Our Italy Etiquette Guide: 22 Rules for Blending In Like a Local

General Rules of Conduct from Everyday Life in Italy

#1 Don’t expect punctuality! Showing up late to an appointment is the rule, not the exception. The agreed time is more of a guideline.

#2 Bare shoulders or a short skirt will get you turned away from any church and any other Christian building as well.

#3 Italians are stylish and place great importance on appearance. Flip-flops are a no-go for Italians — except at the beach or as house slippers. In the city, Italians wear sandals or sneakers in summer.

#4 If someone invites you to their home for dinner, bring something along. It’s customary to bring a bottle of wine or dessert.

#5 With kids, you can head to the playground until late in the evening in summer. Life in summer generally happens in the evening, when it’s cooler. Italian children rarely go to bed before 10 or 11 p.m.

Table Manners in Italy

#6 A slightly charred pizza crust is normal and no Italian would ever send it back because of that.

#7 Never order a Hawaiian pizza — pineapple on pizza is a sacrilege.

#8 Parmesan never goes on pasta with seafood. Never. Ever.

#9 Carbonara is made with pancetta and egg yolks, not ham and cream.

#10 Spaghetti Bolognese doesn’t exist in Italy — it’s a foreign invention. In Italy, there’s pasta al ragù, which is simply pasta with meat sauce. It does, however, actually come from Bologna.

#11 You don’t need a spoon to eat spaghetti. One of Italy’s most important table manners: Italians simply twirl spaghetti with a fork against the plate.

#12 Breakfast is sweet and simple: a croissant with chocolate or vanilla filling and a cappuccino — basta! If you have breakfast at home, it’s usually cookies that you dip into milk, cocoa, or café au lait.

#13 Cappuccino is only drunk before 11 a.m., and having coffee with lunch or dinner is basically a crime. If anything, you have a “Caffè” after a meal to aid digestion. By “Caffè,” Italians mean exclusively espresso. Coffee in the American sense is “Caffè Americano” — but that’s never had after or with a meal, only at breakfast.

#14 Lunch at noon and dinner in the evening — is that really so hard? Outside of normal mealtimes (lunch between 12 and 2 p.m., dinner between 8 and 10 p.m.), you won’t be served lunch or dinner. If you see someone wolfing down a pizza in a restaurant at 4 p.m., it’s a tourist — 100 percent.

#15 Gelato is priced by the size of the cup or cone, not by the number of scoops. At the counter you’ll always see the different sizes with their corresponding prices.

Tipping in Italy

#16 Tipping is not normally expected. Instead, there’s the coperto, a cover charge of 3 to 5 euros per person that you automatically pay and that appears on your bill. Tipping is of course still appreciated, but it’s not required.

#17 Pagare alla romana (paying the Roman way): While in many countries people tend to make a big production out of splitting the bill and prefer to divide it down to the last cent, things are much simpler in Italy. There’s one check per table and everyone pays an equal share.

Grocery Shopping

#18 Supermarkets are usually open on Sundays too. So you don’t need to worry about what day of the week it is — you’ll always find a supermarket open somewhere.

#19 You’re required to keep your receipt for at least ten minutes. That’s actually the law. It rarely happens, but in theory you can be asked for your receipt on the way out to check that the store owner isn’t evading taxes.

Traffic in Italy

#20 Red pedestrian lights are optional: Many visitors dutifully wait for the light to turn green — no matter how long it takes. Italian pedestrians only stop if the road is actually busy; otherwise, they just go.

#21 Crosswalks are more of a symbolic gesture as well. Don’t assume cars will stop just because you want to cross the street.

#22 Bus tickets are bought at the Tabaccheria (newsstand) or via an app. The bus driver usually won’t have a ticket for you — or will only sell you one at a surcharge.