Why Not Have A Glass of Wine in the Morning?

As I have mentioned, bars in Rome serve both coffee and alcoholic drinks. Either can be ordered at any time of the day, but there seems to be an unspoken rule that coffee is ordered in the morning, and wine and other alcoholic drinks are reserved for the afternoon and evening. By America’s standards, the afternoon is still sometimes a little early to casually have a drink. When I had breakfast in a bar in Venice this past weekend, these rules did not exist at all. A group of us spent about an hour in the bar, from about 10-11a.m., eating and then just relaxing, watching people come in and out. It did not take us long to notice that almost every customer that came up to the bar ordered a glass of red or white wine, quickly drank it as they stood there, paid, and left like this was something they do every day. Though Romans love wine, it would not be normal to see people drinking at the bar in the morning, but people in Venice seem to have a different attitude!