“Where are you from?”
“Italy!”
“Oooh… Buongiorno! Pizza! Pasta!”
Let’s be clear, once for all, I know that you all fell into the same clichés at the title of this post but...have you ever thought it may be annoying for us? Do you really think we like it?
That’s what ALWAYS happens when we declare our nationality.
Have you ever met a German guy and shouted “BIER! MERCEDES! KARTOFFEL!” on his face? or a French girl and yelled “CROISSANT! CAMAMBERT! TOUR EIFFEL!”
Next time I’ll try that. I wanna see their reactions.
Back to the topic. Aside the clichès, do you really think to know anything about Italian people?
I will try to give you a better picture.
NORTH & SOUTH
Italian people can be “divided” between the ones from the North of Italy and the ones from the South.
There is a huge difference between them, difference that goes back in time but we are not going to talk about the historical side.
Trying to simplify the difference for you:
The Italian from the north is a great worker, serious, always in time, trying to be a step ahead in everything (work, payments, plans, work….oh I said it already). He is friendly but he doesn’t trust immediately new people and situations. He may ignore you if he finds you annoying.
The southern Italian is friendly, always happy and smiley but lazy, always late and extremely stubborn. He pretends to be always tired and he will find millions excuses to delay anything that requires effort. He is raised to be a big eater since the day he was born so food will always be the best bribe with him.
Maybe the difference of weather takes its part too as the south is warmer and sunnier.
So, in Italy, the furthest you go from Europe and the closest you get to Africa the most tanned you get.
LANGUAGE: Italian and dialects
Most of the people do not know that in Italy each region has its own dialect and each is considered a language. Not alterations of the Italian language, they are languages of their own.
If during a conversation two Italian persons from different regions speak strictly their dialects, they won’t fully understand each other. We are not talking about a missing 5% of the conversation. In rare but worse cases, 95% is the part not understood.
You may be wondering...what about Italian language then?
Italian is our national language spoken by 95% of Italian people...not 100%.
Differently from your country where the language was the first and dialects came after, in Italy we had first the dialects and then the Italian language.
COOKING: “You are Italian so you can cook”
Italian cuisine is well known all over the world and the Mediterranean diet is considered one of the best but it still seems that once we step out of our country we gain the “chef badge” automatically, with no doubt if we’ve ever cooked anything in our life.
You may not know but Italian people are mama’s boys, especially the southern ones. We are used, since young age, to be stuffed and filled with food cooked by grannies, aunts and moms. Once far from them, we start to cook when nostalgia kicks in. After nightmares and breakdowns caused by homesickness, we decide to take a step into the kitchen and try to recreate the same tastes and smells of our childhood. It takes time and a lot of calls home asking mom for recipes and advice but we succeed eventually.
So…I’m Italian and I’m able to cook only because I needed/wanted to and I taught myself. We might like your food but sooner or later our necessity of home taste will prevail.
So we do not born cooks, we learn as you could too.
COFFEE: Why we miss coffee when abroad
I will enlighten you the concept of the espresso.
The espresso is a short, thick and creamy coffee obtained by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee beans. Based on that, we can clearly deduce that the keys to get a great espresso are:
Great quality of coffee;
Fine grind of the coffee;
Water (which people often do not take in consideration);
And the coffee machine including its maintenance and usage.
So maybe the quality of the coffee you use is not the best or maybe you are not really using the machine properly but at the end of the day, your espresso sucks…terribly! It’s rare for Italians to find some coffee bar abroad able to prepare a good espresso. That’s why we miss it and we complain about it.
Now let’s debunk a myth “The Italian coffee is strong. If I drink an espresso I cannot sleep” … BULLSHIT!
Knowing that caffeine is the one keeping you awake, yes! the espresso as a higher content of caffeine than an Americano but if compared at the same size.
One espresso is one ounce and it contains 30 to 50mg of caffeine while an ounce of Americano contains 8 to 15mg. Americano, though, is not served in a small cup like an espresso. Americano is served in a big cup which means about 8 ounces raising the caffeine level to 64 to 120mg.
So, are you sure it was the espresso to keep you awake?
TIP: Small additional detail, espresso doesn’t have to be always black and bitter for Italian people to drink it. Like for other beverages, some Italian person might like his coffee with a bit of milk, or with a lot of sugar, or with few drops of liquor. Don’t tell an Italian person… “Do you want milk in your coffee? Oh sorry, I forgot. You are Italian, you don’t put milk in it”
This list could go on and on but for the moment I think it’s more than enough. I hope you have a clearer idea now about Italian people.
Few additional tips before closing this post:
Do not put ketchup on the pizza in front of an Italian. For us it’s a shame...really, it’s a shame!
We have a funny accent when we speak English and we know that but do not imitate Mario cuz it’s annoying.
We use lot of gestures when we talk but they are different from region to region and each has a meaning behind. Pay attention before using any.
Italian people are not all football fans. Avoid to say “You are Italian so you love football.
I hope this post was interesting and informative for you.
Please, leave a comment if you want to know something else or if you have a particular question.
Before you might ask, I am from the deepest south of Italy, I come from Sicily. I know what you are thinking about but don’t…please.
Now if you’ll excuse me, the Godfather summoned me :P
Cheers!
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