½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

Hi Leah
My wife and I first visited Italy in 1997.
We booked on an orginised trip which took us to all the tourist traps-it turned out to be great but tiring. The second week of the holiday we stayed at Lake Garda and relaxed.
Once you have seen the obvious sites you can really get to know Italy which in my humble opinion is possibly the most beautiful, cultured country in the world. The ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs themselves proved to be warm and friendly-- although I think it is necessary to speak the language before you can really understand them.
Our favourite places (so far) are Limone Lake Garda, San Gimignano, Ravello on the Amalfi Coast and Verona. We are off to stay in a hotel above Amalfi town on 13 May for a week so we too are looking forward to our hols.
Have a marvellous time--- Ciao

Hi Leah,

Italy is a wonderful country. ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs ,particularly, love children, as do the Spanish people, so if you are travelling with kids, you will be made very welcome. Something I have always found is that if you try to speak some of the language of the country you are visiting, even if it means reading it from a book, your efforts will be rewarded. I also think it is good manners to try and say something in the language of the country you are visiting. English is widely understood, except perhaps in more remote places, but try your best, and they will love you for it. Have a great trip.

Colettemc

One thing I will advise you on though - ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs are very friendly, but some of their habits can seem rude to us - their abruptness at times I found really disconcerting, as too their ability to ignore you (in a service setting) until they had dealt with each and every other person in the shop (including those that came in after you).

Is it not natural to look after your bread and butter customers first? After all, the tourist is nothing but a hit and run affair.
Regards,
FrancisM

Italy, compared to the USA and UK is a very polite culture. The point where most tourists fail is in recognising that fact. When entering a shop or restaurant it is expected that you will greet the shop owner, staff, waiters etc with "Buon giorno" or "Buona Sera" as appropriate. The UK/US habit of walking in silently then looking around the place isn't well received. It's a good way of ensuring that the service you get is distant to the point of being rude, but heck as far as they are concerned, you started it.

There isn't a siesta as such, but the shops close sometime around 12:30 to 13:30 (get used to the 24 hour clock) and then don't open again until around 16:00. It takes some getting used to, you feel like buying something and have to remember that you do this in the early morning or evening.

You must, absolutely must, learn some ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ. It's the only polite thing to do. I'm not expecting you to start a conversation, but learning some phrases will make people warm to you because they will recognise that you really are interested in them, their country, their culture.

Since the USA has many ½ûÂþÌìÌà speakers and some good language courses I recommend you start with something like Syracuse ½ûÂþÌìÌà Smart Start ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ. It's a PC based course that is simple and effective. Just doing lesson 1 would be enough. Learning to say please, thank you, hello, goodbye, hi and sorry in ½ûÂþÌìÌà will be a great start. If you can get to "my name is" even better.

Many ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs speak good English so you should never be in real trouble, but that little bit of effort on your part will pay off big time.

Oh, yes, having escorted a party of Engineers from Allentown, PA over most of Europe, I must warn you to be prepared for culture shock. There's bigger divide between the US and Europe than between any two European countries. Yes, our cars are small, our streets are small, we all talk funny, our food is noted for its quality rather than the size and no we don't do home cooking with apple pie and would barf if asked to eat congealed salad or grits or anything made from opossum. Corn is eaten in some places but many consider it pig food and won't touch it. ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs don't do steak, or at least not as an American would recognise it and they do pizza and pasta all wrong (if you are an American) or perfectly (if you come from Europe). There is a lot of pig in ½ûÂþÌìÌà cooking, and ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs eat all of the animal so dishes like tripe (tripa) and liver (fegato)vwill definitely be on the menu. If you don't like it, don't make a fuss.

Ah yes and finally, yes we really do like coffee that small and that strong.

Oh yes and many people live in houses that are older than your country.

And everyone here will love to see you. Come to Italy (Europe) to expand your horizons.

Very well put. Brava!
FrancisM

[QUOTE=FrancisM]Is it not natural to look after your bread and butter customers first? After all, the tourist is nothing but a hit and run affair.
Regards,
FrancisM[/QUOTE]

I come from a culture where EVERY customer is important, and in our community we do greet people when we walk into a store - that has always been part of my upbringing at least.

Quite probably I was just unlucky with the stores I went into - the service was definitely poor (except for the SMA) and for no reason that I could see - I always make eye contact and usually am quite comfortable dealing with people. I will admit to being more timid in Italy as I do not speak the language but I tend to greet people whereever I go, including just walking down the street (not well received in London!).

Italy and the ½ûÂþÌìÌà people are beautiful friendly and welcoming generally, however, to support the earlier point, try, if you can to learn the basics of the language, they'll love you for that, and, also, try to read "Too Much Tuscan Sun" which is available from the Italy Mag. store Dario will point you to many of the things to avoid saying and doing :D
HURRY, Italy awaits your presence