I wouldn’t knock it. It’s free and rated the second best in Euope by the WHO, after France. (Cite). I would agree they are a bunch of hypochondriacs.
Apart from that, I want to strongly concur with Bad News Baboon’s point about north vs. south. They are two almost completely different countries. For example, many of the things San Vito talks about (strangers greeting you, shouting in restaurants) are probably very true of Puglia, but just wouldn’t happen where I live in the north east.
So North East Italy:
Likes:
-Civilization and elegance;
-Beautiful towns and villas just all over the place, never stops;
-Great food (this goes for north south west and east!);
-Not the best weather in the country but one hell of a lot better than northern Europe;
-permission to be emotional and dramatic (suits my character!);
being appreciated as a beautiful woman;
-spritz aperol, the best aperitive in the world!
Dislikes:
-Yes, the bureaucracy, the corruption, the nepotism;
-conservative, male female relations can be old-fashioned too;
-the Lega Nord and racism;
and most importantly:the work ethic! I know this is NOT the Italian stereotype, but (at least in my region) people work work work work work rush around and work some more. Partly to make ends meet because wage levels are lower than in northern Europe, but partly to get the right car, house, clothes etc. People just never turn down ever more work or overtime just because “I want some for myself, my hobbies etc.” It’s very hard not to get caught up in it.
I’ve been living in Italy for 15 years. I was in Rome, now in Viterbo. I love it, even the red tape and the lack of helpful people in clothes shops. It’s great!
The old wives tales thing is very true though and can be most annoying. A few of my favourites:
You HAVE to wear a scarf because if you get cold air on your neck you will get cervicale, or a torci collo, or the dreaded colpa di strega. Cold air on the neck is responsible for many evils and air conditioning is the root of it all…
You must also ALWAYS have your lower back covered. Failure to do this will result in your kidneys catching a cold. (Yes, really).
You must not sweat. If you sweat on a hot day and do not get changed immediately you will get sick from your damp clothing.
Similarly, at the beach you must put on a dry costume as soon as you leave the water as walking around in a damp suit (even when it is 40 degrees Centigrade) leads to you catching a cold.
An anecdotal example: A parent at the school where I teach came to tell me this, “You need to change my son after he has had a drink (son is 4 years old.). You see, he doesn’t drink well from a cup and some water goes down on his sweater when he drinks. He gets wet there, this is why he has a cold. You must change him if he gets wet.” The fact that is was November and everyone had a cold was nothing to do with it.
These weird medical obsessions apart, I wouldn’t live anywhere else. It’s a wonderful, quirky, laid back place to be!
Out of my 30+ years on this planet, I’ve spent exactly 12 of them in Italy and they were all on vacation. So naturally, my view of the country is completely skewed because I’m sure I’d like anywhere a bit more than normal if I was just hanging out on vacation there.
But my impressions of the country are that it was beautiful, varied, and completely different from what I’m used to here. I loved the way that old and new sat side by side everywhere I went. I was amazed at a roadside truckstop (somewhere in between Naples and Florence) where there was a tiny little corner “museum” dedicated to an ancient village that had been on that site. Can you imagine that in the US? If I lived there, I’d be almost paralyzed by all that history surrounding me all the time. So cool.
And one of the things that I fell in love with while there was this Lemon Soda. Why in the hell can’t they sell that here? The closest I’ve found is World Market’s Sorrento Style Lemon Soda. It’s good, but expensive and still not exact.
My knowledge of it is limited to snapshots from a tourists POV. Here is something I’d like to bring up: the so-called European street fashion sensibility. So from what I’ve seen, it does exist to some degree in the usual suspects like Paris and London, but in Milan? Nope. I was kind of surprised. Italian heavyweight labels like Armani Prive and Valentino churn out looks and designs that I love and are apparently HQed there, and yeah I know that high fashion clout does not necessarily trickle down to high street sensibility… but come on, the way the majority of people dressed were eerily reminiscent of Jersey Shore. Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but it was surprising considering they were in a big fashion capital of the world and since I’ve always heard Italy (ok, Milan) having a rep for being chic in dress and fashion.
I’m a bit bemused by the “no airco” thing. I know plenty of people who have airco. Those of haven’t (such as myself) normally don’t because it costs money, not because of “not believing in it”.
What is true is that they normally switch it off at night, but in this case I think they are totally right in that it actually is better for your health not to sleep in a dry cold airco draught.
Oh, another dislike. Lots of legislation preventing me from viewing and/or downloading lots of stuff online. Keeping getting a message of: “Sorry”, the rest of world can have it, but not you sfigati in Italy".
Yes, in my few months living in Bologna, people seemed to enjoy the air conditioning very much. At my workplace they were actually bemoaning the fact that it wasn’t turned on before mid-June. (Summer’s already started in Bologna by then.) Is is more of a Southern Italian thing?
