How Much Do I Tip in Italy?
Dec 6, 2016, 3:09 pm
#1
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How Much Do I Tip in Italy?
This question is asked now and then, and someone suggested it be a Wiki. The short answer is, nothing.
I put myself through school by being a bus boy, a dish washer, and a taxi cab driver in the USA. The waitresses would share some percentage of their tips with the busboys, the dishwashers and the cooks. We all lived on tips.
In Italy, the culture around tipping is completely different. There is no tipping. It is not prohibited, as in Japan, where they will insist on giving you back your money, although in some non-touristy areas, some Italian waiters have been known to think you forgot money on the table, and point that out to you. It is not because restaurants have a "coperto," or cover charge. The coperto always goes to the owner, never to the waiter.
The most embarrassing event around tipping I had was a few years ago at a moderate price restaurant near Campo de Fiori. I was living in Rome, and running the Rome Marathon that weekend. My daughter had been living in Rome for about three years, first working as a school teacher, and then for a travel agency. A friend flew to Rome to run the marathon also. My friend, a companion, and my daughter, and I went out to eat.
The bill was perhaps around 150 euros. My friend insisted on paying, and picked up the check. Pretty soon, the waiter came back giddy, as if it was New Years Eve, or his birthday, or as if he just hit the lottery. I didn't understand. The waiter then spent the next 5 minutes insisting on taking a group picture with him, then separate pictures with each of us, on each of our phones. I'd never seen such love from a waiter before, but I just went with the flow. Afterward, I tried to piece it together, and asked my friend if he had paid a tip. He said, "Of course, 30 euros, 20%." No wonder the waiter was trying to kiss everybody!
No one in Italy, regardless of when or where, or what the service is, expects to get a tip. Not the waiter, the cab driver, the person who gives you a haircut, the bartender, or anyone providing any (legal) service whatsoever. That doesn't mean that tips are prohibited, or that leaving one is bad manners. It's just not expected. When they get a tip, it is like leaving a surprise.
I know for an American, leaving a restaurant without leaving a tip feels really painful, as if you need to sneak out because you just did something shameful. But it's just the way it is. There is even a name that Italians use for someone who leaves a tip. It is called, "fare un Americano," or "to do an American."
You have to be careful, because if you are not in a good restaurant, the waiter may act as if they expect a tip if they know you are from the USA. They may even say, "the tip is not included." If that happens, you stumbled into a tourist trap. When you hand over the credit card and they bring back the slip for you to sign, there is no line for the tip, as there is on all restaurant credit card slips in the USA. There is just the total, and a line for your signature. There is no expectation that someone might want to leave a tip.
There are lots of reports of waiters in tourist areas putting pressure on diners from the USA to leave a tip. It is wrong. Italians do not like someone who leaves a tip. The waiters do, but not the italians eating at the table next to you. They have a strong resistance to Americans trying to insert the tipping practice into their culture.
Being a waitress, waiter, cab driver, etc., in Italy, is generally not a short term job, as it is in the USA. It is a lifelong career, with health insurance, guaranteed paid four weeks of vacation per year, mandatory paid maternity leave for three months before and three months after the birth of a child, or you can do one month before and four months after. It is mandated that pregnant mothers in any job, must take this paid maternity leave. They are not allowed to keep working. In fact, it is forbidden to fire a woman for one year after she has given birth to a child. If circumstances warrant, maternity leave can even be converted into paternity leave.
In other words, the circumstances for waiters are very different from the American struggling student, the aspiring actress or writer, waiting tables on tables and making a minimum wage while waiting for their ship to come in. Given these differences, there is no tipping. Leaving a tip is viewed as a strange, profligate American habit of throwing your money away. It would be like telling your landlord that you want to pay him extra rent. I know it feels strange and is hard to do if you grew up in the USA, but there really is no tipping.
The two professions where it is most shocking if you tip them, would have to be a taxi or car driver, and bartender. That comes across as an American having so much money that they want to show it off by throwing it around.
