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The Anglo-style speech is an import; the toast is not
A best man delivering a long, funny, faintly embarrassing speech is a British and American ritual that has only recently started appearing at Italian weddings, largely through films. The traditional Italian version is much shorter: the testimone or a parent stands, says a few warm sentences, proposes the toast, and sits down — and what everybody actually shouts is evviva gli sposi. Nobody expects anecdotes about the groom's university years, and a fifteen-minute set is more likely to be endured than enjoyed. What is genuinely fixed is the toasting etiquette, and it is more particular than English-speakers expect. You clink glasses and say cin cin or salute, you make eye contact while you do it, and you do not cross arms with the person next to you — both are held to bring bad luck. You never toast with water, which is a straightforward insult, and in some families you do not toast at all with an empty glass. A last note on two words that look interchangeable. salute is what you say when someone sneezes and also a perfectly good toast; cin cin is only ever a toast, it comes from a Cantonese greeting brought back by sailors, and it is worth knowing that it is best avoided in Japan, where it lands as something obscene. Italians find this fact delightful and will tell you about it.