Padraig....you failed to address the fact...Tips are not in fact included in all service in Italian restaurants..if the menu advices "servisio not included" then you leave a decent tip...my point all along....I am not an expert, but I travel Italy very frequently..both on business and holiday...If the menu does not advise "service included"..english...then you should leave a tip...why do you contest this..also be advised the continent is not the same as the UK and Ireland.mikek

sorry Mike, but this is not true at all.

You will find that there is SOME sort of service or gratuity or cover or bread charge (ha! and in tourist spots sometimes more than one of these)...

I don't think I have actually ever been in a restaurnt (even a pizzaria!) that did NOT have either a table, service, cover, bread...or whatever they wish to call it - I have never, that I can remember, seen anything that says "service not included"!

now...I am really, really not saying there are not places that do that...they are just not ones I frequent - and my guess is that they would be in Venice or Rome - no way out they are out in the middle of Puglia (for instance). (Although I frequently go to Venice and Rome and I have never, ever left a tip - not even in expensive resaurants. I have not seen locals leaving a tip either.) An Italian would maybe round the bill up - but would not tip as we do in the US (or, yes, Ireland now as well). (Actually, restaurnt and shop owners in our town sometimes even round DOWN to avioid having to make change!)

Mike1728 wrote: "also be advised the continent is not the same as the UK and Ireland"

I had noticed. For me, it involves a plane or a boat to get there, and they speak different languages there.