Italia - comment

Lore

A picture of an Italian creation.

Here is a comment on Italy from a tourist ... just to give something different ..

"I think Italians are perfectly nice. We had some locals go out of their way to help us find the right bus back to our hotel in Rome just this past May, and also help us make sure to get off at the right stop. The African immigrants in Rome were especially helpful, perhaps because they know what it's like to be a foreigner in Rome. On the other hand, the guy who sold me train tickets in Naples ripped into me for trying to say hello in Italian. Italians will also often cut in front of you in line if they get a chance. It's a cultural thing I guess. On the other hand I still remember from back in 2001, on a previous trip, when the owner of a wine store offered to open a bottle of wine for takeout and gave me a couple of plastic cups - in the U.S. they probably make you buy a cork screw and cups. When we were in Italy in May a friend took us to some natural hot baths that are frequented by locals. This is out in the country – and the locals were curious at first, and started talking to us as if we were just another couple sharing the hot baths. They were obviously a little amused by us, but not in a condescending way. Their English was very good, and they made us feel welcome. Loud and nice are two different dimensions, you can be loud but still nice, up to a point anyway. The idea that Americans are somehow louder than Europeans is wrong though - in Italy they are loud because they speak emphatically. People from Britain on holiday are easily as loud as Americans - they know how to have a good time, to say the least. Witnessing a Saturday night in the Temple Bar area of Dublin, when the "hen parties" are raging, will give you second thoughts about the famously reserved demeanor of the English. There are plenty of not nice people here in the U.S. You are a lot more likely to find people in Europe go out of their way to help a foreigner. Generally if you are friendly and open you will be treated nicely, and fear of unfriendly locals is the last thing that should keep a person from traveling anywhere."