How does the world see us Italians? English

I went Italy last year with my brother. People were very kind though I couldn't understand Italian, food was delicious, but there are many pickpockets and Gypsies(Romanies?) especially in Rome and Naples. 🙁 I didn't get my pocket picked, I saw some people who cried over because of it. Anyway, except that Italy was beautiful. 😁

@Devanagari Yea, in bigger cities there are pickpockets, but if you don't show anything valuable, you are safe. Or just don't go in places considered dangerous. But please understand that they are not the rule in italy, you can get pickpocketed in italy, as in USA, it's just a question of luck. I've never been pickpocketed, and i travelled all italy, i've been in Rome many times.

Beautiful country, great people and fascinating ancient culture . I was in Italy three or four times and all of journey was unforgettable. i met many interesting people.

Since I'm Italian, I don't know exactly how the "others" see us, but I cann tell you some pitches of it...

First, I once read an article on Time magazine (for the ones who don't know, it's a monthly magazine from the US), and the sense of it was: we like Italian food, art, atchitecture.... we hate all the rest. We have a lot of thing that we appreciate and safeguard, other than food and art, like traditions, like lifestyle and so on, and all these things should be appreciated by the others too... but it's hard when we also carry the burden of such terrible things like Fascism, like Mafia.. when you manage to know a country and its people, it's really hard to get through all the shallowness of news articles, tales of short trips taken by friends, and so on. I know that because I'm studying at university about different cultures, and I often travel with my boyfriend (who doesn't know anything about foreign cultures more than what he heard about, which ofter is something wrong or not totally correct), and I see how different is the way we look at things, people, traditions...

Another thing about how they see us... I was in Maiorca, two years ago, at a restaurant with my friends. A family at a table next to me left, leaving the money on the table for the waiter to come and pick it up (it was a custom of that restaurant), and immediately two people sat down at that table, trying to steal the money. The waiter saw them and immediately shouted them to go away, and picked up the money, saying "Blah, all these Italians...." Not to mention the look on his face... We were there, and said we were Italian, and Italians are generally kind-harted, not bad people...

we do what we can... 🙂

@Deb88 I totally agree with you, prejudices and stereotypes are quite always wrong. If you want to know a country, you must go there and see with your eyes.

@happyorange it's a stereotype, hot/handsome guys are everywhere in the world!

@lapy Not only you need to go there, but before getting there you must prepare yourself about the country, its history and social background, traditions, and so on, at least a little, through book, guides, ect. and then try to live all these things, being open-minded.. otherwise, you won't appreciate in depth.

@Deb88 Yes of course, this is always needed also if you don't want that your italian habits would be considered impolite, also if in italy they are polite.

great soccer team; great food; great history, ......i hope i visit italy someday

great soccer team; great food; great history, ......i hope i visit italy someday

i love Italian food,culture,films and mostly the soccer team Inter Milian

Hello,
In my opinion, the Italians are warm-hearted people like Japanese.

i hate marco materrazzi :s But it's a nice country

I think italian culture seems really interesting
And I don't know why, but in my head, Italian men are all sexy 🙂
Maybe I saw that in the movies?

@Mitsuko Yes many italians are like that 🙂 but not all.

@Ju5lien6 hahaha Materazzi 😛 come on he's a good boy hehe

@Marie-Paule yes, you saw that in the movies hehe 😛 Italians are sexy like every other people in the world. Just a matter of personal tastes 😉

I think of beautiful boys 🙂.

Thank you.
Can I email you? I would like to study Italiano.
Hope we become good friends.

Hm. I went to Italty just once, but I hated hearing on the sreets those "Amore Mio", "Bella Seniorita" ,haha, that was so lame!
As far as i know they are trying to stay romantic, no?
Not sure how it's in other countries, but we see Italians just as eem..mummys boys ; )
and they have nice sense of humor, thouugh.

@Mitsuko yes you can email me 🙂

@Efffy haha yea! italians usually do that but it's just for fun 😛 Guys usually joke with girls they don't know, and italian girls know that so for them is normal. For foreign people that can be annoying, i know, but it's just joking. In relationships, yes we are romantic.