The most savoy here eat for lunch. Very often, the menu of afternoon and evening meals coincides, the differences are at the level of density: portions are smaller, meat, some varieties of fish, beans and beans are excluded.
No phones at the table
During the feast, it is customary to put cell phones aside and ignore incoming calls. Taking into account the approximately known schedule of lunches and dinners, no one will be surprised if a signor or even a don disturbed at the wrong time responds with harshness. Which, however, does not prevent you from watching TV during a family meal - it almost always works as a background.
Do not ask in Italy for ketchup for spaghetti
Tomato sauce is used as a seasoning for french fries, but spaghetti is "equipped" with sugetto - this is a red sauce with basil and herbs. In general, there are dozens of recipes in the kitchen, each with its own sauce.
And pizza with pineapple in Italy also do not ask
The approach to pizza is somewhat different than in Russia. We are all spoiled by a variety of options that came not from the Mediterranean coast, but from overseas - this is in America all crazy about outlandish cheese and sausage boards, sprinkling with sesame or poppy seeds and numerous fillings in the form of Mount Everest.
Italians will also find something to surprise - in this country popular children's pizza with deep-fried potatoes, all sorts of capers and similar joys. However, the most popular two recipes: cheese and tomato margarita and peperoni.
Don't get up first in Italy from the table
Until the meal is finished, it is not customary to rise from the table. Especially impeccably, this rule should be observed during family feasts on weekends.
An exception is made only for children, because what to take from them? Restless! The rest disciplinedly sit out late and have unhurried conversations on eternal topics.
Tea for Italian children can not
The Italian tradition perceives a number of products differently: apples and carrots have a reputation as fixing, beans - laxative, and bread and pasta are good and wonderful, provided that they are made of durum wheat.
Chamomile tea serves as a sedative, but the usual, on the contrary, has a reputation for excitatory: local children are more willing to pour Coca-Cola than black or even green tea.
