When you’re at dinner in Italy, there seems to be an unwritten law that the dinner hosts must empty out their cupboards of ALL food and drink before the guests are allowed to leave.

Case in point - last night.

We arrive, and champagne is served. We “salute!”, clink glasses and sit down to the table. Wine is now served: “Rosso, Rosé or Bianco?” We drink the wine - all of it! Out comes come the meat, bread and cheese tray. We eat, and the host loads it up, again!

The First Course arrives: a delicious eggplant lasagna. Second Course: an even tastier cheese ravioli. Third Course: lamb, then chicken, then veal, then more!

Now, it's time for something sweet...fresh fruit, which is sometimes served as dessert. Sometimes. There's still a huge tray of sliced melon and apples, when the serious “dolce” is offered to the table: biscotti, cake and cookies. “Caffè, anyone?”

In the States, the coffee and dessert is the finale. At this point, we push away from the table and just chat.

Ha! Not in Italy. A large bowl of mandarin oranges are now put before us. Are we done, yet?

Heaven forbid, the host seems to have found that there's some liquor left in the cupboards and a Panettone (traditional Italian cake)! Out come a dozen bottles...Grappa, Limoncello, and many labels that I've never seen, before. MORE glasses are loaded onto the table. Being a practical person, I have to wonder how many days it will take to wash all of these dishes!

We drink, we toast, and we pick at a few crumbs from the plates. I am now convinced that the house is completely empty of anything that one might put in one's face, so I take a deep breath (as much as my pants will allow) and begin to settle back in my chair. But, no! I was deceived. The host pops up from the table and comes back with yet another bottle of champagne and more Panettone is sliced and served! The saving grace, in all of this, is that you pretty much walk everywhere in Italy...2000 calories here...3000 steps there. And so, it goes....and goes...and goes...and goes....

Lee Ryan