Here are a couple other tidbits of things I’ve observed that I’ve found interesting:
· Italians really can live on pasta, pizza & gelato! Yes they do eat other things including all types of meat (lots of veal & seafood), salads, and veggies, but for instance when you go to lunch with colleagues, they will typically ask ‘What are you hungry for pizza, pasta, fruit with gelato?’. I thought maybe it was a misconception about how much pizza and pasta they eat, but they do eat a lot.
And gelato…oh gelato…I still LOVE gelato! When I came here on vacation, I thought maybe gelato was something mostly just tourist ate all the time…but from my observation it isn’t. You will see kids eating gelato, teens going to get gelato together, families getting gelato, a guy in a business suit walking around with gelato, older people eating gelato…and they are not all tourists! And you know how in Houston it seems there is a Starbucks on every corner…in most places in Rome I think there is a gelateria on every corner! Last night I realized that the restaurant 2 doors down from my apartment building sells gelato…only about 20 steps away…that could be dangerous!
· Italian drivers get impatient with a lot of things – one being when the light turns green and the car in front doesn’t move (I hear them honking all the time since there is a light right in front of my apartment building.). But what they don’t get impatient with are people who walk out in front of them in the street or motor scooters who zoom past them to get to the front of the light or just go in between lanes just to get through. It’s quiet amazing! And people walking in the street or crossing the street wherever – I’ve quickly adapted to that one. No more waiting on the street corners for me – I just start walking & assume they will stop (there are some streets you can’t do that on, but most you can)…and amazingly they do with no horns honking! Anyone who walks around with me in the US when I’m ever visiting, please watch out for me there because I’m liable to just starting walking in the street and get run over!
· Rome, despite it’s size, is a very safe city. Yes of course you have your pickpocketers and stuff like that, but on the news and in the newspapers you really don’t see the murders, stabbings, kidnappings and stuff like that like you do in the US. Maybe they do have more than I think & since I don’t read/understand Italian well I just don’t get it all, but even the Italians have told me it’s very safe here. Walking around late at night, you don’t have to feel like you are watching your back all the time and people really do leave you alone (haven’t had any guys trying to hit on me because I’m walking alone at night or anything like that). Of course you have to be safe & smart and don’t do things like walk with your purse open or go in very dark areas etc., but for the most part it is very safe. And yes sometimes you see people yelling at each other in the street and they seem quite heated (the other day I saw a man on a bike & a taxi cab driving yelling at each other while they were stopped in the middle of the street), but they yell and then move on – that’s it.
· Just visiting the Italians seem so friendly that I thought it would be no problem making friends, but I’ve been told it is difficult to make Italian friends. They also said that once you do they are the kind of friends that stick by you through thick and thin and are always by your side when you need, but that it can take years before you find that friend.
One of the other expats in our office told me that in Italy you typically don’t hang out with co-workers outside the office. Working at a public accounting firm, what is nice is that your peers are usually all around your age, many still single (okay at my level more are probably married, but I don’t want to face the fact yet that I’m getting older and marriage is no where even near in sight, so I’ll make myself believe most are still single! ;-) ) and so it’s very common…at least in the US…for you to hang out with coworkers after work to grab a drink or a bite to eat. But I’ve been told here that usually doesn’t happen and if it does it’s probably mostly expats. Many Italians live at home until they are married and family is very important, so maybe it’s because they always go to eat with there family – I’m still not really sure why.
There are some Italians in the office I talk to and have been to dinner with a couple (a non-Italian colleague invited us all), but mostly I have had dinner with people from various countries. Some of the ones I’ve talked work at PwC and have moved here indefinitely from other countries, some are Americans that have moved here, some are others working in Rome for a short or long period of time that I happen to run into from various countries – really sometimes I have just met people in random places and start talking to them. When you are alone and have no friends, you find yourself just talking to anyone else who speaks English too. Before coming here I said I didn’t plan on joining any of the ‘American’ or ‘English speaking’ groups here, but now that I have learned how difficult it can be to get into the Italian ‘circles’, I’ve changed my mind about that and plan to join some. I have to be able to network and socialize somehow! I do have several people (Italian & non-Italians) that are friends of friends or from online discussion groups that I’ve been corresponding with that I plan to met up with in person after the August holidays, so that will be nice to at least have people to visit with.
