Here’s a few words of advice for anyone hoping to visit Italy in the near future.

1. Tipping in Italy. Though regularly discussed, argued and debated, the truth is you don’t need to tip in Italy. Really. Let me repeat that: you don’t need to tip in Italy. Of course most workers will not scoff or refuse a tip (though a few will), but it’s not necessary, and I think it’s a bad precedence to set for foreigners to tip in Italy for simple things like a coffee, taxi rides, or dinner in a pizzeria. Many Italians I know will only leave a tip for very exceptional service (think: anniversary dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant) or will leave the change when paying cash because it’s easier not to wait for the waiter to make change (think: leaving a 100-euro banknote on a 99-euro bill), but it’s a choice of convenience rather than rewarding service. In Rome, waiters / taxi drivers are getting spoiled with foreigners leaving tips and are now expecting them. But you don’t need to tip in Italy. You’re probably already paying a supplement through the coperto (cover charge) or servizio (service charge) on your restaurant bill. You probably still want to tip a hotel porter for bringing up your bags.
2. Assuming you can buy tickets for public transportation directly on the bus / tram. Most big cities in Italy (Rome, Milan, Naples, Florence) require you to buy your bus/tram tickets before boarding. And not just that, but most bus stops will not have a ticket machine next to the stop. Rather, you’ll need to find a newspaper stand (edicola) or a tobacco shop (tabaccaio) to purchase your tickets. If you’re planning on using public transportation on a Sunday, buy your tickets the day before – you’ll save a lot of time not looking for an open place to buy tickets. And once on the bus/tram, make sure you validate the ticket – put it into a machine that will print the date/time used on the ticket (so it can’t be re-used). Save yourself a fine!
3. Calling the afternoon store closings a “siesta.” It’s not called a “siesta”…the stores are just closed. Some stores have a day of the week that they are closed and they will call it a day of rest (giorno di riposo) or (riposo settimanale), and most stores will also be closed Monday mornings, opening in the afternoons directly. A misconception is that all stores will close in the afternoon, but it really depends on where you are in Italy, and what time of year. Especially in crowded city centers, many stores should remain open through the afternoon, but if they do close, it’s not a siesta. It’s not Spain. It’s just closed. As my friend Max reminded me, store hours are set at the Comune (city) level, so opening times will vary from city to city.
4. Not respecting meal times, especially at lunch time. Most restaurants and bars have specific opening times, and they will close in the afternoon – that you can count on. If you have a late breakfast, visit museums through lunch and hope to get a bite to eat at 2pm or 3pm, you’re going to find a very limited selection, and some of which was prepared before the lunch rush, including those sandwiches that have been sitting there since 10am. Try to eat when Italians eat – lunch hour is usually 13-14 (some start as early as 12.30 eating) and most will be done by 14.30. Dinner is a little different – the further south you go, the later they start eating. A good rule of thumb is a reservation for 20/20.30, but some groups will make reservations for 21.30/22 and will stay until the restaurant closes! If you’re hungry earlier, why not have an aperitivo (pre-dinner drink) before dinner?
5. Expecting to be waited on very attentively in a restaurant or store. The culture of “il cliente comanda” (the client dictates / is right) is not present in Italy. Furthermore, most restaurants will be “understaffed,” that is, they will have few waiters working many tables because their main job is to order and deliver your food. They probably won’t ask “how are you folks doing?”, if you like the food, if you want a refill (this concept doesn’t exist) or other general “friendly” requests that are in reality superfluous to your main dining experience – they just don’t have the time. So, sit back, be patient, and flag down your waiter when you need something, but be patient in knowing they are probably working very hard. The good news is, you’ll rarely be presented with the check until you ask for it. [Update: someone made a comment to me that I'm wrong here, and the service is fast in Italy. I am not debating the speed of the service but rather the amount of attention that is given to the patron who may be accustomed to a high level of attention throughout the dining experience. I think the quality of service is relatively high, but it's not conveyed in terms of client attentiveness but in other ways.]
6. Ordering peperoni on your pizza and expecting hot/spicy salami. Peperoni in Italian are bell peppers, not pepperoni in the US which is hot salami. So if you want hot salami on your pizza, don’t order a pizza with peperoni (note the spelling – just one p) order a pizza diavola or look for a pizza that has salame piccante as one of the ingredients.
7. Thinking you have to order an antipasto, primo e secondo at every meal. Most Italians don’t eat an antipasto, primo, secondo and dolce at every meal – you don’t have to, either. If you eat like this at every meal, you will definitely feel full! Feel free just to pick a primo or secondo for your lunch and maybe splurge at dinner with a more robust meal.
8. Ordering before paying, paying before ordering in a bar. Many bars require that you get a receipt (scontrino) before ordering, especially if you see the cash register (cassa) sitting apart from where you’ll pick up the food or coffee, and you don’t see immediate table service. When in doubt, observe for a few minutes or just ask at the cash register how to proceed – you might say, “scusi, si paga o si ordina prima?” (Does one pay or order first?)
9. Drinking a coffee during a meal (other than breakfast). Coffee is used mainly to help digestion and to finish off a meal, and therefore at lunch or dinner it is ordered after the meal and dessert have been consumed. If you order a cappuccino to go with your spaghetti carbonara, expect a nasty look…from everyone.
10. Touching fruit & vegetables with your bare hands in a market or supermarket. In a supermarket you should see plastic gloves and bags near the scales or throughout the fruit/veg section. Use them. In an open-air market, you won’t see these gloves because you are not expected to handle anything yourself – the people working in the stall will do everything. Don’t touch the goods! Also, it’s considered pretty rude to tell the fruttivendolo exactly which fruit he should put in your bag.

