Two Different Pasta dishes

If you know the show, there are scripts for each show
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show

I just did a quick search on pasta and came up with this from the ”Siena and Tuscany Wine Country” episode

I've ordered my pasta "bis." That gives me half portions of two different pastas for the cost of one, doubling my taste treat.

I have never heard of this. Perhaps one of the Italian forum members can elaborate.

Awesome thx for the heads up. That was the episode and the direct quote.

Bis di primi (twice first course)
or also
Bis di pasta (twice pasta)
“Bis” means “twice” in Latin (and Italian)
a bis of pasta or first course means you get two different half portions of two dishes.

By the way, when at the theater if you hear BIS shouted out by the audience it means the equivalent of the French ENCORE (BIS=twice, ENCORE=Again)

BISNONNO=TWICE GRANDFATHER= GREAT-GRANDFATHER

OK, Roberto, but bistecca, the supreme steak in Firenze, can’t possibly mean two teccas, or does it?

Bistecca comes from the English word beefsteak.

Thank you for asking this question!
I have a small appetite these days, and would much rather have two small portions of different pastas, than one large one. I will remember this when we are in Italy next month!

Looking forward to chichetti a Venezia, too!

The restaurant in Florence called “Acqua al 2”, so called because its original address used to be: 2, via dell’Acqua, had a dish on their menu called TRIS DI PRIMI, consisting of not two, but three different pasta small portions. It was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s, but haven’t had a chance to go back there in years. TRIS= THRICE

As regards Bistecca, as it's usually a T-Bone, you're getting a strip and a filet, so it's two. Not saying that's the origin (it's not), but it's still technically true.

This reminds me of something my parents experienced late one night on a trip to Italy back in the 80s. I remember it as being in Bologna, but my mother insists she's never been there (her memory can be funny like that), and that it was in Florence or something. Any rate, Giro di pasta. Or as my parents described it, a marathon of pasta. Small servings of wonderfully sauced pastas, with a new saucing/shape delivered as you were finishing the first one. After five, they pleaded "Non piu, non piu," and the server said, "But we've already made the sixth, and it's the best," so they ate the sixth, and he was right. As I recall the story, they had arrived in town late and it was the only place open, and they were getting ready to close, but seeing two bedraggled Americans, they did them the whole works.

I suspect this is from an Italy that is long gone from major cities, and would now be either tacky AF or relegated to a small place for a special occasion.

PS- Just wanted to drop a note of appreciation for Roberto da Firenza, whose posts have helped me on a trip in 2017, and so many more. A treasure and a mensch.