Eat a Little of a Lot - Advice that Might be Difficult to Follow
To appreciate Italian cooking, a meal must be experienced in its totality, from the quality of its bread and oil, to the antipasti the primo, the secondo, the formaggio, frutta and dolce. Here is some useful advice if you have the good fortune to be invited to someone’s home for dinner.

It’s a custom to present the host or hostess with a bottle of wine or a tray of sweets.   At the right moment, discreetly ask what is being served, or if you don’t, assume that just when you think dinner is over, there will always be more coming.  If possible, follow the rule, “Eat a little of a lot.”

Dinner usually begins around eight or nine in the evening. Remember, that for many Italians, it is the main meal of the day. Their breakfast might be a cornetto and coffee, lunch perhaps a sandwich or slice of pizza.  When you come from a culture where people eat dinner at five or six, if you haven't eaten by eight, you are famished. 

Pace yourself. An Italian meal is served slowly, one course on the table at a time, and depending on the meal's composition, each course might be accompanied by a different wine. 

When the antipasti is served, you will always be tempted to take a little extra, because it is so delicious, and you are starving. You are still hungry when the pasta comes, because your stomach hasn’t told your brain that it is getting full, and at the urging of the hostess or host you politely take a second portion, and yet another glass of wine, forgetting that there is still the meat course with a contorni usually of vegetables or salad, followed by the cheeses, fresh fruit, maybe two or three different sweets, coffee and a digestive liqueur.