Dining Italian Style

A full, authentic Italian meal is both a joy and an undertaking. Some Italians have their major meal at midday just before a siesta. Others have their large meal in the evenings, especially if work prohibits the entire family from getting together for the midday meal. Meals are about family. The meal is eaten at the dining room table. You don’t bring work to the table. You don’t bring your ipod to the table. You seldom bring a cell phone to the table. You come to the table to eat, relax and enjoy.

A full meal begins with antipasto: olives, bits of cured meat, cheese and crackers. Next is the primo piatto or first plate. This is usually a serving of pasta. It could be served with a simple pomodoro (tomato) sauce or something more involved such as arrabiata or amatriciana. This is followed by the secondo piatto or second plate. This is the type of dish that an American might associate most closely with dinner. For instance pork chops, steak or roast chicken. Following that would be a salad or perhaps some other vegetable side dish. “Italian” dressing appears to be something made up by Americans. Most salads would have a dressing of salt, olive oil, and vinegar. Finally, there would be some sort of dessert and coffee or cappuccino to finish things off.

There is no cafeteria at the school. It is an open campus so students can come and go as they please as long as they make it to their class commitments. They can bring food with them from their host family or they can go out to eat. However, SYA tuition includes a full meal plan so the school in Viterbo has made arrangements for students to have a meal card for the local university dining hall conveniently located around the corner from our apartment.  The SYA faculty handbook is quite specific. No meals are included except when required such as during school travel or when a meeting takes place over lunch. You can imagine our surprise when we were asked for two passport photos each for our meal cards. Apparently, Amy and I can eat there also. When I asked about the cost we were told the school pays for it! We can get either a primo OR secondo, a side dish or salad, dessert and a drink and it doesn’t cost us anything. If for some reason we want both a primo AND secondo we have to pay the 2 Euro difference as we exit. We have yet to try the food there, but you can’t beat the price or convenience so I suspect we will go there at least a few times a week