Ciao !
Italian Hospitality is unlike any other in the world, and in Southern Italy especially it is on overdrive. Always. It is in their DNA, they have no control over it, and it is AWESOME! You arrive (home, office, restaurant), even unannounced and unexpected, and you are the most important thing in their lives, at least it feels that way.
In the early days of Oliva Bella, one Sunday in Campania one of our olive oil producers wanted me to meet a "few friends". We visited a "few" friends and neighbors and cousins in the span of 4 hours. We had cake and espresso at each home (10 of them to be exact, including a gas station turned olive press.). Each of them dropped everything to fete us as if we were queens. They had no advance notice of our visit and we had no advance notice of how high we would be on caffeine and sugar!
To give you an idea of the difference between northern and southern Italy: in Milano, one (of good manners) never dunks their cornetto into their capuccino, at least not in public. In Calabria (and Sicily and other parts south), not only do they/ WE! dunk our cornetto into our caps, your capuccino is fair game for anyone at the table, or quite frankly at the neighboring table, because they are friends or family. Or WILL be once they've dunked in your cap! It is boisterous, it is intimate, it's love. | 
