Posted by rita on Monday, May 15, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

This morning, I decided to eat breakfast with my classmates, Cynthia and Izzy, at Piazza Duomo. We had never eaten breakfast out before and were happy to have our first Italian breakfast (the most important meal of the day, as they say) together. We woke up pretty late for breakfast and left the villa at around 11:00 am, but I thought that we would be fine to find breakfast because everything appears to begin a little later on “Italian time.” We wanted to eat breakfast, as we were observing for our blogs and decided on eating somewhere on the Piazza Duomo because it is one of the busiest and central locations in Cefalù. When we arrived at the piazza, we sat outside at the first restaurant we saw, the outdoor Il Caffe di Ruggero Cefalù, to get out of the early afternoon sun and upon the insistence of a pushy or persuasive (depending on how you look at it) waiter.

We received our menus after the waiter seated us, but his seating of us wasn’t very graceful as his eyes expertly scanned our surroundings to lure any potential or hesitant diner. We had already accepted our table and he was already on to the next because just a second after seating us, he left us to shoo other customers into the enclosed outside restaurant. I decided then to complete my observation on the waiter. I have had many quirky, insistent, and tenacious (perhaps) waiters during my short time in Cefalù and could already note that this experience would be just as memorable as the rest.

The waiter appeared to be in his late 40s to mid-50s, with darker-tanned skin. He was balding, with a crown of receding hair and wore small, wire-framed glasses that fell on his nose. He was wearing a white dress shirt, black jacket, pants, and shoes, with an apron. And he had quite the convincing smile, I will admit. He scurried to and fro on the piazza and had a certain charisma about him, not the charisma of a Hollywood actor, but the charisma of a used-car salesman — charisma enough to capture one’s attention and wallet, but not sincere. We sat and looked at our menu and to our dismay, we didn’t see any breakfast foods. There was an omelet on the menu and a meal called a “traditional American breakfast,” but the menu was pricey and underwhelming. And our waiter wasn’t making things any better, as he hovered between our table (maybe we were taking too long to order) and ushering people in. We finally ordered (though, honestly, we didn’t even take longer than 10 minutes to order from the time we were seated) and he scurried away again. I watched him from a distance and saw him say the same things he said to get us to eat there to more and more unsuspecting, prospective customers. He was an expert, it seemed. He talked loudly and moved his hands excitedly, a truly pulsating excitement. And he wasn’t alone, the other waiters I observed were also male, though he was the elder of them, and acted with the same pushy behaviors.

Our food came to our table fairly shortly. I ordered a margherita pizza, Cynthia a calzone, and Izzy dared to have the “traditional American breakfast.” Our food wasn’t pleasant on the eyes and the same was true for our taste buds. My pizza had been lazily microwaved and was soggy, Cynthia’s calzone was half the size of what it appeared on the menu, and Izzy’s breakfast came with missing food. We ate hurriedly, not finishing our overpriced meal, and then called for the check, which was another hassle in itself. The only good that came out of the meal was that there was no coperta fee. After some time, we had paid our bill and left. I promised to myself that that would be the last time I would be preyed on as a pushover tourist, though I am sure it won’t be the last.

This experience made me come to a couple of conclusions. The first being that now I understand why there is a hospitality high school. It takes precision and skill to work in the tourism and hospitality industries and while I wonder if such a model would work somewhere like the United States, I see its utility here in Italy, where so much of the economy is dependent on tourism. I will comment again that the waiter we had was truly an expert and that is a recurring theme I have seen in Cefalù. The second conclusion I came to was that location, just like it is for us in the United States is everything. I went back and looked at Trip Advisor and found that the restaurant we ate at was 2 stars, yet they were able to charge us so much. Just like back home, a central location ensures a steady income flow, even more for convenience than preference. These are things I will remember as I continue to come across pushy waiters during my time here and hopefully, learn to be a better judge of my environment. It’s okay, one gets get wiser everyday and I will probably go back to scrambling eggs in the morning for myself now. Anyways, until next time, ciao!