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Fork flipping and more Italian revelations

 Rialto bridge, bridge, Venice, Italy

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

Air Travel Etiquette—Airport Behavior

Travels to Venice, Italy

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