Here’s a few to start….any tips you have for tourists in Italy?

Still hungry for more Italy news? Listen to the All-Italy podcast I co-host called Eye on Italy at www.eyeonitaly.com/podcast.

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Portofino is a lovely little town on the Italian Riviera – just south of Genova – Genoa and with only 500 inhabitants. The bay, or rather cove surrounded by mountain/hills all around it makes it a very pretty setting for a day trip or even a romantic weekend.

Here are my Top 5 tips for enjoying your trip to Portofino.

1. Beware of the Low / End of Season

If you’re thinking of visiting Portofino in low/end season (end of November, March), beware that you might save money but you’ll miss out a little on the Portofino experience and find a bit of a ghost town. On one hand, the bay won’t be clogged with yachts anchored away in concentric half-circles, but on the other hand, many local (and high fashion) stores will be closed so shopping and buying necessities will be more difficult.

At the end of November we stayed in a hotel which was literally closing for the season (reopening in March) the day we checked out. A visit to Portofino when most of the inhabitants are gone is not impossible, but finding services like hotels and restaurants becomes difficult.

2. Don’t miss the Golden Hour at the St. George’s Church

If you’re thinking about climbing up to the Chiesa di San Giorgio (St. George’s Church) I strongly suggest going during the “Golden Hour” that is, the hour right before sunset as it really lights up the yellow church and provides a great place to take some potraits or play with silhouettes as the sun goes down.

The church itself is a small structure that you can peek your head into, but explore the grounds around and in front of it for those picture-perfect opportunities.

With the church at your back, there’s a little terrace on the left that gets the last remaining rays of the day, long after darkness has fallen on the Portofino bay.

There’s a telescope if you fancy having a lookout.

But above all, have fun with the setting sun and ask some friends or some strangers to model for you and snap away!

3. Take the climb to Castello / Castle  Brown

Portofino is a tiny town, so after you’ve seen the church, you should also make sure you see the Castello (Castle) Brown. It’s a healthy climb that winds through the hilltop neighborhood that is fun to take, and the grounds directly underneath the castle can be explored even without paying for the entrance fee to go into the castle. I recommend taking the path from the San Giorgio church to the Castle, and then winding down around the grounds back down to the bay. You’ll get a great shot of the bay this way, too!

4. Eat at your own Risk, and your Wallet’s

Food in Italy is fantastic, delicious, and simple. But not always a guarantee.

I have to say one of the worst culinary experiences I’ve ever had was while I was in Portofino. It wasn’t just the cost (which was astronomical) but the quality was terrible and when compounded with the price, it just twisted the knife even more. Is there anything worse than a terrible AND expensive meal? I think much worse than a cheap, terrible meal.

This particular restaurant (again, I’m sure it was getting ready to close for the season) served us the worst plate of pasta I’ve ever eaten – and it was just pesto! Pesto is pretty difficult to mess up – it’s just basil, olive oil, cheese and pine nuts. The pasta must have been cooked in cups of salt as it was extremely salty to the point of being inedible, and we ate just enough to get us through the evening and left the rest. To top it off, drinks were not listed on the menu and when a few in our party ordered cans of Coke, at the end of the evening they paid the hefty price of 7.50euro (USD$10!!!) for a simple coke. Not even a slice of lemon in sight. We paid the bill, on the edge of violence, and decided to leave and never look back, and not ruin the rest of our time in the city.

