What is the point of a coffee shop if you can’t sit and do work? However, as I’ve continued to visit cafes and learn about Italy’s culture, I’m starting to realize that something being different from what I’m used to isn't necessarily a bad thing. I’m used to a culture that often sees food as something to be consumed in passing. We eat while doing work, grab a snack along the way and socialize over a meal. Food is hardly ever the main event. In Italy, it’s the opposite. People here take their time to appreciate the food they’re eating and each meal is the star of its own experience.
An exception to this rule is with pizza. One of the only foods you will see Romans eat on the go is pizza. However, it is not the pizza you and I are used to. There are actually many kinds of pizza in Italy. Forno is the Italian word for oven, but it is also the name of a particular kind of restaurant. Fornos normally sell a selection of pastries and breads as well as pizzetta and pizza. Pizzetta and pizza are made from a bread similar to sourdough. Pizzette (the plural of pizzetta) are cut into small circles and are normally eaten plain (pizzetta bianca) or with just a simple tomato sauce (pizzetta rossa). Forno pizza is cooked in large rectangles instead of circles and, when you order it, you pay by weight. Toppings range from bianca and rossa like the pizzetta to formaggio (cheese), zucchine (zucchini) and funghi (mushroom). These pizze (plural of pizza) are really different from what we are used to in the United States. Instead of thick crust and heavy sauce and cheese, they have a thin bread with toppings.
