A civilized custom in Italy is described by Trish Hall in the New York Times's Bitten blog. Like many Milanese, I've found that a few small plates with a cocktail makes for a fine dinner if you plan to walk about afterward. Or go to a movie or play. Or do just about anything other than spend the entire evening at the dinner table, which is the only way you can eat and digest a large meal at a healthy pace:
With our drinks came an invitation to help ourselves to stuzzichini. You’d think that would mean a few puff pastry things filled with cheese and maybe a pretzel or two, but this was on an entirely different qualitative and quantitative level. There were slices of spinach frittata; seafood salad, rice salad and other composed salads; vinegar-glazed onions; two different kinds of stuffed eggplant; other roasted vegetables; cheese; canapés and little sandwiches of many kinds -- all manner of salamis and hams, for instance; something like garlic bread; mini pizzas; olives; bread. And, yes, a few puff pastry things filled with cheese. But no pretzels.