Sicily has unwritten etiquette rules. Sicily is a land of deep traditions, unforgettable flavors, and, let’s be honest, a few cultural surprises! 🇮🇹✨ In this video, I take you through the small (but eye-opening) moments that make life here so unique. From why Italians dress up just to grab a coffee, to the right way to drink water and wine, to the unexpected realities of getting a massage in Sicily (seriously, no draping?! 😳), I’m sharing everything I’ve learned—sometimes the hard way!
💳 Can I use my credit card in a medieval town?
🍷 Why do Italians keep their wine and water glasses separate?
🍽️ Did I embarrass myself with Sicilian utensil etiquette? (Probably.)
👀 And what’s up with The Art of Staring—is Sicily’s “free police force” watching me??
Join me as I navigate life in Sicily, one lesson at a time! Whether you’re Italian, planning a trip, or just love immersing yourself in culture, this one’s for you. Hit that LIKE button if you’ve ever mispronounced “prosciutto” (just me?), COMMENT your favorite Italian traditions, and SUBSCRIBE for more adventures! 🇮🇹✨
And sorry for the video being so washed out.
📌 Chapters:
00:00 I’m STILL Learning: Slices of Life
00:37 Italians Dress Up To Go Out
01:10 Prosciutto Cotto or Crudo? Which do I prefer? How I grew up saying prosciutto wrong all my life…
02:45 Can I Use My Credit Card or Phone In A Medieval Town In Rural Sicily?
03:32 The Challenges Of Sicilian Massages: When Draping Is Not Important
05:30 How Food Courses Work In Sicily.
07:20 Keeping Your Wine Glasses and Water Glasses Separate
07:43 Sicilian Utensil Etiquette: Stuff I SHOULD’VE Known
09:59 Water and Wine: Drinking The Italian Way
11:53 Size of Water and Espresso Cups In Sicily
12:11 The Elegance of Italian Meals
13:00 The Art Of Staring: Sicily’s Free Police Force
14:56 Respecting The Memory of Those Who Have Gone Before
16:35 Reflecting On My Time Here; Bloopers
What I Used To Make This Video:
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The Complete Italian Dual Citizenship Handbook: Your Passport to La Dolce Vita: https://amzn.to/40hJml1
35 Comments
Have you made any faux pas in etiquette, or am I the only one?
I am second generation Italian American. My family on both sides always had the numerous plates and numerous glasses while having dinners. Multiple courses. Half my family is from Palermo and the other half from Lombardy. My wife's family is from Emilia-Romagna and do the same. Raised in Englishtown NJ I would be scolded if I didn't pronounce Italian foods properly. Prosciutto is one and Capicola is the other. Ciao
Ciao Kristen, it's the little things that can end up to being the bigger thing. I enjoy your video's so much, and I am so sorry I found you this late as your Siclian adventure is almost over. Will you carry on making videos from PA? also, will you know about your dual citizenship before you leave. grazie per il consiglio. amore da N.Y.
Kristen, do the Sicilians often serve those giant spaghetti-o’s? They are my husbands favorites! 😊. When I was younger, we ate with multiple plates, main, salad, bread, bone if necessary and if we had artichokes it was a bowl with an extra plate for leaves. 😂 I think it changed after my Mom and Grammy realized how many dishes you actually end up doing with each meal!
My wife and I love the Italian dining experience. We love dressing up and enjoying a nice slow meal. We were in Sicily in 2023 and the food was incredible! I took a cooking class in Taormina and learned how to make caponata.
To those watching this, don’t worry about making mistakes, Italians and Sicilians are very friendly and you will get at most a gentle correction. If you are friendly and have a genuine interest in the culture, then you will be fine.
PS: Preferisco anche il prosciutto crudo!
Absolutely fascinating! Great video. I think I might have mentioned to you before (apologies if so) in Italy I once had an elderly lady diagonally opposite on her balcony, shout down the houses to another elderly lady about me, that "the lady is putting the key in the shoe on the terrace!" 😆 I was trying to be discreet and leave the key outside the door for my teens to get access when we were out, but she broadcast it to the entire street of elderly women (not realising I could understand her haha) and then it got shouted down to the next elderly lady on her balcony or terrace. This was repeated every single time I did it.
My grandparents would say: Pro-chute. But they never went to school and admitted they did not speak “ the good Italian”. They only spoke some dialect as did my great grandparents.
Since you like crudo, I'd suggest trying speck; it is a bit different, for it comes from a different part of the pig, it looks close though, and the taste I find far better (of course, this is personal).
🛴 prefer
prosciutto cotto 🐖
On one of his many appearances on the ITV daytime show "This Morning" from London, Gino D'Acampo told the hosts that they should never put salad on the same plate with another type of food. His primary reason is that the salad dressing will inevitably migrate and wind up affecting the flavor of the other food(s) on the plate (and vice versa). Gino grew up near Naples, so it's probably customary throughout Italy to keep the salad separated from other foods, especially pasta. Tomato sauce and a green salad also don't mix well together. With regard to always using a knife to cut your meat, perhaps that custom helps Italians to eat more slowly. I have a bad habit of eating too quickly, so if social norms demanded that I use my knife every time I wanted to eat a piece of steak or chicken, it would probably take me longer to eat. Being forced to slow down would likely mean that I eat less. That is always good.
