Italy - unfriendly?

[davidbaldam]

Always found them friendly but sometimes their attitude can be a bit abrupt, although I can get by in Italian and it’s surprising how just a little be of language goes a long way.

 

[Puddleduck]

My sister-in-law lives in Abuzzo and is coming back in a couple of weeks* - for good she says. One of the reasons she gives is that she has been treated with rudeness but I think a lot of that is to do with her attitude. I found the people I interacted with helpful and pleasant but I did try to communicate and made sure they knew my lack of Italian was a fault on my side. I was asked a few times where we were from and when I said we lived in Scotland it was as if we were long lost relatives in many cases.

In France I tell people I can only speak French like a very small child and they need to pretend I am such. It usually makes people smile and forgive me for massacring a beautiful language.

"Please, thank you, sorry, good morning/afternoon/evening" go a long way in any language.

*She has not sold her house so we aren't quite sure what the plan is except she can't come and live with us.

 

[pandas]

We have always found the Italians, their food and culture perfect. Are they sure they were not in France!

 

[EX51SSS]

yet the Scottish couple they toured with were treated completely differently.

Well I treat all Scottish people with kindness. Sometimes because they are lovely and sometimes because I don't understand them.. I prefer the former

 

[Ingwe]

Yes, same here.

My wife thinks that our language sounds harsh to them like German.

And my wife is always right.

Quite a coincidence there Chris-your and my wife always being right. We are soo lucky!

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[Ingwe]

Don't get mistaken for a German in Greece

Years ago, holidaying in Crete, we were staying at a small hotel. At the first breakfast, we noticed that we had two small slices of dry bread, one butter square and a tiny tub of honey. The tables on either side had pots of jam, bowls of fruit, yoghurt, honey, slices of cheese and olives. We asked why our breakfast was so Spartan.
It transpired that, as my surname is originally German, they'd concluded we were German. When they found out we were from Britain, all the goodies were brought over to our table and there were warm apologies.
We can see the funny side but it's a little harsh to visit historic wrongs of the fathers on the children or, in this case, the great and grandchildren!

 

[Camping Gaza]

I have no chance then anywhere...
My full name?

Arthur François Mohammed Schicklgruber

 

[Just smiffy]

 

[Ivor Lock]

Blame Brexit, and the fact that Italy is not going to get a cut of 30 billion Quid. I would probably be miffed as well.

 

[EX51SSS]

Blame Brexit, and the fact that Italy is not going to get a cut of 30 billion Quid. I would probably be miffed as well.

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[Ivor Lock]

I seem to remember something about three monkeys. See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

 

[MillieMoocher]

We spent the best part of a month in Italy in 2017, ie post B vote, and found the people perfectly friendly albeit a little manic behind the wheel compared with U.K. drivers.

I did spend some time learning a smattering of Italian and would always start any conversation in broken Italian - and invariably got reply in English. I think trying to speak the local lingo goes a long way.

Off to Poland next week via the Netherlands and Germany, so that will be interesting as I know almost no Dutch or Polish so maybe won’t get on so well.

Re the Germans, I travelled to Germany quite often on business when I was working, and hosted Germans back here. I really like them, contrary to popular belief they do have a sense of humour and I found are good company and good people to do business with.

 

[Chris]

Blame Brexit, and the fact that Italy is not going to get a cut of 30 billion Quid. I would probably be miffed as well.

Isn’t it their banks that are over exposed?

WTF has that got to do with Brexit?

 

[EX51SSS]

Re the Germans, I travelled to Germany quite often on business when I was working, and hosted Germans back here. I really like them, contrary to popular belief they do have a sense of humour and I found are good company and good people to do business with.

 

[TerryL]

In my coach driver days I travelled all over Europe and generally found everyone helpful and friendly although I did take the trouble to learn a few words of the language. I did notice that every country had different attitudes so I just adapted.

To be honest I found folk less friendly and helpful in the UK!

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[MyrtleGuru]

It’s the Dutch I am not very keen on.

And the French of course.

Terry Collier's world view ?:

 

[GAVLAD]

Just returned from a similar route doing Lux/France/Swiss/Italy/Austria/Germany/NL/Belgium
I don’t think the Italians would have bothered with us had it not been for us having a 6yr old in tow who they went out of their way to fuss about but ignored us, not that it bothered us.
We wondered whether it was a Brexit thing but it wasn’t, it was probably because it was us
We found that the Dutch can only communicate by shouting to one another, preferably from one end of the campsite to the other. The Germans tried their best to try their English but didn’t know how to smile, the French just tutted and shrugged and the Swiss were happy amongst themselves letting fireworks off.

The prize for us went to an American who looked like the guy with the beard from the film The Hangover who, despite having his own pitch situated some 100m away, decided to bring his two young kids onto our pitch and play badminton. He even brought his chair and coffee. It was totally random as we were inside our Motorhome so wasn’t as if it was kids making friends. My sarcasm was totally lost on him and I still think his skin was made of Teflon.
You can imagine my delight when they lost the shuttlecock on my Motorhome roof.
I think that we are all just different - like our English neighbours in their big American RV.
They never sat out once and when they did go out, he wore trousers and blazer whilst we had our shorts & T shirt stuck to us in the heat.
God know what they all must think of us Brits