Page:The Voyage Of Italy Or A Compleat Journey through Italy, The Second Part.pdf/67

 and a legg of wild fowl, &c, least any one take exceptions that others were better used then he. The Carvers never touch the meat with their hands, but only with their knife and fork, and great silver spoon for the sauce. Every man here eats with his fork and knife, and never toucheth any thing with his fingers, but his bread: this keeps the linnen near, and the fingers sweet. If you drink to an Italian, he thanks you, with bending, when you salute him, and lets you drink quietly, without watching (as we do in England) to thank you again when you have drunk: and the first time he drinks after that will be to you, in requital of your former courtesy.

They count not the hours of the day as we do, from twelve to twelve; but they begin their count from Sun-set, and the first hour after sun-set is one a clok; and so they count on till four and twenty, that is till the next Sun-set again. I have often dined at sixteen a clock, and gone abroad in the Evening, to take