I have many friends who are Italian, naturally living in Italy, and almost everyong tells me that Italians do not tip when dining in a restaurant.
These people are not country bumpkins, ie; one is the director of the Port of Trieste, another is the largest lace manufacturer in the world, and many are academics.
They are amused at how the Americans tip in Italy.
Any comments,
Sebastian

Italians in general don't believe in waiting their turn in lines, and pedestrians occasionally look like targets to an Italian behind the wheel. Americans do not always finding these traits amusing, but we travel to experience these differences as well as the similarities between us.

I leave a small tip at restaurants in Italy. Amusing perhaps but certainly not annoying (at least to the waiter!).

The minute I open my mouth everyone knows I'm a tourist! I tip but I always make sure that the person gets it in their hand not added onto the bill. I'm not ashamed to do this. It's a thank you for special service. I don't do it everytime just as I don't back home.

Service is included in Italy. When an Italian eats in Italy, he can read the menu easily and if he has any questions (which is doubtful since he probably fully understands the menu) then he can ask the waiter and get a quick and easy answer. When I dine in Italy I'm a bit high maintenance. I will probably have a dozen questions about items on the menu, and the attempts to discuss them with the waiter will be a bit of a struggle, but politely done by both, hopefully. At the end of the meal, if the waiter has been kind to me and patient with my lack of skills in Italian, I like to reward him with a bit extra for what was surely a little more "work" than normal with his usual Italians. If my leaving him a little extra for his extra work and friendliness is "amusing" to other Italians, I really don't much care.

Hi ciotti2000, if your friend is the director of the Port of Trieste than I know that my friends in Trieste know your friend, due to the business they own. Interesting!

Only comment about tipping is that all my friends in Italy leave just a small tip. No tipping like we do in the US.

Agree with LoveItaly. 5% seems pretty standard.

Why do people find it surprising? I find it just as astonishing that you're expected to tip so heavily in the US.

Different strokes and all that.

(And I don't regard myself as high maintenance.)

Hi, Ciotti -

We felt weird not tipping in Italy. It's just such a natural thing to do here in the U.S. that not doing it simply because we were abroad seemed wrong somehow. Granted, we didn't tip 15-20%, but we were more than happy to leave something as a thank you.

Perhaps it makes us all uniquely American. : )

Hi C,

>They are amused at how the Americans tip in Italy.
Any comments,...<

Of course. Many Americans add 15-20% to their bill without realizing that (a) they have already paid a 15% service charge and (b) that the added amount goes to the owner, not the waiter.

A euro or 2 for extra service is reasonable.

I aggree with patrick and ira.

The tip is included. If the service was better than normal, or I had to make the work harder, I leave them a little extra.

Some services do not realy warrent a tip anyway. In the States, everybody wants tips. At a local mall, all of the food places have a tip jar. The only thing they do is had you a cup and they want a tip.

I know this is only a matter of semantics, but I always think that when in Europe the "service" is included, if you leave something extra, then that's a "tip". I've noticed that many people ask in Europe "is the tip included" and most servers will tell them it ISN'T. But if you ask them if "service" is included, they will usually say yes. I had one enterprising young waiter in France tell me with a wink that "the service is included, but not a tip".

I don't think when there is a flat service charge included in the price, you can call that a "tip".

I agree with Patrick and ira. I used to tip in Europe at a 15% or so rate,leaving it on the table or handing it to the waiter, in France and Italy, because that's what I was used to doing at home in the US. After quite some time, I realized that I was already paying a service charge, to the owner, but that none of the local customers appeared to be leaving significant tips, if any at all. I now leave a few euros,sometimes calculated at 5%, sometimes just whatever my inclination is.

However, in locales where there is not an automatic service charge I leave 15% if the service is good.