Bread serving in Tuscany
 

I don't want to sound like a fussy American in this post (I'm not an American, although I live here these days). Forgive me. <BR> <BR>After two weeks of fabulous dining in Tuscany, I started to notice something 'interesting'. Hanging around for tables, or waiting for restrooms, I noticed that un-eaten bread was 're-cycled' by the kitchen staff for delivery to new tables. That is, someone would pick through the slices returned from a 'departed' table and put the 'full' slices into a new 'basket' along with fresh slices. <BR> <BR>This concerned me just a tad, since they don't provide bread plates (not one restaurant in 14 days), and I was therefore using the bread basket as a sort-of plate while I ate my bread. That is, I would put my partially eaten bread slice back in the basket since there was nowhere else but the tablecloth to put it. So my 'man handled', saliva-touched bread was in contact with the other bread - bread that apparently was served to others! <BR> <BR>To reiterate - I'm not a hygein nut, and I'm sure the same old crap goes on all over the place (US). I saw this more than once, in somewhat classy restaurants. Is this considered acceptable? I realize that an awful lot of bread is returned uneaten (especially since they don't serve butter or olive oil/vinegar, which I had to accept as being 'authentic', since even when I asked for oil and vinegar, they tended to forget). <BR> <BR>Slightly related, we also sat inside of a cafe that mainly catered to outside seated tourists, in Florence. As unfinished bottles of water came in from tables, a guy poured these bottles into the jugs of water that were used to serve ice-water to every table. Since we always ordered full bottles of beautiful mineral water, this didn't bother us but those of you who order 'ice water' in the american style may be in for a surprize. I for one tend to drink straight from the bottle, bypassing the glass - so an unfinished bottle from me is not exactly 'pure'! The guys also used their hands to grab ice to load into glasses. <BR> <BR>Glad we saw this on our last, and not our first, day! <BR> <BR>But we are alive today, and I know there are people starving all over the world, and people eating out of garbage cans, so I don't want this to get too out of proportion! And I know that Jack in the Box patrons die every other day from their fabulous hygien practices ...

And the point of this post is...

Well, <BR>I for one appreciated this posting and will order bottled water. <BR>As far as bread goes,? <BR>thanks breadlover. <BR>nancy

Nancy, <BR> <BR>Be sure that the bottled water you orfer arrives at your table unopened. They've been know to recycle bottled water, too!

If the point of this post was to warn people away from specific restaurants at which the poster witnessed poor hygenic practices, then the restaurants should have been mentioned by name. Otherwise, if the implication is that these practices go on in all Tuscan restaurants, then is the suggestion that people avoid eating bread and drinking water in restaurants anywhere in Tuscany? And if a restaurant practices such poor hygiene with respect to water and bread, what makes you think that they don't do similar things with other types of food? Maybe we should all just avoid Tuscan restaurants entirely!

I think the post was valid. XXX, I am not sure if it is XX or XXXX, but a person using the same or near the same name as you is always offering sharp responses back to questions and is uncalled for. My guess, it is you. Please ignore a question that you think is "stupid" or otherwise you do not think valid. I think the whole board would appreciate it. The rest of us could enjoy reading the info for what it is worth. My suggestion is go to the AOL boards where your comments will be appreciated and challenged. Hey Breadlover, thanks for the info. I will be in Italy at weeks' end and will use this information.

Main point was to alert others. Since I saw this more than once, I wonder if it is indeed common practice, and if so, it's something to be aware of. <BR> <BR>Further, I'd simply like to know how bread is eaten by Italians in Tuscany. Bread is served as soon as you sit down, but with no butter, no oil, and no plate - in 14 different restaurants on our trip, all pretty fancy. What's the 'ettiquette'? Use the table cloth (which is always crisp and clean)? If it's 'normal' for Italian restaurants to recycle bread, then certainly I should not have put my slices back there. I'm all for 'doing it like the locals' so I just want to know what's normal. It's pretty hard to 'observe what others are doing' when the others are mainly tourists also! <BR> <BR>Our dining experiences were invariably stellar - food, atmosphere, pace, everything. This was just an observation along the way.