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Dottore, and the Italian habit of titles
Alex calls his manager dottore, and the word is doing something that has no English parallel. In Italy dottore is the standard address for anyone holding a university degree, not only a physician, and it is used as a title on its own — buongiorno, dottore — in the way sir is used elsewhere. Alongside it sit ingegnere for an engineering graduate, avvocato for a lawyer, architetto, professore and ragioniere, each functioning as a form of address rather than a description of what the person is doing at that moment. Using one is courteous; using the wrong one is a small and forgivable mistake; using none where one is expected is noticeable. The tu and Lei boundary runs alongside it and is not the same thing. A colleague can be dottore and tu at once, and in much of the private sector the shift to tu happens within days, while banks, public offices and older firms hold Lei for years. Because the local rule is unguessable, asking is the correct move and is never taken as ignorance — Serra's answer, non per gerarchia, per abitudine, is a very Italian way of saying the distinction is real but not about rank. Note that tu downward with Lei upward, which English speakers expect to feel hierarchical, is simply the default here and carries no slight.