Italy from the Inside

Something to remember when you go to an Italian bar

Pay first Italian bar- Italy from the Inside

A “pay first ” sign in a bar in Rome

In many Italian bars, you need to pay before consuming your coffee, drink, or whatever you order. This is to avoid people leaving the bar without paying. What you need to do is to pay at the cash register, take the receipt and give it to the bartender. The bartender will tear or stamp the receipt and then he/she will give you what you ordered. Before leaving, remember to take the receipt with you. You must do it by law. This law has the goal to protect the State from being cheating out of the tax.

Same message, but in Italian:

At an Italian bar- Italy from the Inside

“Please, get the receipt at the cash register first. Thank you”

{This is an excerpt from chapter 4 “Gelaterie and Coffee Houses” of the eBook “Italy from the Inside. A native Italian reveals the secrets of traveling in Italy”. Buy our eBook on Amazon and leave us a review! If it’s good, you’ll make us happy, if it’s bad, you’ll make us improve. Thank you either way!}

Beer or wine, who’s the winner in Italy?

Sapone al vino- Italy from the Inside

Wine and olive oil soap made in Sicily

In Italy beer (birra) is less popular than wine. You must be 18 years old to buy or drink alcoholic beverages, even though some say that at 16 you can legally drink beer as long as you buy it and drink it on the premises (like when you are at a restaurant or a club). Hhhmmm, confusion. What’s clear though is that binge drinking is not very popular in Italy, because the main focus of the typical Italian get-together for social activities is not to drink beer (or wine) in order to get drunk, but just to spend some nice time together sipping a glass of wine and having dinner or nibbling on some snacks.

{This is an excerpt from chapter 14 “Italian Lifestyle” of the eBook “Italy from the Inside. A native Italian reveals the secrets of traveling in Italy”. Buy our eBook on Amazon and leave us a review! If it’s good, you’ll make us happy, if it’s bad, you’ll make us improve. Thank you either way!}

How Italians end their meals

Caffè corretto con grappa- Italy from the Inside

Caffè corretto con Grappa

At the end of the meals and after the dessert (and not with it), Italians drink coffee, either a caffè espresso (or simply caffè), or a caffè corretto, which is an espresso with a shot of liquor. Italians don’t use half and half in their coffee. Some Italians take the digestivo (digestive liquor) or amaro to help their stomach deal with such a large amount of food it has to work on. The digestivo (served in small, two-inch-tall glasses) is a bitter liquor made of herbs. In many restaurants, especially in northern Italy, people also drink grappa, which is a very strong liquor made from grape skins (see above).

{This is an excerpt from chapter 3 “ Italian cuisine and food establishments” of the eBook “Italy from the Inside. A native Italian reveals the secrets of traveling in Italy”. Buy our eBook on Amazon and leave us a review! If it’s good, you’ll make us happy, if it’s bad, you’ll make us improve. Thank you either way!}