by C. P.
With an unprecedented number of tourists still heading to our shores despite the end of summer, we at From Home to Rome feel it’s necessary to expand on ground already covered by revisiting one of the most discussed articles in the history of our blog: the one on the “inner workings of Italian restaurants”.
Only a handful of months have passed since that post, but so many new first-time visitors are now bound for Italy: we want to use this space to make sure they have a pleasant experience when they visit, and where to start if not with… food? After all, it’s an experience that all tourists have in common: walking into a restaurant and compare what they are used to at home with the differences they observe abroad. While this concept is certainly true for any foreign country, certain facts are unique to Italy: here are the five things to remember when entering a restaurant in Rome (or any other city, for that matter)!
We’ve heard so many times from travelers who feel they’ve been turned away from a restaurant when there are several tables that are clearly empty. Some even admit that they sat down only to be berated by a waiter. This situation really has a very simple explanation: those tables were already booked! Sometimes certain places don’t have a sign, let alone a piece of paper with a name scribbled on it, to indicate that a table is actually taken by a certain person for a certain time. The staff knows, and it’s enough. This is more common for regulars, people who live nearby, usually older patrons – their presence is such a given that it’s not necessary to share it with people passing by.
As in our previous focus on this topic (the one linked above!), the menu is not an obligation to stuffing your face with food. Instead, think of it as a storybook: it can be one about the traditional dishes of a particular city or area of Italy, it can be one about how those traditional dishes have been turned on their head and become something else, it can be (in the most depressing cases, we might add) just a… Wikipedia of dishes with no connection between them.
If you feel poetic, you can even read the menu twice: the first time to learn about the chef, their intentions, their studies, their… personality! The second time is, finally, to sample their skills: something will catch your attention – just go with the flow and order it, even if it’s only from one or two sections! You can order an encore, two or more starters, you can share a steak with your loved one, you can skip the side dishes or the dessert: this is very okay in 98% of the Italian restaurants. In those that are more formal, and we’re talking Michelin-starred kind of formal, of course you won’t get away with all of the above… But then again, you already know that, and that’s why you went to those!
Italian restaurants as a whole are very good at accommodating people with allergies or other conditions that prevent them from enjoying a particular dish the way a chef originally intended. An increasing number of establishments are also making strides in accommodating the different sensitivities of religious people who may not be able to eat certain ingredients: the Jewish ghetto in Rome is no longer the only place where this happens.
However, it is one thing to risk one’s life for a particular food; it is quite another to expect a specific dish to be modified because one knows and loves it in a different way than the one that is being served. This kind of modification usually takes the form of adding ingredients and is a big no-no. By this we mean requests ranging from such “harmless” (never to the staff!) things as putting grated cheese on seafood dishes to more obnoxious instances such as getting pasta as a side dish or slathering the same pasta with ketchup or other sauces.
While you’re away from home, try to accept that food is prepared differently, more often than not according to the original recipe, and that the way it’s prepared may not be what you’re used to. The beauty of traveling is also in tasting and trying new things: embrace it!
AKA, please, don’t bring your own water to a restaurant. All jokes in the title of this section aside, we’ve discussed this before on these pages, and yes, bottled water may be overpriced in Italian restaurants, the practice of offering free water foreign to most restaurateurs. However, and here’s two big howevers, you don’t complain about (and that also saves you money!) free spring water everywhere you go in cities like Rome, now do you? Nor would you ever think of bringing your own bread or veal or pasta to a restaurant. Those are overpriced in restaurants, too, after all.
If the above makes sense, and we’re pretty sure it does, consider it a quirky local custom and go with it: it would be rude not to. Maybe the running water in a particular establishment isn’t to everyone’s taste, and the owners are saving themselves from endless discussions with customers. Maybe having bottled water is a business deal the owners have with a large water company that (most likely) helps the restaurant in some other way. There could be so many reasons, and this is a literal case of “When in Rome”!
Well, not literally, but…hear us out. We’ve written about this before, and we’ve talked about it personally with guests like you when you arrive in Rome. There is no tipping culture in Italy because workers are salaried for what they do. Now, we can discuss until we’re blue in the face how that salary is not enough in this economy, and how that is exactly what drives people, even locals, to tip for exceptional service, but the fact remains: tipping is not mandated by law, it’s not required, it’s not expected. And if it is, or worse, if it is requested, it means you have ended up in one of those dreaded tourist traps. Or in a place where the overwhelming majority of visitors are foreigners. So workers there are counting on you not knowing about tips in Italy.
So, the bottom line is, if your waiter or waitress mentions that a tip is expected, say something like, “Thank you, that’s good to know,” but don’t feel pressured to tip them at all. In fact, you’ve answered in such a vague way that you can do whatever you want, even tip nothing. What if there’s a line for a tip on your check? We’re hearing this is becoming common in certain areas of the city center. Don’t acknowledge it at all – it’s a scam tactic, because again, there’s no tipping culture here, and the mysterious coperto you see on every check does that kind of thing anyway. Think of it this way: openly asking for a tip (in writing or in any other way) is a surefire way to know that you’ll never set foot in that establishment again.
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