Italy In SF

All about Italian culture in a handy cheat sheet for all your trip necessities. If you’d like a personalized crash-course on Italian culture before your trip, please contact me at vanessa at Italyinsf dot com. I would be happy to schedule a time to help you out with your trip organization as well as give you some useful tips about culture and traditions!

CULTURE

67. Most Italians under 40 speak some English, but many will be embarrassed to talk.
68. Sunday is a holy day- and not for church, but for soccer! When the games are on, you will see plenty of people walking down the streets with their family with a radio glued to their ear. Sometimes as you walk down a busy street on a Sunday afternoon you will hear a mix of cheers and mumblings- that’s the sign for one of the teams scoring!
69. Oh, and it’s not soccer- it’s football (or calcio).
70. Girl watching is a national past time, second only to soccer. Don’t be alarmed when men stare at you. Men look at women as art historians look at the Sistine chapel ceiling.
71. Third after soccer and women come Formula One and the Ferrari team. Don’t even attempt to speak ill of Scuderia Ferrari in public. You might be verbally assaulted.
72. Italian television spends one day showing soccer and 6 days talking about it. Other programming includes plenty of half-naked dancing girls and inappropriate nudity commercials- and sometimes Formula 1 races, per priority list set above.
73. Azzurro, light blue, is the color of every national athlete’s jersey. When you hear talking about Azzurri people usually refers to the national team soccer players, although it’s used in general terms for all national athletes.
74. You shower at night in Italy, and you change to dress-up clothes before going out for the evening, whether you’re going to a restaurant or to a bar. Day wear is not considered appropriate for night time.
75. In Italy it is not socially acceptable to be drunk. People boast about their alcohol resistance and no one would ever admit to be drunk.
76. Business formal is the norm for all office and sales jobs. Wearing a tie is considered appropriate wear for pretty much any workplace.
77. Italian men dress very nicely. Leather shoes and slacks are a lot more common than shorts and flip flops.
78. You can see a lot of speedos on Italian beaches, and nobody finds it hilarious.
79. Topless sunbathing is quite common in the northern beaches, and more frowned upon in the South.
80. While in the US temperature in public places is determined by the one who feels hot (and hence she is the one who lowers the temperature in the space), in Italy the one who’s cold is always right and her requests will determine a room’s temperature.
81. Never, ever give chrysanthemums as a flower gift to anyone. They are considered the flowers of the dead, and only brought to cemeteries.
82. When entering someone’s house, it is customary to ask for permission on the doorstep, even if you’ve been invited already. You say “Permesso” upon entering a house.
83. Lines (at the post office, at the bank, at the bar, at the bakery) are never really lines. They are a declaration of intent that you need to assert if you want to be helped. Make sure you demand your right in line if you don’t want to be “overtaken”!
84. Purple being the color of lent, it is considered a color that brings bad luck. Avoid the darker purple hues for evenings at the theatre, and it’s definitely a forbidden color at weddings!

If you missed it:
Part 1: General Travel Tips
Part 2: Shopping and Stores
Part 3: Food and Drinks
Part 4: Culture
Part 5: Driving and Moving Around

Part 5 will close off this handy cheat-sheet with all you need to know about transportation and moving around.

Filed under: Culinary Culture