Lunch and Dinner Hours in Italy

There will be places open but the better restaurants will not open till 7 or later. Lunch always seem normal -- 11 to 3. Some of the more tourist restaurants in heavy tourist areas will be open earlier but the quiet restaurants in the neighborhoods will not. Why the need to eat at 5:30 other than habit?

As Frank says, your dinner is on the early side. If you have places you want to be sure to eat in, make reservations the day before.

Frank and Doug - Thank you for your help....From habit i eat between 5:30 and 6:30...hopefully i can adjust to the later dinner hours but if not.....Shelly

If not...

You'll have options. Pizza, for sure.

In Venice, those are the perfect hours to hit the wine bars for cichetti.

It may differ a bit depending where you are but usually Italians take "Riposo" from noon to 3pm. Many stores and businesses close during this time (except restaurants and bars obviously) as it's set aside for a leisurely lunch. In general, most restaurant lunch hours are 12:00 - 2pm.

Dinner, most places open at 7 but most Italians don't go out to eat until around 8 or so. It's not uncommon to find restaurants open at 6pm but they usually don't get many customers until later so don't be surprised if you go in right at 6 and have the place to yourself. In the bigger cities this would vary of course.

The good thing about tourist cities like Rome and Venice is that there are no shortage and takeaway places that are open all day and have a very good selection of panini (sandwiches) and other type food.

You may find in many traditional rural areas that restaurants close from 4-7. We found in Venice that the Italians don't show up until 8:00pm. I recall that we had reservations in the Aromi restaurant in the Venice Hilton Molino Stucky at 7:00pm and my wife and I were the only people in the restaurant until 8:00pm.

You won't go hungry - there always seems to be some way to get food, whether in a bakery, "bar", pizza counter, etc - especially in the larger cities. But for dinner, as others have said, the real sit-down restaurants don't open till 7, and in Sicily they weren't open till 8. We were often the first ones in. You don't say when you are traveling but if it is hot we found that we could tour around all day and then head back to our room after a nice lunch and relax for a few hours. In Tuscany we often took a swim about 5:00. By the time we headed out again, maybe stopping at a little site along the way, it wasn't hard at all to eat later - and a few trips we had children with us as well. After the first few days we found it quite easy to eat dinner at 9:00 - much more pleasant to sit outside when it was cooler and there were other people around us too!

There likely won't be any decent restaurants open or serving dinner courses before 7:00 - some not until 7:30 or 8:00. More casual places may be open and as others have said, you can get "food." Try this, have a late afternoon snack - either street food, something you bring or while having a drink at a cafe (or even gelato!). That may tie you over until 7:00 or 7:30 when places start to open.

If you are diabetic or have another medical condition that requires you to eat on a schedule make sure you stack your hotel fridge with appropriate snacks so you don't have to worry about restaurants opening times.

Otherwise, it is easier to adjust your own day to local custom. We often did some more extensive sight seeing in the morning when the energy level is high and the temperature low, had lunch around 1pm, did a bit more touring, then went back to the hotel to have a break (read or nap), maybe take a shower and change - and it was already time to head out for dinner. In Italy that usually was around 8 pm and we were the first ones in at that time. In Tuscany we stayed in an agriturismo and the extra time before dinner allowed us to cool off in the pool.

In Spain, dinner times around 10 pm are considered appropriate ...

For personal health reasons, we too wished to eat dinner at what would be considered an early hour in Italy--6 to 7:00 or so. We decided to reverse the norm and eat our main full meal of the day at lunch time and then eat a lighter lunch-type meal, such as pizza or sandwiches, in the evening. This worked pretty well for us.

At home, we usually eat between 6 and 7. But in Rome, we found ourselves changing our habits without thinking too much about it. After a day of touring in hot weather, we would go back to the hotel around 5 or even later and open a bottle of wine (from a local shop) and have a glass or two with some local cheese and talk about the day. After a shower, we would go out to dinner, usually showing up around 8 or so. At 8, things are just getting started in most Italian restaurants, so we were just a bit ahead of the crowd and had a good time people watching while eating fine Italian food.

I've found that the bigger the city, the later the locals eat dinner. We went to two different restaurants in Rome frequented by locals. We had reservations for 9 pm both times. Both times we were the first ones there. The locals started showing up around 10. And one of those was on a Monday night.

Venice dinner times seemed to somewhat earlier than Rome. We found restaurants crowded with locals starting around 8 pm. But then Venice is infamous for rolling up the sidewalks at night.

One thought to keep in mind: restaurants that cater to tourists will have more flexible opening hours. So you will be able to find a place to eat dinner at 6pm. However, you'll likely get "tourist food". Our best restaurant experience in Rome was at a place in a side street not far from the Pantheon. It was still closed when we walked by around 7 pm. We liked the posted menue, came back at 8pm, were the first people served and got really great food and great service at an affordable price. Most people came in around 9 pm and 80% of them spoke Italian.

We normally eat early at home, however on vacation and especially in Italy we find ourselves easily adjusting to a later dinner time. That gelato in the afternoon helps!

Look for a trattoria - the menus are usually "lighter" than a restaurant (fewer options) but many serve meals that early.

Do try to make the adjustment! If you insist on eating at 6pm, you WILL be limited to the most touristy, and worst, places to eat. Good restaurants don't open until 8 or 8:30 in cities like Rome.

If you're starving before that, grab a gelato or, better yet, get an aperitivo (small snack along with a glass of wine or a cocktail) at an enoteca or a bar -- it's a northern Italian tradition that's starting to make its way south, at least in the cities.

Just remember -- one of the most rewarding things about traveling is delving into the local culture and absorbing the rhythms of life of the people around you. So do try to make it till 8 or 8:30. You'll adjust quickly. Promise!

Revealed Rome

Everyone!! Thank you so much for all your help....i've printed out all your great suggestions....i'll be in Italy for two months...hopefully i'll adjust quickly to 8pm dinners!! Thanx again...Shelly

Shelly, I can't remember what they are called in Italy, but we often found places where they had a lot of prepared food, including pizza large square pans of pizza, but also salads, pastas, and much more. Some of them are mostly for takeaway, but others had tables where you could sit and eat it. It's like a deli with tables, essentially. Some of was really good food. Not a typical restaurant experience, but availale at the hours you want, as well as inexpensive.

If you need to eat at a certain time because of health issues, I think you will be able to find what you need to carry you through that time of the day. I liked the suggestion, too, that you could eat your larger meal at lunch and choose something simple at the time you requested. If it is not for health issues, however, I would encourage you to allow yourself to settle into the pace of the places you visit. When we were in Barcelona, I really thought we would not eat our dinners at ten in the evening, but by the second day in the city, we were having tapas on La Rambla at the times you mentioned and eating with the families there very late in the evening. I think it will happen naturally if you allow it.

The places Lauren mentioned are called Rosticcerias. We sometimes eat in them of an evening when we don't feel like going to a restaurant.

yea you need to adjust to the local customs. Good traditional meals will be at local traditional custom times (usually no earlier than 7). Heaven help you if you go to Spain...dinner at 10 as in p.m. Yikes... So snack up on healthy fare (yogurt, fruit) and eat a light but wonderful dinner at 8.

Another term for the places Lauren mentioned is "tavola calda". There's one right by the train station in Venice that is reliable, not just for an evening meal, but also for a satisfying breakfast.