Stereotypes tell a story. As a part of culture, they open up passionate dialogues and in doing so, often confirm the very stereotype being discussed (fact: an Italian denying their overuse of hand gestures, will do so by using a surprising amount of hand gestures). So which country has the most clichés? We’re pretty sure you guys will come up with “Italy”. So did we.
We did a bit of research on our bff Google to understand how Italy is seen by the rest of the world.
It’s all about pizza and pasta
Italians survive off pizza and pasta. That’s it. Although it’s true Italian diets are mostly a not-so-delicate balance of these two foods, every little town differs and serves up their own style so you’ll never eat the same pizza twice. As for the rest of the world, they’re merely a delicious cornucopia of carbohydrates.
When it comes to talking, they can’t stop with gestures
Waving, always, no matter what the reason. Italians are a rowdy bunch and use their hands to communicate just about everything. Seriously. They’re out of control. Sometimes, they don’t even need to talk because their enthusiastic sign language seems more than enough. Italy has a sort of sub-language shared throughout the country that’s more or less undecipherable to any foreigner.
Italians are great in the sack
It doesn’t matter if you’re fast in bed like Usain Bolt or you’re able to last for hours as in the most famous porn movies. As Italian, you will always be known as an awesome sex partner. (*An Italian may or may not have written this article).
Life in Italy is like ‘Padrino’: Mafia is everywhere
Started as a Southern movement, Mafia is definitely a part of Italian history. This is simply a fact. The country has experienced terrorism of all sorts in the past, and some say it’s still there now. For the record though, this isn’t totally true. Given the fact that money and control usually come together, in Italy, the economic headquarter is based up North. Even though non-Italians may think the Mafia are centred in Sicily or, worse, in Naples, the whole movement is actually orchestrated from Milan.
You can’t beat mamma. Italians love their mums
Although any Italian will undoubtedly disagree with this, mothers come before girlfriends, football, pizza or pasta. Comparisons are lost wars, and it’s not even worth trying to compete with an Italian mum. In their eyes, mamma ranks number one.
Don’t go with the flow
As dictionary.com cites, a stereotype is a “fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” In other words, stereotypes are mental processes generally created by us, and generally too general. Are they completely false? Taking Italy as a case study, we would likely say “no”. Italian stereotypes are partly true, but there’s often more to the story. How to get the full picture? Make the move. Relocate to Italy to rent apartments or rent rooms, where Nestpick also located in Milan, Rome, Bologna and Florence and see yourself what Italians are all about.