Where’s Your Napkin?

It seems that we have the habit of putting our napkins on our lap while eating. In Italy napkins are left on the table quite often while eating. Once, we were in Piedmonte visiting some relatives and upon sitting at the dinner table we started serving ourselves appetizers. Our hostess came toward the table looking alarmed because she thought that she had forgotten to give us napkins. She couldn’t see that we had placed them on our lap. I personally perfer napkins on the lap. I suppose one benefit of keeping it on the table is that it never drops on the floor as always seems to happen when the napkin is in your lap.