Tea with Milk in Italy

I think finding milk at the breakfast buffet would not be difficult.

Most hotels have other guests who travel with children, so milk should be available. Many hotels will also have dry cereal so another reason milk would be available.

I think milk is more common than cream for coffee in most if not all of Europe. I prefer milk in my coffee and espresso and it's always available.

We’re been on over 20 Rick Steves tours, and I don’t remember a single hotel that didn’t have both tea and
milk on the breakfast selections. Breakfast is usually a buffet, but occasionally will be ordered from a menu. But even those few exceptions always had a sidebar with beverage choices.

You’ll be fine.

I also need milk in my tea. I asked for fat free and had no problem in Florence and Bologna. In fact, most times the milk came warm, it was nice.

I will warn you that in Italy and France having really hot water to steep your teabag can be an issue. Also, if you don’t like Lipton or have a full flavor tea you normally drink, you may want to bring a stash of teabags with you. I drink a British tea at home and always travel with a ziplock bag of tea unless I’m going to the UK.

You will get tea with milk but it won’t be nice. Horrible teabags and UHT rather than fresh milk. Like many Brits, I take my own teabags abroad but I only use them in the room. I wouldn’t take them into the breakfast room. I have coffee at breakfast even though I’m not usually a coffee drinker.

What kind of milk? Which fat level?

And Italy is not Italy - I think you will have more luck in the northern than in the southern part.

With a little notice at check-in they will happy to serve milk.

Back in the day, it seemed like hotels had all had an urn of hot milk, mainly for coffee (unfancy Caffe Latte). But all places should be able to provide you with hot milk, and tea is common in Italy.

At any cafe, they will have tea bags and the barista can provide warm milk.

I've been all over Italy and Sicily. Never did I see anyone have a problem getting milk for tea. They usually also had a milk substitute.

Now, if you want an English style tea, that's a different story. The only UK tea I've ever seen in Italian supermarkets is Twinings. I usually bring my own.

We have been traveling in Italy 4 times in the past 3 years, from Puglia in the south to the Dolomites in the north. I drink only tea at breakfast, with milk, and have never had trouble getting it just the way I want. And with fresh milk, not that UHT stuff in little packets.

Most hotels will have self-service for coffee and tea. This will come from a machine that offers many options in a picture menu, with one of them usually “hot water” (Acqua caldo if it is only in Italian). If hot water is not an option from the machine, there will be a nearby hot water dispense, near the array of teabags on offer. This is actually preferable, as a long line can form at the coffee machine. If the hotel is popular with British guests, there will usually be teapots to fill, along with the teacups and saucers. I have not seen fresh milk there but go and get it from the cereal area.

Some hotels have breakfast servers take orders for morning beverages as you enter the breakfast room or just after you are seated. This is more common in 4-star and 5-star hotels. If this is the case, just order “black tea” (tè Nero) or “English tea” (but then you might get Earl Grey). I would not ask for milk, but would get it myself from the buffet. They will bring a pot of hot water, a teacup, and teabags, either on a saucer or in a basket with an assortment. Although I am not all that fussy about the brand, I do bring my own teabags as a backup just in case they only offer Earl Grey (which I detest).

If it makes you feel any better, I am WAY pickier about my morning tea than you are --- ideally not teabags, brewed very strong but with lots of skim milk (in Italy I can tolerate 1% or 2% but it does taste too creamy to me), in a giant heated-up mug. At home, "giant" means 32 oz. but in Italy I can make do with smaller mugs (sometimes I have to buy one). One reason we stay in apartments in Italy is so that I can have my tea before getting dressed and going outdoors. I do take my own OK teabags (Taylors of Harrogate Ceylon) because I have never encountered any in Italy that taste right to me. Hard to break a 55 year old habit.

I hope you do have good luck at the hotels. I've never done this, but my mother (who traveled to many countries far more challenging than Italy) used to take a mug and a plug-in water-boiler thingie that inserts into the mug and make her own tea in her hotel room. There are also tiny electric tea-kettles (which I have purchased at Italian hardware stores). Because you want clean boiling water, not hot water in a carafe also used for coffee.

Speaking of coffee, I don't drink coffee at home, but on my first trip to Italy as a teenager I learned to like caffe latte with extra milk in it (and sugar). Basically sweet hot milk with a strong hint of espresso. Hardly coffee at all! It's worth a try --- and their coffee is so good.