Eating in italian is mangiare and it’s an important part of the Italian life. There are many different types of food to eat in Italy and food can make your trip to Italy more special. You can taste different food and if you travel from north to south you can see how food becomes more abundant and more seasoned.
Anyway the main rules for the food to Eat in Italy are always almost the same. Let’s start to consider the food you can eat in Italy in the morning.
The most important letters of the alphabet for italian food are only 2: C and P.
C as Coffee and Cappuccino
P as Pasta and Pizza
Food to eat in Italy in the Morning: Breakfast
The breakfast is small and sweet. In the hotels you often find the international breakfast with ham, eggs, sausages and much more but if you want a true italian breakfast, forget about all of these things.
The real protagonists of the italian breakfast are Coffee, Cappuccino and Brioche. Let’s spend a few words for each one of them.
Coffee. When in Italy we speak about coffee we mean espresso. When the italians order an espresso they simply ask for a coffee. If you enter in a cafe and you order an espresso it means you are not an italian.
After you order a coffee they may ask you a lot of questions because there are many options. If you don’t know what to answer simply say: normale. In this way you’ll get simply a normal italian coffee.
Cappuccino. Cappuccino is milk with a little bit of coffee. The cappuccino is for the breakfast anyway you can order it in any part of day. Cappuccino has a little foam made by milk on the top. This is what makes cappuccino so delicious and different from milk and coffee. You can also add cocoa in order to make it more tasty. Cappucino can be also lactose free.
Brioche is the solid part of the breakfast. The brioche is a Croissant that can be empty, with cocoa cream, with marmellade or cream.
In the hotel you can also find cakes, bread, marmalade and much more.
Lunch and Dinner
The main meals are lunch and dinner. In the restaurants you find the menu divided in 4 main parts:
Antipasti which are the starters that include smoked fish, the salami and the cheese.
Primi piatti where you find all the pasta they have,
Secondi piatti where you find meat and fish
and last but not least i dolci or desserts.
During important occasions or when celebrating events Italians have a complete meal with antipasto, primo, secondo and dolce. Anyway they normally order only pasta and meat or fish, alternatively antipasto (Starters) and Pasta.
So because you are in Italy you should taste all kinds of pasta. Pasta can be fresh and egg based such as tagliatelle, lasagne, tortellini and ravioli. Other kinds of pasta such as spaghetti, maccheroni, penne and rigatoni are dried instead.
Taste pasta with different sauces made with meat, fish, mushrooms or vegetables. In Emila Romagna taste the ragù alla bolognese. Did you know the word Ragù? In Italy we ask for pasta al ragù and not pasta bolognese. Then in Italy don’t ask for pasta with meatballs: it isn’t an italian food!
Cheese makes pasta with meat, mushrooms and vegetables more delicious. So at the restaurant the waiter brings you grated cheese that can be grana padano, parmigiano reggiano or pecorino. But don’t ask cheese when you have pasta with a fish sauce: it’s not used and the waiter has all the good reasons to look at you badly.
Food to eat in Italy? Pizza
When you go in a Pizzeria and they bring you a menu you may be confused by all kind of pizzas there are. Anyway you can normally also ask for a pizza with your favourite ingredients. During your trip in Italy take the occasion to taste more kinds of pizzas: the pizza is so delicious!
Aperitivo or Apettizer
A big trend in the last few years is the Apettizer. In many bars it starts about at 6 p.m. and it may finish at 9 p.m. You order something to drink and they bring you also something to eat.
Throughout the years the apettizer includes more food and in many bars it is called apericena. You can eat a lot and avoid dinner.
This is a good occasion to taste wine, relax and taste other delicious food.
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