At the table
Asking for the bill, and paying it
The bill does not arrive until you ask, and the waiting is a courtesy rather than neglect. Cards are accepted, splitting is normal, and the receipt matters.
The most common complaint visitors have about Italian restaurants is that the service went cold at the end and nobody came back. What actually happened is that the table was yours for as long as you wanted it, and bringing the bill unasked would have been a way of telling you to leave.
It will not come until you ask
Say il conto, per favore, or catch an eye and make the small writing gesture in the air. Both work everywhere and neither is rude.
Until you do that, the assumption is that you are still sitting. This is the same logic as the coperto: you have paid for the table, so nobody is going to turn it over underneath you.
In a busy place at the end of service you may get a gentle nudge. In an ordinary trattoria at nine in the evening you can sit for another hour and nobody minds.
Splitting is completely normal
Alla romana means splitting the bill evenly, and it is the default among Italians eating together. Ask for conto separato if you want individual bills, though in a small kitchen with a paper pad this is more work and is sometimes declined politely.
Paying one card for the table and settling between yourselves afterwards is the smoothest option and what most groups end up doing.
Cards work, and they are meant to
Card payment is legally required to be accepted, and in practice almost everywhere takes it, including small places. A card machine that is mysteriously broken is a signal, and you are within your rights to say you have no cash.
That said, carry some cash. A tiny osteria in a hill town, a market stall, a counter selling pizza by weight: all of them are smoother with notes, and some rural places genuinely have a bad line.
The receipt is not a formality
You should be handed a scontrino or a ricevuta fiscale. It is a tax document and issuing it is the restaurant's legal obligation, which is why it appears even for a coffee taken standing at a bar.
Keep it until you have left. The practical reason is simpler than the legal one: it is how you check the arithmetic, and mistakes on a handwritten bill in a busy room are not rare.
Reading the bill
You will see the dishes, then coperto multiplied by the number of people, and occasionally servizio as a percentage. Water and wine are itemised. Nothing should appear that was not on the menu or that you did not order.
If something looks wrong, ask. Scusi, cos'รจ questo? is a normal question and gets a normal answer. Bills are written by hand more often than you would expect, and an honest slip is far more likely than a scam.
Tipping, briefly
There is no expected percentage and nobody's wages depend on it. Rounding up, or leaving a small note after a particularly good meal, is appreciated and entirely optional. The full version is in the coperto and service guide.
The last thing
Paying is not the end of the meal in the way it is elsewhere. People stay at the table afterwards, finish the wine, order a digestivo, and leave when they feel like leaving. If you stand up the moment the card machine beeps, you are the only one in the room doing it.