Help us to know Italians! :^)

Are you doing research for a thesis? If not, perhaps you could tell us the reason for your interest in the subject.

OP stated they are visiting there this summer. My guess is they want to know what to expect of the Italian culture.

I will be very interested to see the replies from our resident Italians - I think it is a great question. I have spent much more time in France and have had long conversations with several French people on this very subject. My time in Italy has been spent very much as a tourist with only brief conversations with locals about the culture.

Maybe you can start by helping us know you and your husband and the French people.
Can you answer your own questions as they relate to you and France and young people of France?

It's be interesting to see the answers on the other two websites this has been posted to today.

But I don't know as Italy/Italians can or should be generalized? Like anywhere else, what one may experience in larger cities may be very different than in small towns, and there can be regional differences as well. There can even be a big difference between behavior in a nightclub and a small bar, and whether locals are out with a group of friends, just one other person or alone.

From the perspective of a tourist, those are somewhat difficult questions to answer. I'm only in Europe for a month or two each year, and only able to interact with the locals on a limited basis and mostly in a "professional" way in dealing with hotel or restaurant workers. I'm not able to visit with locals when they're at home, so it's difficult to get a complete picture.

Generally speaking I've found all people in Europe to be equally friendly, but in my experience the French tend to be more reserved and formal, while the Italians tend to be more gregarious and informal. The experience of other people may differ. I don't know what age Italians leave the parent's house or how they meet people, but I'm sure Roberto or one of the other Italian posters here can answer that. At my age, I don't go to nightclubs so have no idea what the atmosphere is like there.

With the present youth unemployement rates, Italians simply do not leave parents' house at all. It is not uncommon for them to stay till they are 30 or more. Generally speaking, even when they leave they do not move very far. But at present it is almost impossible for a young couple to set up an home at an early age. This explains also why birth rate is so low. Most fear that Italian will become extinct in a few decades.

Friends and family are very important in Italian culture. In fact Italians have a hard time moving too far away from their extended family, unless out of necessity for employment reasons. More than 90% of my childhood friends, some of whom are grandparents, still live in Florence, and often in the same neighborhood where we grew up.

Of my vast circle of friends, only 2 of us live outside of Italy (I'm in the US, the other is in London). I have another good friend who moved to Seattle with his Washington State native wife but both lasted less than 2 years. He couldn't take the lack of social life prevalent in America.

Italians are known for being 'bamboccioni' or 'mammoni' (mama's boys). They move out of the house when they marry, which nowadays is often in their 30's. And that is if they can afford to buy a house (or more likely if their parents buy one for them). Since the labor law reforms of some years back which intended to make Italy's work rules more flexible, a lot of youngsters nowadays are hired only on a short term contract (up to one year), therefore they don't feel financially secure enough (and neither do the banks) to take out a home loan and rents aren't cheap either in major cities.

I think friendliness is relative. Most Italians are, just like the French are in my experience.

You'll find ots info on this very interesting blog, www.italyexplained.com, covers tons of subjects

It is more fun to see the answers on the at least 2 identical questions posted the same day on other forums - especially some of the ironing comments on the Fodors thread.

I'm not happy having our minds picked as part of a large multi-post, especially as it sounds like questions for a paper or dissertation and I don't want to write somebody else's paper without credit.

I couldn't agree more, Nigel. It is a bit much to be asked to believe that a French couple going on holiday to Italy need to know the social mores and customs of Italians. I did ask in my first post the reason for this, but have not received a reply.

The two last responses on Fodors are a howl.