The community dinner

One of the most worshipped tradition in Italy is to have at least one
dinner with your host. So I expect that people on the day of arrival will
share meal with me and the other guests. Dinner is around 21:15 so expect to
be here no later than 20:50. Being late without telling in advance is
considered unrespectful for the other guests.
Sharing meal means that we share not only the cost (that must remain under
3.90 EUR per person since could be some people with strict budget) but also 
the preparation of it. If you stay 3 or more days or your group is formed 
by 3 or more people expect almost for sure one evening to cook for everyone
(if you stay 2 days id depends if you are or not the only guests). 

If in your culture you do not eat certain foods, please make an exception
while traveling. When will be your turn to cook you will be free and, 
even more, invited to follow your habits, but when it is someone's else
the turn to cook, would be quite unrespectful to expect that they follow 
your cultural habits and bend their ones. 

I have made an exception for vegetarian people, that have a consistent
philosophy, arranging [rarely] some vegetarian friendly periods when,
even if there is only one request will be prepared a vegetarian dinner. 
people that come around that days [clearly shown in the calendar, so you 
already know when you ask] and could be the cooks are expected to be able 
to cook vegetarian.
It is possible, under certain conditions (the people asking have to be the
arrive early in the day, and if necessary ready to cook on arrival day, 
is the main one) to have additional vegetarian friendly days in some other days.
Have in mind that in Italy "vegetarian" is someone that do not kill to eat;
so no kind of meat and animal grease (included fish and seafood) but including
bird eggs and dairy products; so sometimes a "vegetarian" meal could also be 
formed by animal products only.  

It is possible -if absolutely necessary, prearranged and only for up to 
2 days and obviously not in vegetarian friendly days- to provide gluten free 
meal or dairy free meals, but not kosher, halal or vegan meals.                                                                        
In any case special food and drinking requirements must be told me when you
sent the request (even if it is a vegetarian day, since if three days before
there are no requests, it will become free menu) and could not be always 
accepted if made on last minute requests since certain foods, are sometimes 
prepared a couple days in advance. 
please read also http://i.trail.it/veg to know the reason why I cannot
provide a vegetarian friendly meal on every day.

There are also some days (1/1, 6/1, 15/8, 25/12, 31/12) when there is a
traditional menu, and others (Easter and next monday, 25/4, 1/5) when for
different reasons I could not be able to accept people with certain 
dietetic constraints.   

While, for sharing, calculate the cost of meal it is easy, we sum the cost of
ingredients and then divide by the number of people present (If there are
some unevitable leftovers, such when buiyng a small bottle of spices, that
are used only in part, these are retained and available for free for the
next meal (or the next guest). I will offer all general costs (gas, water,
electricity, kitchenware wear...),

For sharing the burden of cooking we use a different rule: for each dinner 
each one get a debit of 1/n , where n is the number of people at dinner, me
included. The person/group that cooks one evening get one credit.
Each day cooks the group that have (including current meal debit) the higher
debit [unless it is their day of arrival]. In case someone for any reason is not 
present for dinner without telling at least two full days in advance will be 
debited anyway, even if this would turn to have him|her|them cooking the only 
day they are for dinner.
As a disencentive to avoid to use too many tools for cooking -plates cutlery 
and some pots go into the dishwasher, but trays and pans do not fit- all that
does not fit in the dishwasher have to be hand washed by the group that cooked,
this rule is voided only if the one that is cooking is a single person (even
if usually if the cook is alone, it means that there are only 2 or 3 people, 
and hence plenty of space in the dishwasher)   
Who cooks should give me no later than the evening before a list of the food
and tools that need; so I can buy all that is needed, or possibly warn the
cook that some of the ingredients could be impossible to find in adequate
quality, or that have to buy in certain places if not already present in 
my pantry. This to avoid that people had to buy stuff that is already present
in my house (when there are offers I buy large quantities, so it helps to keep
costs down) or worse that they buy overpriced stuff at up to four times
current price.
So if I told you to buy somewhere, you will be credited of the amount you
spent, but if you buy of your inititive you will be credited of the price of
local supermarket (whose prices are on internet so easily verifiable).

If you have your food you will have a small refrigerator all for you.

About cooking your food: It is italian tradition to share meals, so normally
one do not expect to have someone that cook own food to be eaten separately.
It is extremely unpolite to cook [or take already cooked food] only for 
yourself. 
In case you need to cook something, for example to take away it for a lunch 
outside please ask in advance and arrange for the time to cook, since the 
kitchen is small and it is not easy to be two groups that cook indipendently.

And finally a thing about the "tuscan" dinner: normally, using the rule
about rotation turn of cooking, I will cook only 2 or sometimes 3
days a week. This means that you can be sure that you will get "tuscan 
dinner" only if you remain 3 consecutive days and on all the three evenings
you are here for dinner.