A tavola

A tavola! is what an Italian calls out when the food is ready: to the table. It is a fair title for this session, because Italian food vocabulary is inseparable from the rules about when and how it is eaten.

Eating and drinking

mangiare is to eat and bere is to drink. bere is irregular in a way that makes sense once you know its history: it comes from an older form bevere, and that hidden -v- returns in most of its forms, bevo, bevi, beviamo. cibo is food in general, and acqua is water. In a restaurant you will be asked whether you want it naturale or frizzante, still or sparkling.

Three meals, and when

colazione is breakfast, and in Italy it is small: a coffee and something sweet. pranzo is lunch and cena is dinner, and both come later than in Britain. Lunch at one, dinner at eight or nine, and the family meal is the one that matters.

What goes on the table

carne is meat and pesce is fish. torta is cake. latte is milk, and nothing else: order a latte in Italy and you will get a glass of milk, which is the classic tourist lesson. What English calls a latte is a caffellatte.

caffè is coffee, and by default it means an espresso. You do not need to say espresso; a caffè is one. vino is wine and birra is beer. Wine goes with the meal, and drinking without eating is not really the Italian way of doing it.

The house around it

cucina is both the kitchen and the cooking, so la cucina italiana is Italian cuisine and in cucina is in the kitchen. tavolo is the table as a piece of furniture; tavola is the table laid for a meal, which is why the call is a tavola and not a tavolo.

stanza is a room, letto is bed, bagno is the bathroom and finestra is the window.

The thing to take away: a word like latte or caffè looks familiar and means something narrower than you expect. When an Italian food word looks like an English one, assume it is not the same until the plate arrives.