{"id":803,"date":"2024-12-20T15:44:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T07:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/5-unspoken-rules-for-acting-like-a-local-in-italy\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T09:56:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T01:56:03","slug":"5-unspoken-rules-for-acting-like-a-local-in-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/?p=803","title":{"rendered":"5 unspoken rules for acting like a local in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Italians have a reputation around the world for not being especially<\/em> attentive to regulations and laws. And while that might be very true when it comes to driving or queuing, there are several unspoken rules you\u2019ll find Italians adamantly sticking to and that immediately mark anyone who doesn\u2019t<\/em> follow them as a tourist.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nAdvertisement\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/astro-ad><\/p>\n

And no one will be surprised to find out that most of them are about food, the table, and meals in general. So if you really want to act like a local on your next trip to the Bel Paese<\/em> and feel as Italian as possible as you stroll around Rome or Florence or Milan, here are five things to keep in mind.<\/p>\n

The great cappuccino debate<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cappuccino is a delicious drink, but one that has a very specific time limit to Italians. You\u2019ll find them ordering a cappuccino (or \u201ccappuccio,\u201d as it\u2019s also called) all throughout morning, especially if they have time to sit down and chat for a while. But it\u2019s no longer socially acceptable to order one once midday hits \u2013 because it\u2019s a breakfast drink and so it has no place later in the day. Funnily enough, you can order a macchiato (espresso with milk, so the same two ingredients that make up a cappuccino) anytime throughout the day and no one will question it in the slightest.<\/p>\n

\"An
Cappuccino is strictly a breakfast drink, so no one is going to order one after midday \u00a9 MANAStudio \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Drink of choice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When it comes to meals, Italians stick with only three choices \u2013 water, wine or beer. You\u2019ll see red wine with meats and white wine with fish, for example, while beer mostly goes with pizza. What you definitely won\u2019t see (and so shouldn\u2019t order if you want to truly pass as a local) is sodas and juices, or even worse, coffee and other hot drinks, accompanying a nice plate of pasta. Kids do get a bonus pass, though, and they can get a can of Coke or iced tea whenever they want.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nAdvertisement\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/astro-ad><\/p>\n

\"Bottles
The only acceptable drinks to accompany a meal are wine, beer or just good old water \u00a9 Jean-Bernard Carillet \/ Lonely Planet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No wet hair looks<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Maybe it\u2019s because Italians tend to take showers at night rather than in the morning or because we\u2019ve all had a grandmother that reminded us (loudly) to dry off our hair or we\u2019d get sick, but Italians never go out with wet hair. It\u2019s considered both unkempt and risky, since you might catch a cold standing outside with a whole head of barely-towelled-off hair. So if you walk around with wet hair, even in the scorching summer heat, you\u2019ll gather more than a few shocked looks. The only exception, of course, is if you\u2019re staying in a seaside location \u2013 everyone then will just assume your hair is wet from the sea, which is perfectly alright.<\/p>\n

\"People
Wet hair is only acceptable if you’re returning from a long day at the beach \u00a9 Maremagnum \/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sharing isn\u2019t caring (but trading is)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Pizza is an extremely serious subject to Italians. We have very strong opinions on what you should or shouldn\u2019t put on it, how to cook it and eat it. And one of the many strong opinions we have is that the pizza-to-person ratio should be one for each. Italians don\u2019t share their pizzas, so if you want to truly act like a local you should order an entire pizza for yourself. We do, however, trade a slice of our pizza for a slice of another pizza to taste it, as long as the slices are of equal value – meaning of roughly the same size and with the same amount of toppings on it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/astro-ad><\/p>\n

\"A
Pizza is serious business that can’t be shared but only traded \u00a9 Camo24 \/ Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Money talks<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Italians, as a rule, don\u2019t like discussing money in public. You might hear them approach the subject in general, but you won\u2019t catch them spilling out actual numbers about what they make or spend. This type of talk is reserved for very close friends or family members, and even then it\u2019s still considered a \u201cserious conversation\u201d rather than just casual chatter. So it\u2019s probably best to avoid the matter altogether and move onto something else \u2013 like football, for example. Everyone always wants to talk about football.<\/p>\n

\"A
Money talks are better left for private conversations with close friends or family \u00a9 Neil Setchfield \/ Lonely Planet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You might also like:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A time warp driving adventure in Northern Italy
An architect’s guide to Italy’s Capital of Culture 2020
Italy’s six best road trips<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Italians have a reputatio<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-italy-travel-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":999,"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions\/999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gagner-des-cadeaux.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}