One of the most surprising things I learned while visiting Italy was pizzas are not sliced. I looked around the restaurant we chose for our first dinner and saw everyone sawing through pizza with butter knives!
Photos of unsliced pizzas
The reason for this silliness is to prevent the pizza from cooling down. Italians bring food to the table as soon as it is ready, and do not hold dishes under a lamp so they can be served all at the same time.
We learned the cheat code
If you say the pizza is to share, they slice it! It’s not as if they do not have pizza slicers in the back. They do, and they’ll use them if you say every pizza will be shared among the table.
Before we learned the workaround, I bought and carried small scissors to restaurants. Here’s a photo that I’ve been told is very embarrassing to people who love me. Cutting pizza with a butter knife is embarrassing!
This post is part of a series I wrote at the end of a 16-day trip to Italy in June 2024. Find all the posts about my trip here.