Here are some Dos and Don'ts when hitting up your favorite Italian restaurant, thanks to Hungry Girl...

• DO start your meal off with a house salad (light dressing on the side) or some minestrone soup. Broth-based soup before a meal often means lower calorie-intake overall. Be careful with salad entrees though. Some are worse than most regular meals, so watch out for red flags like oily croutons, creamy dressing, fatty meats, and lots of cheese.
• DON'T be afraid to make special requests, just make sure you're super-nice when you do it. Swap fatty sides for veggies. Ask for whole-wheat pasta in place of regular - many places (including Olive Garden) offer up the fiber-rich stuff as an alternative to plain white pasta, and it's better for you and more filling.
• DO save some to take home. Most Italian eateries serve up crazy-huge portions - so before you even start eating, get it into your head that you're not going to consume that whole ginormous serving. Then eat slowly and savor your meal!
• DON'T eat bread AND pasta at the same meal. In Italy, that's a no-no. Clearly, they understand the dangers of carb overload. If you choose bread, skip the butter. If you go for pasta, choose tomato-based (not creamy or cheesy) sauce, and keep the portion reasonable. And if you feel like being really good, avoid the bread and pasta altogether.
• DO have a glass of wine, if you like, but control yourself. A small serving of 4-5 oz has about 100 calories and a POINTS value of 2, but you should know that a typical glass often contains a few ounces more than that. So if an Italian dinner without vino seems wrong to you, go for that glass, just make it last. And be careful with sangria. A glass at Olive Garden has 220-250 calories (POINTS value 4-5). And we all know how one glass can lead to another... and another...