Italian traditional food concerns not only eating...but all that comes around the act of eating.
Italians have a lot of beliefs and habits that enwrap the meal itself. For example, Italians have to eat at that certain time.
When it's time to lunch, they have to have lunch, otherwise they loose their appetite.
They do not care about luxury regarding a restaurant, nor the perfect serving service. But the food has to be fresh and good. Otherwise they do not forgive it.
When I first came to Italy, I admit that sometimes I was invited in restaurants that did not attract me at all. Often they are made of a poor square room with no extra attractions.
It is because the important thing is what you are going to eat. Decoration comes after...when it comes.
Italians do not mix the order of the dishes. They will never eat the meat or fish before the first plate.
If it happens that one of the people decides not to eat a first dish and want his or her second dish together with the others' first dish ... it's important to ask the waiter to take it together with the frist dishes...otherwise, it will be served together with the other second dishes.
There's nothing wrong. It's only culture. Other countries do not preserve so much this kind of culture as Italy does.
Maybe this is also one of the reasons why Italian food is so spread in the world, having so many fans who love its taste and all this story that comes together with it!