Try regional breakfast dishes Tuscany – biscotti, oblong-shaped crunchy almond biscuits. Dip them in your coffee. Puglia – pasticciotto, a simple short-crust pastry filled with a vanilla or lemon custard. Sicily – cannoli, tubes of fried dough stuffed with a sweet ricotta-based filling.

A traditional Tuscan breakfast (colazione) is almost exclusively sweet and centered around a visit to a local "bar" (café). The centerpiece is the cornetto, the Italian relative of the croissant, which is often filled with apricot jam (albicocca), chocolate, or pastry cream (crema). In Florence and surrounding towns, you will also find the bombolone, a sugar-coated Tuscan doughnut often filled with custard. These pastries are always paired with a hot beverage, most commonly a cappuccino or a caffè latte. Unlike in North America, Tuscans typically do not eat eggs, bacon, or heavy savory foods for breakfast. If eating at home, a Tuscan might enjoy fette biscottate (hard, twice-baked bread) topped with honey or jam, or a simple slice of schiacciata (Tuscan flatbread) if they prefer a rare salty start. Notably, drinking a cappuccino after 11:00 AM is considered a major faux pas in local culture.