Pizza for Japanese Tourist Fleeced by Restaurant

Pizza in Rome. Photo: Daniele Muscetta, Flickr.

A Japanese tourist who was charged approximately $1,000 for a meal in Italy will have a "make-up" pizza with Italian officials in Tokyo.

In July, Yasuyuki Yamada was charged 694 euros for a meal in Rome's historic Il Passetto restaurant, which has counted Grace Kelly and Leonardo DiCaprio as clientele, ANSA reports.

The restaurant defended the bill, but it came just weeks after Il Passetto charged another Japanese couple more than $500 for two pastas, a fish dish, four porcini mushrooms, five slices of prosciutto as well as wine and coffee, ANSA said.

Yamada told the news agency he'd accepted the Italian government's offer to sit down for a Buffalo mozzarella pizza with Mauro Cutrufo, Italy's tourism chief, at a restaurant in Tokyo. The Italian government had offered to fly Yamada and his fiancee back to Italy, but the Japanese businessman turned down that offer as a waste of taxpayer money.

"I'm unhappy and I want to clear up this case once and for all," Yamada told ANSA, noting that "people who swindle you exist all over the world."

Have you ever been overcharged at a restaurant? Tell us about it in the comments below!

[Via ANSA]