Now if you happen to have an Italian background, you know all about Italians and their distinct personalities. I, however, knew nothing of Italians before I arrived in Rome. My first experience being in a room full of Italians was frightening to say the least. It was the day after we flew into Rome, and it was our first adventure into the city. With Fr. Shea as our tour guide, he showed us everything in the city in one day. After he was finished with his tour, he took all twenty of us to the most famous gelateria in Rome. Because it is the most visited gelateria, it was packed. As we all stood in our neat, single-filed line, Italians were swarming us trying to get to the counter to order their gelato. Now where I come from, I call that budging, but to Italians, it's an everyday thing. Fed up with the "Americana," the Italians started pushing us all toward the counter and saying God only knows what to us. As I finally made it up to the counter, I handed the man behind the counter my ticket number. I apparently took too long in deciding what flavors I wanted and he finally just shoved an all strawberry cone at me. As we were all standing in horror trying to forget about what a terrifying experience that was, the shop keeper yells after us "Fuori!" "Fuori!", which roughly translated means "get out."
Needless to say, my first experience with Italians was not very positive. As you can about imagine, I wanted to go home so badly after that encounter. Hopefully, my experiences with Italians will prepare you for these people. When it comes to Italians who live in Rome, they don't really consider themselves Italian. For an Italian who was born and lives in Roma, they prefer to be called Romans. People who are from Rome are a very proud people. They know the history of Rome and they are proud of it. They live in a city that has had its glory days as well as its dark days.
Italians really aren't scary, they are just extremely straight forward. If they don't like something that you are doing, trust me, they will let you know. If you are sitting on the bus and an old lady gets on and you don't let her sit down, she will let you know that what you are doing is wrong. It's not like America, where everyone is very reserved and if something bothers someone, they will rarely bring it up. Italians have no problem with conflict. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just what makes them so unique.
Another thing that makes Italians different is the fact that family is always their first priority. Italians are so dedicated to their family. It is not unusual in Italy for someone to be late for work and have the excuse that they were taking care of their mom. If an American arrived at work late and they had that same excuse, they would probably be fired on the spot. The Italian life revolves around family. It is also not uncommon for a man to still be living at home in his mid-thirties. This isn't because he can't afford to move out, it's because his number one priority is taking care of his family. This is why Italians are so different from Americans. It seems like more and more everyday, American's are beginning to not really pay attention to good old family values, Whether it's through divorce or other family problems, it seems like the American family is losing its most important family values. Italians hold dear to these values. This was an eye-opening experience for me when I was in Italy. I come from kind of a broken home, so it was nice for me to see such strong family values do still exist, Americans just have to pick up on them again.
People who are planning to go to Italy always ask me, "Are Italians hostile towards Americans?" Overall, the answer is no. There are always going to be those select few people that you will run into and they will absolutely hate you just because you are from America. Italians don't hate Americans, however, they really don't like Americans who have the attitude that everything is about them (which overall as a country, we do). When in Italy, if you respect Italians and their way of life, they will do the same for you.
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