Italian Food in Italy — Could it BE Any More Delicious?

GUEST POST OVERVIEW: I prefer pizza above all other foods. Though I must say, there’s nothing quite like an Italian deli meat sandwich. Man, this new guest posts from Aleix is making me hungry! Time to stop thinking about food, go get a snack, and let you read on…

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Italians love their food, we all know that, but this is a guide how to eat the Italian way, when and what.

(pizza image courtesy of Pini’s Pizzeria) 

Italian food is one of the most delicious cuisines that one can sample in Europe. Of course, everyone knows about the pasta and pizza but there’s a lot more to Italian cuisine than that. Also, Italians eat at different times and in different ways to others in Europe so here’s a small guide on how to eat the Italian way.

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Breakfast in Italy: Colazione

Breakfast in Italian is called colazione. It’s a bit different to other breakfasts in Europe because there’s no quite defined way of what to eat for Italian breakfasts. The French love their continental breakfasts, the Germans love their cold meats and the Spanish love their pastries.

In Italy, the key is to usually have a warm beverage, usually a nice cappuccino or a cafe latte. This should be accompanied by something sweet, like biscuits or sweet buns, sometimes with chocolate. There’s also the famous pane di cioccolata which is a bread-like bun with chocolate chips or just chocolate inside it. If you wish to have cold meats, mortadella is a regular fixture in Italian breakfast.

(Italian deli meat image courtesy of The Northern Deli)

Since Italians love their food so much, some people just cannot wait until lunch time for their next food fix and enjoy a cheeky snack before their meal. Usually, they eat cicchetti, which are small snacks or side dishes that are served at little bars called bàcari. However, this is most typical of Venice although you can also find it in other cities but less regularly.

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Lunch Time in Italy

Lunch time is an art in Italy. Pranzo is something to be done properly and in Italy one must, before lunch, indulge in the aperitivo, which is the appetizer. This usually involves an alcoholic drink, such as wine, spritz or prosecco, accompanied by salty snack food, such as olives, salty nuts or crisps.

After comes the antipasto, which is a starter slightly heavier than the aperitivo. An antipasto can contain anything from cold meats to cheeses, dips and cold salads. Then comes the primo piatto, the first dish. This is where the famous pasta comes in, in all of its various shapes and forms.

(Basil-lemon antipasto photo courtesy of myrecipies.com)

This is still a heavy part of the meal but not the heaviest. Risottos also are primi piatti and one can also add the soups in here. If you’re still hungry (if you’re not, it doesn’t matter, you’ll still get the food), you’ve still got the secondo piatto, which is where the meats and fish come in.

This is usually the heaviest part of Italian lunch and the one that’s cooked  the richest. This usually comes accompanied by the contorno, the side dishes, which is usually vegetables, and always served separately. The dessert, one would think, is the last part of the meal but oh no!

The dolce, as the Italians say, can be anything from fruit to cake or the famous panettone, tiramissu or panna cotta. Then come the coffees but more on that later

(Tiramisu image courtesy of Mandy Mortimer)

To finish off, the Italians like to take a shot of a digestivo, a liquor that will help them digest all the food they’ve just eaten. The liquor is usually herbal and the usual suspects are limoncello, grappa or amaro.

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Coffee & Espresso

In terms of coffees, Italians do it as well as anyone. A curiosity can be the espresso bars in Rome. Espresso, as everyone knows, means quick, and some bars have a bar full of ready-made espresso coffees where you enter, you pay for the coffee, you go to the bar, drink it in a few seconds and walk out. However, if you prefer to sit in a piazza in Rome relaxedly enjoying a good cappuccino, then that’s the Italian way to do it too.

(espresso image courtesy of First in Coffee)

If you’re still hungry in the afternoon, you can have the merenda, which usually consists of a sweet snack of the bread variation. For dinner, cena, Italians usually have, unsurprisingly, a light meal that can consist of soups, salads and a light plate of pasta.

Why don’t you find accommodation in Rome, Italy, and enjoy Italian food and the way it’s eaten. Eating the Italian way is a great experience that everyone who visits this country should definitely not miss.

About the Author: Aleix Gwilliam is a 24 year old from Barcelona who looks English but thinks like a Catalan. He enjoys traveling, especially on old Czech trains, and trying to start conversations in Hungarian with people at Pecs station, even though his Hungarian is as good as his Bulgarian, in other words, not very good. He’s a trier.