Salad?

The first lunch I had in Florence was at a small spaghetteria near our apartment building that is located is a less touristy area in Florence.  We walked into the restaurant and explained to the waitress that we wanted a table for 7 in a mixture of English and Italian.  When we opened the menu, everything was written in Italian, although some words were easily recognizable like pizza and spaghetti.  However, most of our group did not want a warm lunch, so we asked the waiter if they had salad.  He pointed to a place on the menu and we ordered "salad."  Several minutes later, the waiter brought us a big plate of spinach.  I don't mean fresh spinach that you would have in a spinach salad.  This was frozen spinach that was warmed up and piled on a plate (I tried it, and it wasn't even seasoned).  The faces of the members of the group must have tipped off the waiter that something was wrong, and we explained what we thought we had ordered.  He was very kind, and brought us a mixture of vegetables.    As awkward as I felt at the time, it was a very funny experience that I'll carry with me for quite sometime.  I'm looking forward to learning Italian so I can know what I am ordering.