Do I tip, and do some Italians tip? The answer is, yes. There is no expectation of it, but if something is really, really great, you can leave a few euros.
There is no 15-20% rule. If you spend 1,000 euros at La Pergola, you do not leave a 150-200 euro tip. You leave no tip at all. If you want to leave a tip, you can leave 10 euros, and you will make the waiter very happy. If you really felt that someone went all out on you, whether you spent 20 euros or 500 euros on a meal, leaving a couple of euros, or nothing at all, is always enough. It's more of a token or a gesture, not a requirement. It's like a man tipping his hat.
For a 48 euro taxi to the airport in Rome, if it's a good ride, I'll give 50, and tell them to keep the change. They are always surprised and jump out of the cab and carry my bag to the door, with a big smile on their face. For the very expensive restaurants that I go to sometimes and spend 100 euros for one, or 200 euros for two, if the service was great, I leave 5 euros, regardless of the amount spent. Often that, plus being polite, will make the waiter remember you when you come back the next year. Leaving 15-30 euros is out of the question. They will forget you because you will just be another witless tourist to them.
I put myself through school by being a bus boy, a dish washer, and a taxi cab driver in the USA. The waitresses would share some percentage of their tips with the busboys, the dishwashers and the cooks. We all lived on tips.
In Italy, the culture around tipping is completely different. There is no tipping. It is not prohibited, as in Japan, where they will insist on giving you back your money, although in some non-touristy areas, some Italian waiters have been known to think you forgot money on the table, and point that out to you. It is not because restaurants have a "coperto," or cover charge. The coperto always goes to the owner, never to the waiter.
The most embarrassing event around tipping I had was a few years ago at a moderate price restaurant near Campo de Fiori. I was living in Rome, and running the Rome Marathon that weekend. My daughter had been living in Rome for about three years, first working as a school teacher, and then for a travel agency. A friend flew to Rome to run the marathon also. My friend, a companion, and my daughter, and I went out to eat.
The bill was perhaps around 150 euros. My friend insisted on paying, and picked up the check. Pretty soon, the waiter came back giddy, as if it was New Years Eve, or his birthday, or as if he just hit the lottery. I didn't understand. The waiter then spent the next 5 minutes insisting on taking a group picture with him, then separate pictures with each of us, on each of our phones. I'd never seen such love from a waiter before, but I just went with the flow. Afterward, I tried to piece it together, and asked my friend if he had paid a tip. He said, "Of course, 30 euros, 20%." No wonder the waiter was trying to kiss everybody!
No one in Italy, regardless of when or where, or what the service is, expects to get a tip. Not the waiter, the cab driver, the person who gives you a haircut, the bartender, or anyone providing any (legal) service whatsoever. That doesn't mean that tips are prohibited, or that leaving one is bad manners. It's just not expected. When they get a tip, it is like leaving a surprise.
I know for an American, leaving a restaurant without leaving a tip feels really painful, as if you need to sneak out because you just did something shameful. But it's just the way it is. There is even a name that Italians use for someone who leaves a tip. It is called, "fare un Americano," or "to do an American."
You have to be careful, because if you are not in a good restaurant, the waiter may act as if they expect a tip if they know you are from the USA. They may even say, "the tip is not included." If that happens, you stumbled into a tourist trap. When you hand over the credit card and they bring back the slip for you to sign, there is no line for the tip, as there is on all restaurant credit card slips in the USA. There is just the total, and a line for your signature. There is no expectation that someone might want to leave a tip.
There are lots of reports of waiters in tourist areas putting pressure on diners from the USA to leave a tip. It is wrong. Italians do not like someone who leaves a tip. The waiters do, but not the italians eating at the table next to you. They have a strong resistance to Americans trying to insert the tipping practice into their culture.
