Learn some basics about eating out in Italy, visiting a coffee bar, and some key words and phrases
Buo uh this material is to accompany a guide to Italy but if you don’t have the book that’s okay you could always check it out and if not I hope you enjoy it and I hope it helps you plan your trip for Italy and learn something new uh
Manani in Italia so a little bit more about eating in Italy because you probably will eat every day while you’re there so it’s good to cover man VI is an Italian prb Eat to Live don’t live to eat you know uh food is about uh is really part of life food is
Embedded in the culture it’s about quality food it’s about eating together with family and friends it’s about uh really enjoying uh the seasonal food but it’s not about over consuming or overindulging or mindless eating so that’s an important thing to think about as we get started on this eating hours
Well if you go to a restaurant you’ll find that restaurants are not open all day long uh except maybe bars or Cafe so a bar in Italian is more like a cafe it’s a coffee bar not a place where folks go to consume large quantities of
Alcohol but it is quite useful and we’ll talk about that a bit more as we move forward so the meal times more or less are as follows or breakfast is about 7 in the morning to 9:00 a.m. often consumed at the bar where you might have a a pastry
Or a coffee like what you see here an espresso or in Italian simply cafe pranzo or lunch around 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. and Italians use a 24-hour clock so I put it here uh 13:30 to 15:30 chaina or dinner is from 8 till until 10 p.m. so 22
22 more or less the Italian B so here’s a picture of one and what are you going to find at son of a b well the first thing you’re going to find is really useful is a restroom but note that uh it’s expected you that restaurant restrooms are for customers so you be
Expected to purchase something uh you’ll find coffee you’ll find maybe gelato you’ll find um you know a bottle of water you’ll find some coffee you can find some tea maybe some sweets and other things like that uh some do have a lunch service or or maybe a dinner
Service or they’ll have an AO where you can get or derves for a fixed price but most most of them have in common that they all serve coffee have water and things like that so uh if you’re going into a bar what could you get un Cafe
And when we want a coffee or an espresso in Italian we simply ask for un Cafe uh it’s going to give you about an ounce of espresso which is what you might think of in the United States as a single espresso Cafe makato is an espresso with
A little bit of steamed milk on top maybe about a tablespoon or so of milk it’s going to be on top of that espresso capucino or a capucho capucho in Northern Italy or Milan would be an espresso with 4 oz or so of steamed milk and some froth and then CAF a medicol
Would be an espresso with hot water added but again this is going be small probably about 4 oun or so um and then you might come with a picture of hot water for you to serve for yourself nothing like a Starbucks coffee not nearly that size or nearly that strong
Uh a latte maiato is like a cappuccino but with more milk and less froth so think of it as a kind of diluted H capuccino marokino is like a mini mocha or a mini capuccino with the addition of chocolate each bar tends to have their
Own version of this but it’s a fun thing uh to try and note the coffee tends to be not piping hot and espresso maybe but cappuccino or latte macato they don’t make the the milk so hot that it’s sculling now if you walk into that bar what are some useful phrases
Well good day or good afternoon we use this all the way up until about 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon then we switch over to good evening uh yeah I know that ciao is quite Cal a lot of folks say chiao uh if someone says chiao to you it’s okay
To respond back with Chia uh but typically bonjo Bon is great because they’re more formal times seem to be formal and they view that is being polite so stick with those unless someone addresses you otherwise um do Ora so where is the bathroom Ora do you have a
Bathroom and so once uh you determine that there is one you might want to know where it is so knowing D or S right and left are good to know make sure ears is attuned to those pleas bottle of water please a glass of water please and note
That if you get a glass of water you’re going to have to pay for a glass of water not as much as a bottle and they may pour it from a larger uh bottle of water into a glass for you uh but it
Might be 30 40 or 50 cents but if you do get that bottle of water um then that entitles you to go use or rather if you do get that glass of water that entitles you to use the restroom as well so restroom are for customers and now
You’re a customer uh natural or gas meaning still or sparkling water or conas we can also say for sparkling water Piccolo small Grande large outro anything else PO anything else they may ask you the B and gra thank you I was pretty emphatic on that on the gra I emphasized it a good
Bit because a lot of folks say graty which is is incorrect it’s grat and if you have trouble with that c think of Swit serin gra okay and always remember to say gra and and very important in Italian culture well great good work and uh we’ll see you next