Shortly after I moved to Italy in 2009, a group of Italian friends quizzed me on how differently Americans eat compared with Italians. They wanted me to affirm how trashy U.S. food is and how we eat all our meals out of paper bags. But when I replied, “Well, you all have a lot more rules around eating than we do,” I was met with nodding heads.

Mealtime in Italy can be a pretty rigid affair compared with American-style “eat while standing at the kitchen counter and scrolling on my phone” habits. Meals are at a set time. There are things you eat and don’t eat at breakfast, lunch or dinner, as well as foods you don’t mix and customs you don’t break.