Being a waitress, waiter, cab driver, etc., in Italy, is generally not a short term job, as it is in the USA. It is a lifelong career, with health insurance, guaranteed paid four weeks of vacation per year, mandatory paid maternity leave for three months before and three months after the birth of a child, or you can do one month before and four months after. It is mandated that pregnant mothers in any job, must take this paid maternity leave. They are not allowed to keep working. In fact, it is forbidden to fire a woman for one year after she has given birth to a child. If circumstances warrant, maternity leave can even be converted into paternity leave.
In other words, the circumstances for waiters are very different from the American struggling student, the aspiring actress or writer, waiting tables on tables and making a minimum wage while waiting for their ship to come in. Given these differences, there is no tipping. Leaving a tip is viewed as a strange, profligate American habit of throwing your money away. It would be like telling your landlord that you want to pay him extra rent. I know it feels strange and is hard to do if you grew up in the USA, but there really is no tipping.
The two professions where it is most shocking if you tip them, would have to be a taxi or car driver, and bartender. That comes across as an American having so much money that they want to show it off by throwing it around.
Do I tip, and do some Italians tip? The answer is, yes. There is no expectation of it, but if something is really, really great, you can leave a few euros.
There is no 15-20% rule. If you spend 1,000 euros at La Pergola, you do not leave a 150-200 euro tip. You leave no tip at all. If you want to leave a tip, you can leave 10 euros, and you will make the waiter very happy. If you really felt that someone went all out on you, whether you spent 20 euros or 500 euros on a meal, leaving a couple of euros, or nothing at all, is always enough. It's more of a token or a gesture, not a requirement. It's like a man tipping his hat.
For a 48 euro taxi to the airport in Rome, if it's a good ride, I'll give 50, and tell them to keep the change. They are always surprised and jump out of the cab and carry my bag to the door, with a big smile on their face. For the very expensive restaurants that I go to sometimes and spend 100 euros for one, or 200 euros for two, if the service was great, I leave 5 euros, regardless of the amount spent. Often that, plus being polite, will make the waiter remember you when you come back the next year. Leaving 15-30 euros is out of the question. They will forget you because you will just be another witless tourist to them.
Last edited by Perche; Dec 6, 2016 at 3:19 pm
Dec 6, 2016, 4:10 pm
#3
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The same rules apply. In Italy, if you leave a few euros under the pillow for the maid, as I always do in the USA (who wants to clean 25 bathrooms, vacuum 25 floors, and make 25 beds for a living?), she will think you lost them, and the money will be waiting on the nightstand when you get back. The maid will feel nervous if she pockets the money, and will think it's a test by the management to see if she's honest.
Unless it's a hotel for purely American people who always tip, she will not know what to do with that found money. I really feel for the maids, but the money under the pillow is always put back on the night stand, whether it's a humble place in Sicily, or the Danieli in Venice, or else someone other than the maid probably took that money.
Job security is something very cherished in Italy, because jobs are hard to come by. Taking money left in a room by a guest puts a maid in an Italian hotel into a moral quandary. I wouldn't do it. The maids are the only people I wish I could leave a tip for, but they won't accept it, or it makes them uncomfortable in the rare case that they pocket the money.
Tipping bellmen and concierges, no, it is not something that someone would do. I know that in NYC if you walk outside the door of a hotel the bellman holds open the door, then runs over to the taxi open the door for you, then puts out his hand. That is unthinkably rude in Italy, and would get a bellman fired. It's the same for a concierge. They won't throw the money back at you if you hand it to them, but they will struggle with hiding their surprise, like trying to suppress a laugh or a cough. They don't expect to get paid extra for doing the job they are getting paid for.
Italians don't just hand out their money to strangers. Tipping is strange to them. It is like giving someone a gift, and should always be just a token for a great job. Just because a concierge made a few restaurant reservations for you doesn't mean that they expect a tip. If they obtained a front row seat for a sold out concert that you were dying to see, or a seat behind the bench of a key soccer game, yes, you could consider giving them 5-10 euros when you leave.