So, my story is a caveat for eating in Portofino, and I know not everyone will have this experience. But eating in Portofino will be expensive (the restaurants that we saw all had similar, expensive menus) and it might not even be good. I suggest really investigating and getting some suggestions from someone who’s been there (but not me). Otherwise, I strongly recommend spending your mealtimes outside Portofino, perhaps limiting yourself to an aperitivo and heading to Santa Margherita Ligure on the bus for dinner, especially in those low season times.

5. Skip the taxi, take the bus from Santa Margherita Ligure to Portofino

Bus schedules are pretty regular, and you can get easily to Portofino from the Santa Margherita Ligure train station with a local bus that will cost you a Euro or so for the trip. Buy a few extra tickets while you’re at it so that way you can make the trip back to Santa Margherita without having to search for an open ticket stand. If you prefer taxis, there’s a taxi stand just outside the train station.

Make sure you get back in plenty of time to make your train! Maybe you’ll even have time for a nap while you think about all the memories you’ve just made in Portofino.

Have you been to Portofino? Leave your own tips and tricks in the comments!

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I already told you about our boat trip around Marettimo Island and the fisherman we encountered there. A year later, we went for the day to Favignana Island, just off the Trapani coast, and the largest of the Aegadian Islands.

Marettimo felt much more intimate since it’s so tiny, but I enjoyed all the action on Favignana island, and it felt like there was much more to explore autonomously. The colors, while not as vibrant as Greece, are still a sight to see. Favignana doesn’t have very many picturesque beaches, but lots of areas to do scuba diving and enjoy the view.

While some parts of the island were accessible by public transportation, and the little city Praia was cute, our group decided to rent scooters (motorini), that way we could see more of the island and be free to move on if it was too crowded or we didn’t like it. And you know I love riding Vespa scooters!

I thought I would take more pictures from the bike, but the roads are pretty winding and when you’re in a group, it’s not as easy to stop and snap a picture without losing the rest of the group!

The first stop on our rented scooters was Cala Rossa. It’s not actually red but one of the more picturesque spots on the island. In fact many sailboats were docked there, as you can see.

Some of the rock formations behind us were fascinating. If it hadn’t been so hot I might have explored the nooks and crannies a little more.

Not that many people were in the water at Cala Rossa, which, after making a long trek to an open space on the rocks for our group, we discovered was due to the presence of medusa, jellyfish, in the water. We risked it anyway and jumped just to get rid of the road grime. A few minutes later we spotted a medusa and the party was over. Everyone got out and spent most of the time laying on the rocks. Then we moved on.

Cala Azzurra was by far the easiest water to enter and it was very cold (by Mediterranean standards) which was great because it was blazing hot that day. Here, though, we encountered little “friendly” fish that liked to nip at your legs. I felt quite a few nips before we kept up a constant movement the whole time we were in the water. Funny how we adjust when it’s necessary.

Cala Rotonda was our last stop on the tour around the island. It had quick a rocky “beach” and it was a kilometer or two of unpaved road to get there, but it was a peaceful end to our pretty hectic day.

To top off the afternoon, one of our group members did get stung by a jellyfish here. Luckily it wasn’t me!

Before getting on the boat to go back to the mainland, you can pick up some fish from the local fishmongers. Favignana is one of the few places where they still have tonnare (sing. tonnara) – tuna fisheries, and I recommend picking up a little jar of tonno con olio di oliva (tuna with olive oil) before you go home.

As for buying fresh fish, there are plenty of fishmongers near the ferries, but I can’t guarantee that you’ll be getting a good price. The fishmongers know tourists when they see them.

But it doesn’t cost anything to look.

You may even see a fish you’ve never seen before!

Afterwards, we sat down and had an aperitivo, and enjoyed the scenery in the port town of Praia. I spotted a forno with excellent pizza a taglio, sliced pizza and picked up a few slices as we recovered from our busy day.

After riding around in the motorino / scooter all day, you’ll need a little rest. That’s the mainland of Sicily there in the background.

Read more of my posts about Sicily!

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