I was lucky enough to be invited to Naples once by a theatre group that were staging one of my plays. Everything was going very well until the director took us all out for a coffee.

Cue 10+ Italian actors, crew and assorted theatre folk piling into a tiny cafe and asking me what I wanted. I just wanted a standard coffee, ideally with Soya milk and one sugar, I attempted to explain this to the assistant director/translator who'd been assigned to take care of me. What I got was two espressos in a row and laughed at. I was also the only person in the entire city who didn't smoke.

It was quite the culture shock. Great pizza though, great place.... need to go back and do more of the history once the international caffeinated faux pas has been forgotten.