Unless it's a hotel for purely American people who always tip, she will not know what to do with that found money. I really feel for the maids, but the money under the pillow is always put back on the night stand, whether it's a humble place in Sicily, or the Danieli in Venice, or else someone other than the maid probably took that money.
Job security is something very cherished in Italy, because jobs are hard to come by. Taking money left in a room by a guest puts a maid in an Italian hotel into a moral quandary. I wouldn't do it. The maids are the only people I wish I could leave a tip for, but they won't accept it, or it makes them uncomfortable in the rare case that they pocket the money.
Tipping bellmen and concierges, no, it is not something that someone would do. I know that in NYC if you walk outside the door of a hotel the bellman holds open the door, then runs over to the taxi open the door for you, then puts out his hand. That is unthinkably rude in Italy, and would get a bellman fired. It's the same for a concierge. They won't throw the money back at you if you hand it to them, but they will struggle with hiding their surprise, like trying to suppress a laugh or a cough. They don't expect to get paid extra for doing the job they are getting paid for.
Italians don't just hand out their money to strangers. Tipping is strange to them. It is like giving someone a gift, and should always be just a token for a great job. Just because a concierge made a few restaurant reservations for you doesn't mean that they expect a tip. If they obtained a front row seat for a sold out concert that you were dying to see, or a seat behind the bench of a key soccer game, yes, you could consider giving them 5-10 euros when you leave.
Last edited by Perche; Dec 6, 2016 at 7:43 pm
Dec 7, 2016, 7:44 am
#4
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Dec 7, 2016, 11:36 am
#5
Join Date: Mar 2013
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I can think of a couple of occasions where I've tipped in Italy, to provide some examples where I think it's appropriate. As usual, just my opinion, and you are doing nothing wrong by not tipping in Italy -
1. On our honeymoon, our cab driver took us on a very roundabout driving tour of Rome - not forcefully, he just asked if we wanted to take the long way. It's a flat fare from FCO into the city, so I gave him another 20, as he spent another 30 minutes showing us some of the things we wouldn't get to by walking. A lot I hadn't seen, and it was my wife's first trip there.
2. Two years ago we had my sister join us in Florence. We took two separate cabs to the airport on the way home since we had a car seat and 3 across the back wasn't going to work. Her cabbie was apparently an ....... and dropped her off really far from the departures area of the terminal, essentially out by the busses if you know FLR. We were waiting in the terminal for her, nowhere to be seen, when she walks in with our cab driver who recognized her, picked her up, drove her back and carried in her luggage. I think I gave him a 20 since I had only a 20 euro note, but another example of where I think he went above and beyond.
3. When we stay at Granduomo, I leave some coins from the previous day, generally 3 euro or so, for the housekeeping staff. They always leave extra cookies and snacks for my daughter.
That's the extent of my tipping history in Italy. It seems cab drivers have made out the best, which is funny because that's who the average tourist is most fearful of getting ripped off by
1. On our honeymoon, our cab driver took us on a very roundabout driving tour of Rome - not forcefully, he just asked if we wanted to take the long way. It's a flat fare from FCO into the city, so I gave him another 20, as he spent another 30 minutes showing us some of the things we wouldn't get to by walking. A lot I hadn't seen, and it was my wife's first trip there.
2. Two years ago we had my sister join us in Florence. We took two separate cabs to the airport on the way home since we had a car seat and 3 across the back wasn't going to work. Her cabbie was apparently an ....... and dropped her off really far from the departures area of the terminal, essentially out by the busses if you know FLR. We were waiting in the terminal for her, nowhere to be seen, when she walks in with our cab driver who recognized her, picked her up, drove her back and carried in her luggage. I think I gave him a 20 since I had only a 20 euro note, but another example of where I think he went above and beyond.
3. When we stay at Granduomo, I leave some coins from the previous day, generally 3 euro or so, for the housekeeping staff. They always leave extra cookies and snacks for my daughter.