You can't believe how much I related to this. My dad was obsessed with the separate plate thing. Also if you came to my house to look for me and we were eating dinner, you better be ready to eat with us or get lost. Old ladies would ask you from 3 stories up, 'does you mother know where you are?''. That was Jersey in a super Italian neighborhood. Forget about the prosciutto thing. My dad took 'r' out of words and stuck it in others where is didn't belong. Crikey, I was confused for decades. lol Quick question. Did you rent for a lease to be a resident to go through the process, and did the residence have to meet any criteria for citizenship residence? If I remember you've been there for only 6 months. I lived in York for a bit back in the 70's. My sister lived in Lancaster. My niece lives in Reading. My nephew lives in hell. Oops, did I say that out loud? He's dead to me. A long story. 😇
"bershoot" is not even a word!!! All the east coast American Italians mispronounce MANY Italian words.
Hi Kristen sharing these things with us are pretty cool! Now I understand so much more about my upbringing. It's so funny now to me how my friends and even my daughter-in-laws and son in-laws look at me so strangely when I say okay we have to set the table now! The whole kit and kaboodle, full on, place mats or table cloths, napkins cutlery wine glasses water glasses champagne glasses bowls salad plates dinner plates and dessert plates. My mom taught me well. I'll fit right in there in Sicily one day. I always have a happy hour and generally eat late and my kids thinks it's so crazy! It's in my DNA! Also I left you a message on last week's video and I didn't get a reply from you and I just wondered if you might have missed it… It was even hard for me to find it again when I looked for it to see if you'd made a comment which you usually are so kind to do so! Have a great evening I'm having my happy hour now and will be having dinner in an hour or so! Great video today as always!! I know your nerds must be missing their lovely mom and wife dearly! Ciao Bella! Annette Fivehands
🙂😄🙂🙏🙏🙏💟😇🤍 Thank you Kristen.
Prosciutto crudo technically is smoked, because raw pork is on no one's menu.😉
🥂
Your great-grandparents wouldn't have dealt with all the etiquette rules that we or the current Italians, do. The then, royals and the then, affluent, would have been the ones who were concerned, because this area of privilege would have been forbidden to us (which is why most of us immigrated to America, because we were never going to be allowed to be middle class).
Thank you so much for how the Italians honor their loved ones that have passed on. Much respect ❤
We enjoyed hearing these cultural differences. You are definitely not the only one in making faux pas in etiquette!
Essssspresso, not expresso! Heard you say this on several of your videos.
😱
We used to teach manners to our children. My parents would send us away from the table if we didn't cut our meat properly or use our cutlery properly. But they did encourage laughter and good conversation at meal time!! As time has passed, good table manners have almost died in the US 😟
Great content—thank you! (It sounds like you are saying “ biEN-venuti” instead of the standard Italian “Benvenuti” — is this a Sicilian variation?)
You are one of my new favorite YouTubers. I love you insights. Thank you for sharing
Kristen…this might be controversial but i don’t consider us “expats”. 😂
We were born Italian citizens no matter where we grew up. You in jersey and me just north in westchester ny!
That term can be reserved for those that have naturalized or live abroad with a visa.
And use your fork however you want lol
When i’m trying to understand what is being said in Italian around me…i could barely chew without losing coordination. 😭
I think you Americans are incapable of learning about other cultures, for example: in Italy there are dozens of cooked or raw hams made in various regions so it will be difficult for you to understand the difference! And the same goes for all the other things we have in our country!
Interesting experiences. I lived in Germany for a few years and found most of the same differences and challenges as an American. The food etiquette and cutlery use was identical. Water and coffee were served more like US standards but everything else was like you said. Casual family meals were closer to US ways but formal meals were multi plate and glasses affairs.
Thank you. This has been fascinating. Born in Sicily and raised in Canada, you have put words to my experiences, things we do that seem natural to us but if actually examined, are very different. In Canada, people do not speak of the person who has passed on, in general. I have had many people thank me, later, saying that I was the only person who asked and gave room to talk of their recent loss. It is such a stark difference. Greek or Italian, we speak of the dead and how much we are missing them etc. I subscribed, again, thank you.
Just went through this with knife and fork today in Florence. Too much trouble to keep switching so I guess I’ll do it their way. Definitely more refined.
Good to know, I don’t remember the dining rules growing up with my Nona and Nanu in America. They probable just gave up on them 😀
Prosciutto is just ham, only in America does it mean prosciutto crudo. Prosciutto cotto is not cooked prosciutto in the American sense. It’s just cooked ham.
mi dispiace, Kirsten, ma penso che l'uso dei diversi posate e piati per pranzo o cena è un'abitudine che si utilizza in tantissime paesi tranne negli Stati Uniti
Understand completely what cultural difference you have seen, I also felt that cutting my meat was so difficult, but I felt like I just had to learn, plus my relatives kept telling me to put my elbows on the table! It is all such good fun! Enjoy
I am Brooklyn NY born and raised and have grandparents who came from Palermo. I have noticed throughout my 68 years of life that not all American Sicilians are raised the same way when it comes to food. That includes NY Italians, Pennsylvania Italians, Chicago Italians etc. We never had all our food on the same plate especially salad on the same plate with the macaroni or any pasta.
😢😢.
I had my family in Italy literally appalled when I put salad and pasta on 1 plate. You would have thought I killed someone. But then they all laughed about it.