What is the stereotype of Italian people?

[Agne]

My English teacher asked me to write an article about Italian people. In the last lesson we talked about stereotype of people of other countries and I found it very interesting.
I am curious to hear what people from other countries think about my country.
What do you think? What is the stereotype of Italian people in your country?
I won't be offended by your replies whether they are positive or negative, really. We spoke about Italian/UK stereotype and it was fun, because much of it was not true (in example, many think that Italian people eat always spaghetti, o listen only to Opera, that is absolutely not true).:)

[kari]

Erm ... they cannot talk without waving their arms around!

The men are all incredibly forward.

They're all very touchy-feely.

They all support teams like Lecce and 1-0 is an exciting game :)

[WillFlyToDisney]

Italians usually have dark hair and are very outgoing. They can cook up a storm! The 2 Italian guys I have dated in my life were very romantic too (which they both claimed was part of their heritage).

[MarcoAviator]

They are big, fat, obnoxious, drive big cars, hog the left lane, gawk at girls ages 9-90 shamelessly, they'd come on to a hamster if hamsters couldn't run faster than them ...

Humm ... let's see ... they talk with their hands a lot (non stop which is very annoying), they are touchy, they don't like to party (for REAL) and they get plastered with half a shot of Jack Daniels.

Yeah ... that's about it.

:D

Yes I am Italian ... how am I different?

My age limit for chicks is 20 to good looking (have a crush on Annette Bening), I hold Jack Daniels and Tequila pretty good (vodka kills me though), and I don't chase hamsters.

And oh yeah ... I don't hog the left lane. :rolling:

[Jeff California]

Jeff says:
Lots and lots of food. Women cooking while the men discuss who they are gonna "whack" next. Maybe I have been watching too much of the Sopranos and The Godfather movies....


Andrea says-

#1 the mob

#2 eating pasta

#3 italian men are romantics/sexy


Now, lets turn it around Agnes. What are your stereotypes regarding Americans?

Sounds like it will be a fun article to write!

[WillFlyToDisney]

I think TV plays a part in shaping what we think of other nationalities. Thinking of Italians on American TV shows I come up with...

*Vinnie Barbarino of Welcome Back Kotter (played by John Travolta)
*Most of the cast of The Sopranos
*Sophia Petrillo of the Golden Girls (played by Estelle Getty)

Who else can everyone think of??

[Agne]

Thank you for your replies !!!

What's true:

Yes, we gesticulate a lot. I do, often without realizing it. You can see it more in Southern Italy, especially in Naples.

Italian people love football. I don't, even though I support the team of my city (Cesena), which is not so famous (B serie). When I was a child I was a convinced Juventus supporter.
Kari, did you meet a Lecce's fan when you were in Italy?

We love food and we eat pasta. Our breakfast usually consists in coffee and cake or pastry. For lunch I eat pasta (cooked in different ways). For dinner meat or fish or eggs, with vegetables. And, very important: bread.

They are big, fat, obnoxious, drive big cars, hog the left lane, gawk at girls ages 9-90 shamelessly, they'd come on to a hamster if hamsters couldn't run faster than them ...

Humm ... let's see ... they talk with their hands a lot (non stop which is very annoying), they are touchy, they don't like to party (for REAL) and they get plastered with half a shot of Jack Daniels.


Oh, thank you Marco. It's so nice of you ! :tongue: :lol:

Big and fat: it depends.

What does "gawk" mean? Are you referring to the famous old saying "basta che respiri"? I don't think all Italian men are like this.

About the left lane, yes it's true, many people do it. But I don't !:)

What did you mean when you said that we don't like to party?
I can't drink too much alcohol because it makes me sleepy and causes terrible headaches. When I go out for dinner, I usually drink a glass of wine or beer.

There are many aspects of my country that I don't like. First, our laziness and the habit of complaining about everything. We are noisy and often rude and I notice it when I am in a foreign country.

It's normal to associate Italian people to mafia. It exists, and it's a real probem especially in the South.