That's the extent of my tipping history in Italy. It seems cab drivers have made out the best, which is funny because that's who the average tourist is most fearful of getting ripped off by
Dec 7, 2016, 4:27 pm
#7
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It's interesting that when Mark Zuckerberg didn't leave tips at the two restaurants he and his wife ate at during their honeymoon, one very high end, the other mundane but a very wise choice, the media covered it in 3 different ways.
The media in the USA covered it as a scandal, as if they'd discovered that he's a cheapskate.
The Roman papers wrote that since he has twenty billion dollars, he should have left at least a "mancia," meaning a little tip.
The rest of Italy congratulated the couple for having done their homework beforehand about tipping customs in Italy, and noted that one of the richest people in the world just wanted to blend in with the locals by not tipping.
The story only came out when a restaurant owner recognized him and said, "is that you?" Reluctantly, Zuckerberg allowed the owner to take a very painful looking picture of his wife and him, and posted It on Facebook.
Zuckerberg was just trying to adhere to the custom of not tipping, and not trying to stick out by doing a, "fare un americano."
The media in the USA covered it as a scandal, as if they'd discovered that he's a cheapskate.
The Roman papers wrote that since he has twenty billion dollars, he should have left at least a "mancia," meaning a little tip.
The rest of Italy congratulated the couple for having done their homework beforehand about tipping customs in Italy, and noted that one of the richest people in the world just wanted to blend in with the locals by not tipping.
The story only came out when a restaurant owner recognized him and said, "is that you?" Reluctantly, Zuckerberg allowed the owner to take a very painful looking picture of his wife and him, and posted It on Facebook.
Zuckerberg was just trying to adhere to the custom of not tipping, and not trying to stick out by doing a, "fare un americano."
Last edited by Perche; Dec 7, 2016 at 4:37 pm
Dec 9, 2016, 7:34 pm
#11
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) and I... forgot I was in Italy and not in Rome. I paid 65€ and told the driver to keep the change. He immediately grabbed out luggage and brought it into the hotel lobby... Never seen such a happy cabbie before. 
Dec 10, 2016, 7:52 am
#12
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Stop the tipping crazyness indeed outside the US
I would go a step further: The same applies to all southern / western end northern Europe, despite some people trying always to state the contrary for the UK. They must work in the service industry
. I always tipped there at my sole discretion (for really outstanding service) and the locals do the same.Tipping is either a form of corruption or compensation for slavery of people poorly treated by their employer.
Dec 11, 2016, 3:11 am
#13
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If the person serving you is the owner (or related to the owner) your tip can actually be offensive. By leaving a tip you are implying that they are poor and could use a few euros. There is also an implication that they are a subordinate.
Dec 18, 2016, 8:55 pm
#14
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Long ago, on our first trip to Rome (and Italy), I fondly remember our introduction to tipping in Italy. We were staying outside the city center, so had to take the subway into town.
At the subway station, we had not eaten all day and there was a small stand selling sundries and sandwiches. We got food and water.
We were also unsure at which direction to take on the subway. The person in the stand spoke no English and we spoke no Italian. He spent considerable time trying to direct us and giving us some guidance when we got to our destination. Lots of gesturing, pointing on maps, etc. It took a bit of time.
Our bill came out to 7.65 euros (I remember). I gave him at 10 euro note. When he gave me change, I slid it all back to him. He waved at me, slid the 2 euro coins back to me and said, "you" and slid the .35 toward himself and said "me".
At the time, we were stunned. It was a great experience.
At the subway station, we had not eaten all day and there was a small stand selling sundries and sandwiches. We got food and water.
We were also unsure at which direction to take on the subway. The person in the stand spoke no English and we spoke no Italian. He spent considerable time trying to direct us and giving us some guidance when we got to our destination. Lots of gesturing, pointing on maps, etc. It took a bit of time.
Our bill came out to 7.65 euros (I remember). I gave him at 10 euro note. When he gave me change, I slid it all back to him. He waved at me, slid the 2 euro coins back to me and said, "you" and slid the .35 toward himself and said "me".
At the time, we were stunned. It was a great experience.