My dear polite travelers,
We
have just returned from a very enlightening and enjoyable Italian holiday. The focus of the trip was in part research
(manners, etiquette,
and mobility challenged travel-related) and in part just plain soaking up the
culture. Fun. Most easily, we found our fun and interaction
with others. However, the research and
soaking up the culture of the locals was the difficult part of the equation.
Tourist Overload
I
suppose we set ourselves up for this difficulty due to our choices of
location. As a teacher, I felt compelled
to visit a few of the best-known art and architecture/historical centers:
Siena, Florence, and Venice (skipped Rome this visit). These cities are not only drenched in art and
history but they are also overrun with tourists. So, mostly we found ourselves surrounded by
those either not from Italy or those truly tired of intruders.
We
have all heard of the ugly Americans, those who visit other countries with an
attitude of entitlement and expect the inhabitants to treat them as
special. So, I completely understand why
the locals would be tired of us and a bit grumpy toward me personally, not that
I feel entitled or try to gain favor from others. However, even though I understand the
"why" in the behavior doesn't mean that I enjoy it.
This
isn't to say that all the locals were grumpy or distant, this couldn't be
farther from the truth. But we did find
that many of the younger and those who must directly interact with tourists
were testy, distant, and indifferent.
Sound familiar? We are often the
same. We found older people and those
who don't deal with tourists daily much warmer.
Not a big surprise. Of course, I
would imagine that if we had ventured off the tourist track, we would find a
much warmer reception.
No Matter Where You Go, There We Are
Another
similarity to our culture we found, besides our young ones, is our table
manners. Italians
are known for their love of "bella figura" which basically means
"beautiful figure". Thus,
they strive to appear proper and well-dressed.
Yep, Some Italians Fork-Flip Too
For
the most part, we found this to be true...with one notable exception—table
manners. Interestingly, we witnessed
problems with their table manners the same as at home. More precisely, many "fork
flip". Fork flipping is common
here. Instead of moving the fork
to our dominant hand after cutting, which is required for proper American-style
utensil usage, many will simply flip the tines up to eat after cutting. While using the Continental method, after
cutting a morsel, the fork is kept in the same hand with tines down. One brings the fork to the mouth on the back
of the fork and on the tip of the tines.
We didn't see much of this. Of
course, again, we were in touristy areas.
I would imagine a different experience if we ventured deeper into Italy,
which I am looking forward to doing some time soon.
Tread Lightly
So,
all in all, we found that we are all pretty much the same people. Granted, we may have a slightly different
focus. But we tend to behave much the
same. Because of this, I feel that we
should remember that our vacation is just another day for the locals, and they
might be a bit tired of all the traffic. We should treat them better.
I fell in love with Italy and Italians. We have many wonderful stories about individuals we met and how many helped us. I hope to share more of these stories going forward. I hope you share your stories with us as well.
More by
The Polite Traveler
Vacation
Etiquette: Foreign Travel Tips
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