Venice - Italian Meal Structure

Hosteria al Vecio Bragosso: great view and romantic ambience

We came here for our first dinner in Venice, it was close to our hotel, to other shops and Macdonald.  It was nice to sit at the outdoor terrace, beautiful night with perfect ambience.

We weren't that hungry from the late lunch, so we just went to have some late snack.  We looked through different menus, and we decided to eat at this restaurant.  While we were waiting, there was a basket of different breads, buns and bread sticks.  There was this brand new pack of bread sticks, I opened the pack, which I later found it was charged 8 Euro for the bread. :S So next time, I learnt that it would be free to just eat the bread/buns in the basket, but if you open any packs of bread sticks, it will be charged on the bill.  Or it could just be cover charge, I don't know...but why cover charge?

Beef Carpaccio as secondo, along with Murano candle holder

In North America, beef carpaccio is usually the appetizer, but in Italy, beef carpaccio seems to be the second main entree.  So it usually is more expensive on the menu, especially its a dish with meats.

Italians enjoy eating well and therefore Italian dinners usually have many courses; here is a sample of the Meal structure for the traditional Italians:

    1). Aperitivo (Appetizer) : alcoholic/non-alcohlic drinks as wine, champagne, with small amounts of food: olives, crisps, nuts...etc

    2). Antipasto (heavier starter): heavier starter such as salami, cheese

    3). Primo (first entree): non-meat dishes (include pizza, risotto, pasta, lasagnas..etc)

    4). Secondo (second entree): usually the heaviest course (include different meats and types of fish (include turkey, sausage, pork, steak, salmon, lobster, lamb, chicken etc)

    5). Formaggi e Frutta (cheese and fruits)

    6). Dolce (desserts): my favourite is the homemade tiramisu, the style and texture of tiramisu is different from cities to cities

    7). Caffe (Coffee or expresso): Italians usually drink expresso after every meal.  The locals only drink beverages with milk in the morning, because they believe drinking milk later in the day is thought to be bad for the stomach.  If you order a cappuccino or caffe latte after your meal in dinner time, it would be a giveaway that you're a tourist :)

PS:  If you want a latte, make sure you order a caffe latte (meaning expresso with steam milk), otherwise you might just get a glass of milk, because latte in Italian means milk.