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

From about noon to 1pm on Monday, I sat in the Piazza Duomo at one of the restaurants (Duomo Ristorante) and observed the scene there. There are four or five restaurants and cafes with tables outside in front of the cathedral, which were populated with tourists and locals alike – there was a fairly wide-ranging mix of languages being spoken, with several different groups of European tourists and one American couple. Consistent with the rest of our experiences in town over the past week, it was far different than what we’d typically experience sitting in a town square back home. First, the pace of the restaurants was far slower. Waiters did not rush the customers at all, and would only bring the check if it was specifically asked for. Rather than stopping there for a quick lunch, the guests, most of which were in their forties to sixties (probably due to the time of day, as younger, more local people were probably working at this time), were there for a long time to relax and have some drinks rather than just eat. Most of our meals here have been notably longer than they probably would be back home, too – many lasting for two to three hours. I stayed for over an hour, and almost everyone who was there when I arrived was still there when I left. In the U.S., restaurants seem to be more interested in customer turnover – they want to serve the patrons, get the check paid, and clear the table for new ones. There doesn’t seem to be that incentive here at all, as there is overall less urgency on both sides.

The guests were also far less concerned with anything other than their food and their company – for example, for my entire time there I saw nobody on a phone, or doing anything besides sitting and talking. And, when a group of about forty schoolchildren on a field trip walked through, predictably making a ton of noise, nobody cared or even looked up. Back in New York, screaming kids walking through a restaurant would probably receive some dissatisfied looks.

Overall, it was a much more relaxed and casual experience than would probably be had back in the United States. Everyone spent far more time relaxing and hanging out, without any sense of urgency or the need to quickly move on to their next activity or experience.