[Agne]

Now, lets turn it around Agnes. What are your stereotypes regarding Americans?


OK, I'll tell you first the general Italian sterotype regarding Americans. This is what people,especially who have never visited America, think.

1- American people eat always hamburgers and fries, drink Coke, and have breakfast with scrambled eggs and bacon.

2- They are blonde.

3- They go always to the gym and are athletic, brawny and good looking.

4- They like laughing and having fun.

5- In America everything is BIG.

6- Everyone has a gun in his drawer.

7- The food is bad.

I visited the US many times and I was always impressed by the kindness and the pleasantness of the people.
It's true, the first impression we have is that everything is big: cars, roads, buildings. But we get used soon and when we come back home everything look small.
It's not true that the food is bad. I like it very much ! The problem is that Italian people often associate "different" with "bad". And they want to find Italian food everywhere.

[noflyingfan]

My boyfriend's family came from Italy way back when, and he loves to talk about himself in the stereotypical way. It drives me crazy. For example, the mob stuff, the endless diet of pasta (I have to admit, he eats a lot of pasta, and we had lasagna -- along with the turkey -- at Thanksgiving yesterday) and that Italians are all tan and hairy and all have dark, dark hair. I tried to tell him that no Italian person I have ever met who is ACTUALLY Italian (i.e. comes from Italy) looks like that. I'm sure there are those who do, but not all of them do.

I have to say, I really hate the whole Italian thing he tries to do. First, he's never been to Italy, and no one in his family has ever been to Italy since his great-great grandparents or whomever came from Italy. He's never met a person who actually lived in Italy; he doesn't know squat about Italy. Yet he's always identifying himself as Italian.

I have a big thing about this. Not just about my boyfriend, but anyone who does that. My great-great grandfather came from Germany, but I don't consider myself German. I was born in the U.S. and have never even visited Germany. So while I say that my heritage is German, that I am of German descent, I never say that I myself am German.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there.

[Lynda]

Ok Italian Men

Dark
Tanned
Flirtatious
Bossy
Armani suited
Romantic
Hot tempered

Italian women

Fashion icon
Balenciaga bags ( purses for our US friends)
Younger women Slim wears dark colours
Older women not so slim often wears black.
Loves cooking
very family orientated
long dark hair
tanned

[WillFlyToDisney]

Agne - funny that you mention that Italians hate to eat different food. I would bet a good bit of Americans do that too when visiting other countries - always looking for a McDonalds or other familiar food. We went on our Senior trip to Mexico and ended up eating at Denny's for most every meal in Mexico City. :rolleyes:

I love Italian food but find it hard to find many things on the menu that I can eat due to my food allergies (especially onions which seem to be in every sauce).

[kari]

Didn't meet any Lecce fans, or at least none that were prepared to admit to being a Lecce fan. You have to be Italian to be a Lecce fan though.

Nothing wrong with being a Juventus supporter!

And why do all the men stare so much? :blush: Interestingly enough - the police seem to be the worst culprits!

[EyesSkyward]

Who else can everyone think of??

From TV? Well...

Louie DePalma & Tony Banta from "Taxi"

Carla from "Cheers"

Laverne DeFazio and Carmine Ragusa from "Laverne & Shirley"

Fonzie & Chachi from "Happy Days"

Capt. Furillo from "Hill St. Blues"

Baretta from, um, "Baretta"

Columbo from, well, "Columbo"

Joey Tribianni from "Friends"

The "Mama Mia, that's a spicy meatball" guy from the old commercial. :)

Topo Gigio!

- Jeff

[MarcoAviator]

Oh, thank you Marco. It's so nice of you ! :tongue: :lol:


HEHE ... actually I was describing Italians from Staten Island, not Italy ... :rotflmao::rotflmao::rotflmao:

And yes .... "basta che respiri" pretty much nails it :eek:

[Agne]

Agne - funny that you mention that Italians hate to eat different food. I would bet a good bit of Americans do that too when visiting other countries - always looking for a McDonalds or other familiar food. We went on our Senior trip to Mexico and ended up eating at Denny's for most every meal in Mexico City. :rolleyes:


I heard a man complaining about Greek food because when he was in Greece he didn't find good pasta, without trying gyros, or souvlaki, or moussaka that are real Greek specialities.
When I am in other countries I never go to Italian restaurants: I can eat Italian food everyday at home. I like to try different food. And I will never complain if I can't find good spaghetti. Many Italians don't understand this.

