Ordering in Italian Restaurants

It's usual to order all courses at once, except for the dessert, for which you can ask the menu again.

pretty common throughout Europe to order your first two courses at once and then a sweet or cheese course at the end.

It is also okay to order one course at a time, but it is polite to let the waiter know you may want to order more. I sometimes order an antipasto plate or a tagliere (meat and cheese plate, sometimes with something green in the plate), enough for a meal in some restaurants and in others truly an appetizer portion. When taking this order the waiter asks if I want anything else; it's fine to say you don't know yet, or perhaps later (forse dopo).

You can do either.
If you order all at once the courses will come one after the other with no wait.
If you order separately, you have to wait a bit longer between courses, because they need time to prepare it. Most restaurants in Italy prepare dishes from scratch, they don't have it already made for the microwave.

I don't want to order anymore, my next ristorante I want to sit there and take the courses the Chef has prepared for that day, like Rick Steves does at IL Gabriello in Rome, so if anyone knows of other places that let you do that, wait for the Chef's courses like that, please let me know names and places.

Some friends and I had dinner at a shoreline restaurant in Marina di Romea (near Ravenna) last May. You just make a reservation and show up. You can choose your fish, but that's about it. Oh, and you can have salad with or without onion.

And...

The further away from major site/piazza, the better and cheaper the food.

Western style lettuce salads (insalta misto) are often served AFTER the main course so you may have to ask for it up-front if that is your preference. (We normally said something like "we would like to start with...)

When away from a busy tourist site, we had no problem sharing either one primi item when order two secondis (or vice versa). And we always shared a contorni whether it was a vegi or a salad. We also found that the further away from tourists, as the price shrank, the servings shrank to a more realistic size so you could actually enjoy a three or four course meal without busting your wallet or your belt.

Thank you for all of your replies. Just didn't want to look foolish when I go to order.

It seemed to me standard practice is to order everything other than dessert at the beginning.

Sometimes we ordered multiple courses each other times we just ordered one course each or ordered one starter each and split a second, it never seemed to mind the wait staff where ever we were.

The service is slow compared to what you may be used to, not bad just slow as they expect you to enjoy your time and will not rush you. As a result you often have to ask they clear your plate for the next course, signal them to come by to ask for more drinks and always have to ask for the check.

Minor correction - You have to ask for the check if you want them to bring it to your table. You (almost) always have the option of walking to the cash register yourself without the check, and paying there. That's what most Italians do.

I have not had to ask for plates to be cleared, but the wait staff generally waits until the entire table has finished the course before taking away any plates. Often I am asked by the wait staff if it's okay to take away the plate - even when it's empty.

My husband and I routinely order one primi to share and one secondi to share, and we have never had problems with that. We are not big eaters, and simply couldn't eat more--and I'd like to have a chance of eating dessert without exploding! I speak some Italian, and have never had a problem with making clear what we'd like, and the shared portions usually come neatly divided on two plates. My only regret is that there is usually so much delicious food and so little time . . .