Imagine yourself sitting at a picturesque Italian cafe, nestled between historic buildings along a charming cobblestone street; the only thing left to know is how to order the perfect coffee now that you're in Italy! If this is your dream then you need to read this.
Here is everything you need to know in order to avoid committing coffee faux pas, impress locals, AND get the coffee drink you want. Italians love to make rules about eating and drinking, so of course there are rules about coffee! Not that they didn't serve cappuccino, just that I wasn't allowed to order it after lunch. I admit I was a little shocked and slightly annoyed; how could they not allow me to have the most iconic coffee drink in the world?
Fast forward about ten years, three of which I lived in Sicily, after making a lot of mistakes, drinking a LOT of coffee, and learning from my new Italian friends, I now understand the unwritten rules of drinking coffee in Italy.
When it comes to Italian coffee, size matters. It's all about the volume of liquid in your cup, and the coffee:water:milk ratio. Time of day determines which coffee drinks are acceptable. The amount and type of food you may or may not be eating with your coffee affects the proper coffee pairing. You can almost always walk up to the counter to order and drink your coffee. If you want to sit down at a table and you see servers walking around, you usually need to sit down at the table first and place your order with the server.
When doing this, catch the eye of a server and ask if you can sit, or just point to a table with a questioning look on your face.