Kari, or maybe you have to be from Lecce to be a Lecce fan. I didn't even know it was in serie A! :rolleyes:

Jeff, you really know TOPO GIGIO? I can't believe it, that talking mouse arrived to America. And what language does he speak? How does he say his famous "Ma cosa mi dici mai !"?

[EyesSkyward]

Okay, this is weird...

I went to the movies this afternoon ("Capote"... Phillip Seymour Hoffman will get an Oscar for this, I predict) and when I got out of my car in the parking garage, I saw the phrase "Italians stereotype me!!" scrawled on the wall nearby.

What does it mean? Who left it, and why? I have no idea. But I took a picture of it with my trusy cameraphone. :confused:

- Jeff

[kari]

Kari, or maybe you have to be from Lecce to be a Lecce fan. I didn't even know it was in serie A! :rolleyes:



Are they really still in Serie A?
So nobody supports them ... now I know why they always seemed to be playing to an empty stadium :)

[MarcoAviator]

Are they really still in Serie A?
So nobody supports them ... now I know why they always seemed to be playing to an empty stadium :)

wow ... some of you people know more about Italy than I do ... geez.

I have been out of touch! :mg:

[kari]

wow ... some of you people know more about Italy than I do ... geez.

I have been out of touch! :mg:

Ah, I cut my teeth on that rubbish about ten years ago. They used to bring us Italian football every week (sadly this has now been relegated to some obscure channel that nobody has!) and I would watch, trying to drown out Dad and Brother saying "how can you watch this?! It's so boring!" obviously not realising that anything involving Italian men in shorts is not boring.

I used to love (apart from the shorts!) the theatrics. It wasn't enough for them just to fall over. They had to fall over, roll along ten times and then run to the ref, practically in tears, positively begging for a penalty. There, that's another stereotype for you :) I miss it.

Bring back Football Italia on a Sunday afternoon. That's what I say.

[MarcoAviator]

I used to love (apart from the shorts!) the theatrics. It wasn't enough for them just to fall over. They had to fall over, roll along ten times and then run to the ref, practically in tears, positively begging for a penalty. There, that's another stereotype for you :) I miss it.

Oh yeah ... forgot about that...

ahh ... good times. :D

[EyesSkyward]

Why is it that the word "gesticulate" reminds me of the word "testicle"?:lol:

Well, etymologically speaking, both words are derived from the diminutive of a Latin word, formed by adding "culus".

Testis -> Testiculus -> Testicle

Gestus -> Gesticulus -> Gesticulate


Or you just have a dirty mind. One of the two...

- Jeff

[Celia]

hehe. this was very funny:lol:. looks like i am a bit late for this debate, but anyway; here's some facts i learned after visiting italy:

- they dont have any traffic rules, but if you want to be first in line during rush hour, you just honk your horn. unfortunately everybody does this at the same time.
- italian guys touch blonde girls hair without any warning. (lucky for me, i had learned some useful phrases to keep the "touchers " away.)
- they are all very outgoing (being a shy norwegian this scared me a bit)

but i have to say that italy is the most beautiful country i've ever visited, and i really want to go back sometimes:sunshine:

[spiffyone]

I grew up surrounded by Italian-Americans (who were born here). I think a lot of these stereotypes people are throwing out refer to that group. When I think of Italians from Italy (I can't believe no one has said this yet, Agne) I think of the women as being beautiful in a quirky, mysterious, foreign-film kind of way, and the men as being scruffy and disheveled but handsome. And everyone wears fashionable clothes and has a great bag.

spiff