A typical Italian diet consists of three meals in a day. The most common foods in the Italian diet include pasta, cheese, vegetables, olive oil, meats, and wine. Italians give a lot of importance to fresh ingredients. They use seasonal ingredients to prepare meals.
“Here's how to eat on an Italian schedule: we eat colazione (breakfast) as we get up, pranzo (lunch) in between 12.30 and 2 pm, merenda (afternoon snack) in between 4 and 5 pm, and cena (dinner) in between 7 and 8.30 pm…”
Most Italians eat dinner around 8pm or 9pm. They may eat later in the summer, especially in the south of the country when dinner could be at 10pm or even later. Visitors should be aware that opening hours at Italian restaurants are limited. They open for lunch between 12pm and 1pm and close between 2pm and 3pm.
Typically an Italian meal consists of four courses (starter, first course, main course, and dessert), although this can be stretched to eight courses or more (starter, first course, fish main course, meat main course, cheese, and dessert). Do not feel obligated to eat this many courses.
In Italy, the average bedtime is 12:35 am. People in Italy also tend to get up relatively early, waking up before 8:00 am. The average time people in Italy wake up is 7:52 am. The National Sleep Foundation says most adults should aim for seven to nine hours of sleep, or an average of eight hours.
Traditional Italian menus have five sections. A full meal usually consists of an appetizer, first course and a second course with a side dish. It's not necessary to order from every course, but usually people order at least two courses. Traditional meals may last one or two hours or even longer.
Italians eat the most pasta worldwide – about 60 pounds of pasta per person per year. Most Italians eat pasta every day but they keep their portions in check. A portion in Italy is about a cup and the meal includes a small portion of meat and a large portion of vegetables and salad.
Appetizers and first courses come first because of their delicate flavors (and textures); second courses follow with their stronger elements; desserts, coffee, and liquors are reserved to end the meal.
The simple answer is that it is consistent with the traditional culture of avoiding the heat of the day. Also, since the workday is divided in half by a long pausa, people don't finish work until around 7:30 or 8:00.
Breakfast in Italy: what to expect
Homemade breakfast in Italy is usually a straightforward affair. Traditional breakfast drinks in Italian households are coffee, tea and cocoa milk for the kids and the main breakfast foods are bread with butter and jam, biscuits and cereals.
Ideally, lunch includes courses; a primo piattoor first course, like pasta, gnocchi, or rice, a protein, and vegetables. Normally, lunch is Italian's biggest and most sustaining meal of the day.
Greece—CR Elena Paravantes. Greeks typically have four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, afternoon coffee and dinner. Traditionally the largest meal was lunch, but many have changed their habits to a more Westernized style of living.
Occasionally, Italians partake in the long, full course lunches. These meals last at least two hours and involve lots of food, more than most people are used to consuming. Italians will do these to celebrate special occasions, but many families do large lunches every Sunday as well.
A typical Italian meal begins with an antipasto (starter), followed by a primo (pasta, risotto or polenta, depending on the region and season), a secondo (meat or fish), a contorno (cooked vegetables or salad) and dolce (dessert). However nobody is capable of such a feat on an ordinary day.
Well, it is because of the Mediterranean diet! People in Italy enjoy a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, beans, tomatoes, poultry, whole grains, olive oil, red wine, dairy ― and they consume very little red meat. They usually satisfy a sweet tooth with fruits instead of sugary desserts as well.
Meals are sacred in Italy.
So you don't grab a sandwich in the middle of the afternoon if you're hungry. You generally just deal with being hungry until it's dinner time. (Or aperitivo time.) An aperitivo like this usually takes the place of dinner in Milan (part of how Italians stay thin – by not overeating).
In Italy siesta is known as riposo. Shops are closed midday for three hours or so, that way Italians get to go home, rest, and be with family. Riposo to Italians means enjoying a home cooked meal and spending time with family.
Breakfast is not the main meal of the day in Italy – it's more like a quick burst of energy to get you going in the morning not a feast to linger over. Italians have dinner quite late at night – so, the idea is that they don't need to load themselves with heavy food first thing in the morning.
Why do Italians drink coffee after dinner? “The espresso after dinner is ordered only if the meal was heavy, and they also 'correct' the espresso by adding grappa, known as 'the corretto,'” Milos says. The habit might also have to do with the fact that Italians stay up later.
Late-morning and mid-afternoon snacks, called merenda (plural merende), are also often included in this meal structure. Traditional meals in Italy typically contained four or five courses.
Since Italians have about six hours between lunch and dinner, they usually grab something in between: These snacks are called merende and are basically morning or afternoon pick-me ups that can be sweet (like fruit or biscotti, a hard cookie) or savory (like crackers or a slice of pizza al taglio).
Eggs in Italian cuisine. Whereas eggs in the United States are primarily a breakfast item it's the opposite in Italy. Italians often have eggs for dinner and in classic lunchtime dishes like pasta carbonara.
The traditional Italian cuisine is typically based on large quantities of vegetables, fruit, cereals, legumes, nuts, and limited amounts of animal products.