· There are a lot of priest and nuns here – I probably see at least 10 priests/nuns a day. At this point I’m not sure how many are tourists and how many live here, but in a couple months I will know. Also I’ve found that the more nuns here wear their habits compared to back home. In the US it’s actually hard to pick out nuns because many dress in normal clothes, but here even when it’s really, really hot they will wear their full dress…habit & all.
· It gets hot here and although not as hot as Houston, there are less places with AC and you walk a lot more – thus there is no way around it, you’re going to sweat! Many buses/ metros don’t have AC’s in them, most places the AC isn’t as low as in the US, you will eat outside, wait for the bus outside in the sun – yes no way around it you will sweat!
· Tattoos and piercing seem as common here as in the US. Even models in some of the ads have arm tattoos that aren’t airbrushed out.
· There is more American music and movies played here than I ever thought would be. The movies and TV shows are dubbed in Italian, but the music is in English. I will be in a store and start signing along (yes I do have a habit of people one of the annoying people who starts singing to music and not even realizing it) and then it hits me…oh wait I’m in Italy and this is a song in English!
· Not all Italian men are Italian models! I’m not walking around with my jaw dropped drooling over men all the time! Now they do have some very nice ads I have to say, but again those are models.
I have to throw this one in because of all the comments I received about me coming to Rome to find an Italian husbands or that I’m definitely going to come back married…or those of you who have asked me to find an Italian stallion for you! ;-) Now yes, there are some very attractive men here & the dark skin, dark hair, sense of fashion, etc. are very attractive, but again just like everywhere not all are hot Italian men! The men are of every shape, size, personality, etc. – not all tall, dark, handsome with a six pack and gorgeous hair. And most of the time when you do see that very attractive man, he has a very beautiful Italian girl on his arm! And yes it is tourist season, so sometimes it is hard for me to pick the Italian men out from afar compared to tourists (at least for me right now), so maybe when the tourists are gone I’ll say there are more attractive Italian men!
Anyway I have found that now what I see as ‘attractive’ has changed a bit already. I was never one for the ‘metro’ guys, but here all guys seem a bit ‘metro’ - men to seem to have a very good sense of fashion & it seems that there might be just as many clothing stores for them as there are for women and they flock to them. Maybe it’s that the men here also typically wear suits to the office, which to me a man in a suit always seems a lot more handsome. As a side note, I haven’t really figured out the dress code at PwC for us females. It’s supposedly business, but most wear knit sleeveless shirts with no jacket, etc. – so I’ve started doing the same since it’s so hot here & all I’m doing is sitting in the office. I bought a black blazer I have in the office if need be, but don’t typically wear it.
The other thing is finally it’s not odd for me to see guys hugging…or most of the time greeting each other with a kiss on each cheek or calling each other ‘bello’ (beautiful in English)…that’s just normal here. Italian men seem to show there emotions more…towards females & towards other males, that’s just how it is!
Oh and also found out that most Italians are very much into astrology and even before they will date you some will want to know your sign and even the date and time you were born to see if you are compatible before they will go out on a date with you! (A non-Italian told me they did indeed have this happen to them).
I have never been one to say – when I get married I want to wear this dress, or have it here or my bridesmaids dresses will be like this…never any wedding planning…but I must admit that after seeing the brides & grooms walking around taking pictures, and seeing pictures in windows, and being in the churches, I have found myself thinking ‘well Rome would be a great place to get married’ (and I now know you don’t have to be Italian to get married here…even in St. Peter’s). And after I went to Noi and saw a bride in there having her hair and make-up done, I caught myself thinking ‘Oh I could have my wedding in Rome & could come to Noi to have my hair done…”. I think it all has something about being in Rome in July and all the weddings!
But any of you thinking you’ll come to Rome in a couple years for my wedding…don’t book anything yet! Or those who have said I’m not coming back to Houston because I’m going to get married here and never return…don’t count on the fact that I won’t return…not yet! ;-)
So with all that said, no I’m not on a husband watch here and not already planning my wedding here – I mean if it happens, it happens, but it is not something I am on a mission to do!
