I was in Italy recently, and whenever I ordered hot chocolate, it came with a small shot-glass of water. The water appeared to be normal tap water, and wasn't particularly hot or cold. What is one meant to do with the water? Often there wasn't space in the hot chocolate to add water, so I assume it should be drunk, but I'm not sure if you drink it after every sip of hot chocolate to cool your mouth down, or at the end to "clear your palette".
I'm sad that I didn't take a picture of it, because I can't find any pictures of this online, although I ordered hot chocolate 10-12 times and got water with it every time, without exception. The one instance when I didn't, the server appeared with it a few minutes later, while apologizing. I'm not sure if it's limited to Italy, but I did experience this everywhere from Venice, to Florence to Rome.