New: The House Planner 2027, a year of running a house on paper. See the planner
A Journal guide
Galateo is the Italian word for table manners, after a book published in 1558. It is also the part of a dinner that guests notice first and mention last. These articles set out what the manuals say and what Italian families actually do, which is not always the same thing.
Read them before a dinner with a mixed table: Italian hosts, guests from London, New York or Zurich, and a butler who needs to know which customs will come up that evening.
The timeline we work to for a dinner at home: guests and invitations three weeks out, the menu and wine at ten days, seating, staff and silver in the last week, then the evening hour by hour and the notes the morning after.
An afternoon laying a table for twelve, hour by hour: where every fork, knife, glass and dessert spoon goes, how much room each guest needs, and what Italian houses do differently.
What the galateo says and what Italians actually do about bread, salt and pepper, cheese, pasta, cappuccino, wine and toasts, the host's role, the mistakes visitors make, and a side-by-side table of Italian and Anglo-Saxon habits.
The Academy guide that goes with these articles, and the service that does the work for you.
Illustrated guide
Setting and serving a formal dinner, from four guests to twenty, with place settings drawn to scale.
We run the house, and the table with it: one accountable person, routines written in the House Book, dinners planned with your team.
Household management
