Americans have all sort of rules and laws they follow, such as rules involving queuing (an art technique perfected in Singapore where the queue is king). By contrast, Italians have very few rules and most of those can be broken. For example, in Italy, there is a minimum drinking age but it’s not really respected. Situation changes entirely when it comes to food. Yes. Italians do have eating rules!

For example, my friend George from New York City once wanted to order a cafe latte with his Mexican meal – right in front of me!!! It took me a while to dissuade him… I hope no restaurant in Italy would ever allow its customers to have cappuccino together with pasta!  I have never been brave enough to order pasta ‘alle vongole’ and cappuccino together to test this rule: if you have more courage than I do, try that combination and see what happens.