Is It Bad Form to Order a Cappuccino After 11 A.M. in Italy?

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  07.11.07 | 2:44 PM ET

imageNot only did a friend tell John Flinn never to order a cappuccino after 11 a.m. in Italy “because Italians think it’s barbaric,” but Flinn found the same advice repeated on countless Web sites. Anyone who breaks the 11 a.m. rule, common wisdom seems to dictate, will immediately be exposed as a good-for-nothing ignorant tourist. Flinn wondered whether Italians were really that judgmental. “I tried to imagine the reaction if a Belgian tourist walked into a McDonalds in, say, Cincinnati, and asked for mayonnaise for his fries,” he writes in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle. “It would draw, at most, a bemused shrug, wouldn’t it? Would an Italian waiter react to a post-11 a.m. cappuccino request any differently?” Flinn set out to find the answer on his last trip to Italy. What did he discover?

At a Roman cafe around 3 p.m., he saw plenty of Romans—gasp—sipping cappuccinos.

“They were doing so right out in the open, without a trace of shame, and it didn’t seem to be causing a scandal,” he writes.

Flinn advises all travelers to question common travel wisdom.

He writes: “I can’t speak for the rest of Italy—on previous visits I’ve never paid this issue any attention—but in Rome, go ahead and order a cappuccino any time you want. You’ll just be doing as the Romans do.”

Related on World Hum:
* ‘Some 60 Percent of Italian Restaurants Abroad Are Awful’
* The Pasta Nazi
* Out: Bad Hotel Room Coffee. In: Gourmet Joe.
* Chopsticks Faux Pas and Other Cultural Land Mines in Japan

Photo by roevin via Flickr, (Creative Commons).



4 Comments for Is It Bad Form to Order a Cappuccino After 11 A.M. in Italy?

Terry Ward 07.11.07 | 9:35 PM ET

Many years ago, an Italian family came to visit my home in Orlando for dinner. I was so excited to bust out some proper coffees for them on my fancy new espresso machine. But when I went to serve the drinks after dinner, the father (who spoke no English) panicked. He was shaking his head furiously and shouting ‘No, No!’ as his embarassed son explained to me that capuccinos are only for breakfast. The family was from the south - a rather small town near Napoli - and quite traditional. It makes sense that in Rome you can get away with a frothy drink any time of the day. I bet you can even get away with Starbucks.

Frank 07.13.07 | 8:54 AM ET

As someone who’s lived in northern Italy, I can attest that people don’t do this there either. Italians are polite and worldly, but they do have their rules (which may or may not apply in Rome).

alessandro 04.01.08 | 1:01 PM ET

ok, after lunch is ok but if you take a cappuccino after 11am it’s like you are saying “i just woke up, i have no job and i do nothing all day long”

no-one will tell you anything but that’s what they will think

take care, always travel!

alessandro 04.01.08 | 1:03 PM ET

NO, CAPPUCCINO AFTER DINNER IS TERRIBLE!!!

DO NOT SERVE CAPPUCCINO AFTER DINNER!!

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