A FAMILY were left horrified when a restaurant in a tourist hotspot charged them £17 extra just to cut their birthday cake.
The eatery in Palermo, Sicily, sparked outrage after it revealed its new chopping fee.
The family had bought their own cake with them to the Italian restaurant before they were slapped with an extortionate surprise charge.
Party-goes were handed their receipt after finishing their celebrations and discovered they had been charged £17.26 for their cake being cut into pieces.
The cost was calculated as a charge of 86p per attendee, despite the group spending£103.49 on pizza, wine, beer and water.
The eatery listed the charge as "20 X Servizio Torta", which translates to "20 X Cake Service".
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But the slicing charge is just the icing on the cake for a series of bizarre price increases across Italy.
One bar beside millionaires' playground Lake Como – Pace Bar – charged a customer £1.73 to cut their sandwich in half.
One disgruntled customer shared a photograph of the Bar Pace receipt online as proof of the baffling charge.
The printout clearly shows that the establishment had charged them £1.70 for the privilege of cutting their fancy sarnie in two.
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Listed as "diviso da meta" it translates into English as "divided in half".
The owner of the bar, who has not been named, hit back in Italian media, saying that "additional requests have a cost".
They explained: "If a customer asks me to make two portions of toast, I have to use two saucers, two napkins and go to the table using two hands.
"It is true that the customer is always right, but it is equally true that additional requests have a cost."
Then another restaurant – the Osteria del Cavolo in Finale Ligure – charged £1.70 to provide a customer with an empty plate.
Owner Ida Germano, 76 explained: "We made the lady who posted the receipt sit at a table for three because there were two adults and a child.
"They ordered only one plate of trofie with pesto and one of fried anchovies and they asked for two saucers to share for both.
"So they had four saucers in all, not one, and we only charged for one because we pay for the dishwasher and the dishwashing too."
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