The Cappuccino Rule You Should Never Break When Ordering Coffee In Italy

Coffee is a cherished part of Italian culture that they take seriously, with unwritten rules that can trip up unsuspecting travelers seeking a la dolce vita experience of sipping coffee at a cafe. Tourists can avoid missteps and nimbly navigate the Italian coffee landscape by learning the rules, and one of the biggest is you only have a cappuccino in the morning.

The 11 a.m. cappuccino cutoff applies to other milky coffees too, like caffè latte or caffè macchiato — milk foam with a little espresso that stains ("macchiato") it – as Italians consider them drinks to have with a typical Italian breakfast: sweet pastry and, of course, coffee.

There's another part of the rule to know too. While many Americans enjoy cappuccino after lunch or dinner, Italians would never. They believe drinking that much hot milk after a meal interferes with digestion. A related tip: Never ask just for a "latte" like you would at Starbucks, or you might get milk ("latte") instead of coffee.

Every coffee has its own size, so there's no small, medium, or large, and Italians don't do coffee to go. Coffee is sold at bars, which are like cafes, and it's normal to stand at the counter and quickly down a shot of espresso, particularly as people are rushing to work in the morning. You can sit at a table — the coffee will cost more there – but you won't see anyone working on their laptop. For Italians, bars are a place to relax with coffee and conversation.

Coffee for Italians is espresso, so simply ask for "un caffè" as they do to order one. While they won't drink milky coffee after morning, Italians will have espresso and variations of it the rest of the day – often many times a day. Caffè lungo (literally meaning long) has extra hot water as the espresso pulls while caffè ristretto uses less water than normal for a stronger shot. Americans missing drip coffee can order a caffè Americano, which has more hot water poured in than a caffè lungo. This hot water is often served on the side, so you can add as much as you want. Caffè corretto has a kick from a small amount of liquor such as grappa, brandy, anisette liqueur like sambuca, or a bitter amaro like Fernet.

You won't find American-style flavored coffee — don't even try asking for a pumpkin spice latte. But there are regional specialties to look for. Piedmont has bicerin, which layers espresso, hot chocolate, and milk. The region also has marocchino, which blankets frothed milk over cocoa powder and tops it with a single-ounce espresso shot. Hazelnut cream blends with espresso in Naples' caffè alla nocciola.

A popular summertime iced coffee called caffè shakerato gets its name, as it sounds, from the English word "shake" — though Ina Garten calls it rocket fuel. Espresso is shaken well with sugar and ice, chilling the coffee and creating foam that rises to the top as it's served in a martini glass.