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Published: January 14th 2018
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In my blog that was posted within my first two days in Italy I had discussed a few food lessons that I had learned fairly quick. Today, I am here to tell you that there is more where that came from! Thankfully, my first five food lessons have been very helpful and since then I have had some amazing food!
Just one week in an Italian language class has made all of the difference in helping me decide what to eat, order my food, and find out how much my food costs. I highly recommend learning some of the basic language skills you would need in any country you plan on traveling abroad to as it is extremely helpful. While it may seem that most people know and/or understand English, knowing a little bit of the Italian language has definitely made the food service workers in Italy be a lot more friendly and helpful.
One of the previous lessons I had learned was that you need to ask how much something costs before the food is made up for you. I had ended up spending 10 euro on one cone of gelato, but since
then I have always asked. I have definitely avoided making that mistake of assuming again as I have left a few places because I decided I didn’t want to spend that much on food. I will now add onto this previous lesson learned by adding that you should check for the size or how much of something that you’ve ordered. Two nights ago I saw a place with hot chocolate and thought that sounded great considering the cold weather. I proceeded to walk in and ask how much for the hot chocolate, the worker responded that it would be 4.50 euro; despite how expensive it was I decided to go ahead and try it just because I wanted. After a few minutes of waiting on the hot chocolate I noticed on one of their menu boards that they had not only 3 different sizes in hot chocolate but also numerous flavors. I then realized when I had asked the price of the hot chocolate the worker had of course told me the largest sized price and that’s what I received. Ironically, this “large” sized hot chocolate was not large at all. It wasn’t the end of the world, but I
would have been happier if I was more aware. On another note, the hot chocolate tastes very different from in the United States. Italian hot chocolate is definitely chocolatey, and it is really thick. It is almost like they just put hot Hershey syrup in a cup. I think it would be worth trying just for fun if you can find it for a decent price, and if you don’t get too much! It was hard to drink a whole cup of thick hot chocolate, you will need to be careful doing this as well. Happy hunting!
Another new lesson I have learned is that if you have a place in mind for lunch or dinner look up what time this place is open and/or if it is closed that day. A lot of the places here are closed on random days and close at different times each day. Two times in a row I’ve tried to eat at this place near me and it was closed; fortunately, both times I ended up not eating at this place I found a place that was amazing. Both accidental discoveries are my favorite meals thus far! One my new
favorite places includes an appertivo! Considering my previous comments on appertivos’ I didn’t think I’d like another one, but this one was way better. I have learned to get over water costing money because I knew I would be way too dehydrated if I didn’t, and now appertivos are great. My favorite appertivo is over by the Santo Spirito Church, and it is called Tamero. I loved it because of its atmosphere, but mostly because it had a wide variety of foods to try that I felt was worth 10 euros. I had pasta and pizza in the same night, and it was great because all I want is to not have to choose between the two. It also seemed like it had a good dinner options if you wanted to eat there, but not do the appertivo!
Back home when I go out to eat I can almost always count on the waiter bringing the check to me in a timely manner. When I’m out to eat in the United States I sometimes even feel encouraged to pay my check and leave faster than I would like. After two nice, dine-in meals in Italy I have learned that they do things very differently concerning the check. Both times I waited for the check for a long amount of time before realizing that they are not going to bring it to me until I ask. Although it took me a hot minute to figure this out, I really like that eating and conversing with company is on our own time and not discouraged by restaurant workers.
I have not once waited to be seated since being in Italy! In most restaurants back home there is usually some sort of wait before I will be seated to a table. I think Italian restaurants having no wait time has to do with the fact that there are places to eat everywhere, and nearly each one has pizza, pasta and/or paninis. You can get whatever you are craving at nearly every corner you turn, and I am sure everyone has a different favorite. This seemed to be the case in Sienna, Italy as well. There were places to eat everywhere, and I was able to walk into a shop and grab a panini to take away fairly quick. I find that picking the ones where there is less English spoken the food tends to be a bit better, or maybe I just make myself think that. Either way, I have taken pictures of nearly everything I have eaten since I’ve been here and I’ve included some pictures just to make you hungry.
# of steps…
01/12/2018: 15,939
01/13/2018: 16,380
01/14/2018: 13,975
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