Just before I went to Italy alone for the first time, I spoke to my friend about coffee etiquette.

‘Only order an espresso after lunch,’ he told me. ‘The Italians frown on drinking coffee with milk in the afternoon.’

This was disappointing for me, as someone who dislikes black coffee just a little less than I dislike sticking out like a sore thumb when I’m in a different country.

But one Italian woman, Nadia Caterina Munno, AKA The Pasta Queen on social media, has shed light on why drinking a cappuccino past midday is considered a faux pas in Italy. 

‘Why do Italians not drink cappuccinos past 12? Because it’s a breakfast drink,’ she said in a recent Instagram post, slamming her hands down on the table in front of her. 

It’s kind of like how it would be weird to eat cereal for lunch or, as Munno notes, hot dogs for breakfast.

But there’s more to it than that.

‘It’s coffee, it’s frothed milk,’ she says. ‘It’s good to awaken your senses before 10 – if you really want to push it, 11 – but not after 12.’

She goes on to say that, when you’re eating a meal, you already have ‘enough going on,’ so why would you need coffee with milk to wash it down?

‘All you need,’ she says, ‘is a quick espresso.’

People in the comments had mixed opinions.

‘My coffee, my rules,’ wrote one Instagram user.

‘I’ll drink my cappuccino when I want, to me it’s like a dessert… like a tiramisù. Enjoy!’ another person wrote.

One person said they ordered a cappuccino in Italy and ‘the waiter said no’.

Some agreed: ‘SO TRUE, thanks for letting the world know, Pasta Queen,’ wrote one man.

But the majority maintained they’d drink their cappuccino whenever, wherever.

‘I will continue to have my cappuccino morning, noon and night,’ wrote one woman. 

‘I will especially continue to ask for a cappuccino after dinner when travelling in Italy just so I can p*ss off the waiter.’

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