Even in Italy we eat pork feet! Definitely not with your hands, and certainly not as spicy as you seem to have eaten you ... in Lombardy (northern italy) you eat the 'cazzuola', literally 'trowel' (cazoeula in Milan dialect ..), a typical dish of tradition, you only eat In winter since it is a bit heavy, and because it contains vegetables that are only found from October to December - January.
Anyone who comes to Lombardy next winter, I recommend trying it out, and eating some pork feet, of course.
Mattia