· Italians do talk a lot with there hands. There are 2 common gestures they use often I’ve noticed – one with one hand where they kind of have it cupped & move it in a gestured to & and from them…the other where they put there hands together like they are praying & will move them back and forth (not sure if I’m explaining it will…easier to demonstrate). Usually they do this to emphasize a point I believe. Once I was looking out on my balcony and say a guy on his scooter talking on his phone with his Bluetooth doing these gestures while at the stop light. It’s actually a bit entertaining! I will say that when I start using them regularly, I will know I’m becoming a bit more Italian!
· Italians really can live on pasta, pizza & gelato! Yes they do eat other things including all types of meat (lots of veal & seafood), salads, and veggies, but for instance when you go to lunch with colleagues, they will typically ask ‘What are you hungry for pizza, pasta, fruit with gelato?’. I thought maybe it was a misconception about how much pizza and pasta they eat, but they do eat a lot.
And gelato…oh gelato…I still LOVE gelato! When I came here on vacation, I thought maybe gelato was something mostly just tourist ate all the time…but from my observation it isn’t. You will see kids eating gelato, teens going to get gelato together, families getting gelato, a guy in a business suit walking around with gelato, older people eating gelato…and they are not all tourists! And you know how in Houston it seems there is a Starbucks on every corner…in most places in Rome I think there is a gelateria on every corner! Last night I realized that the restaurant 2 doors down from my apartment building sells gelato…only about 20 steps away…that could be dangerous!
· Italian drivers get impatient with a lot of things – one being when the light turns green and the car in front doesn’t move (I hear them honking all the time since there is a light right in front of my apartment building.). But what they don’t get impatient with are people who walk out in front of them in the street or motor scooters who zoom past them to get to the front of the light or just go in between lanes just to get through. It’s quiet amazing! And people walking in the street or crossing the street wherever – I’ve quickly adapted to that one. No more waiting on the street corners for me – I just start walking & assume they will stop (there are some streets you can’t do that on, but most you can)…and amazingly they do with no horns honking! Anyone who walks around with me in the US when I’m ever visiting, please watch out for me there because I’m liable to just starting walking in the street and get run over!
· Rome, despite it’s size, is a very safe city. Yes of course you have your pickpocketers and stuff like that, but on the news and in the newspapers you really don’t see the murders, stabbings, kidnappings and stuff like that like you do in the US. Maybe they do have more than I think & since I don’t read/understand Italian well I just don’t get it all, but even the Italians have told me it’s very safe here. Walking around late at night, you don’t have to feel like you are watching your back all the time and people really do leave you alone (haven’t had any guys trying to hit on me because I’m walking alone at night or anything like that). Of course you have to be safe & smart and don’t do things like walk with your purse open or go in very dark areas etc., but for the most part it is very safe. And yes sometimes you see people yelling at each other in the street and they seem quite heated (the other day I saw a man on a bike & a taxi cab driving yelling at each other while they were stopped in the middle of the street), but they yell and then move on – that’s it.
· Just visiting the Italians seem so friendly that I thought it would be no problem making friends, but I’ve been told it is difficult to make Italian friends. They also said that once you do they are the kind of friends that stick by you through thick and thin and are always by your side when you need, but that it can take years before you find that friend.
One of the other expats in our office told me that in Italy you typically don’t hang out with co-workers outside the office. Working at a public accounting firm, what is nice is that your peers are usually all around your age, many still single (okay at my level more are probably married, but I don’t want to face the fact yet that I’m getting older and marriage is no where even near in sight, so I’ll make myself believe most are still single! ;-) ) and so it’s very common…at least in the US…for you to hang out with coworkers after work to grab a drink or a bite to eat. But I’ve been told here that usually doesn’t happen and if it does it’s probably mostly expats. Many Italians live at home until they are married and family is very important, so maybe it’s because they always go to eat with there family – I’m still not really sure why.
There are some Italians in the office I talk to and have been to dinner with a couple (a non-Italian colleague invited us all), but mostly I have had dinner with people from various countries. Some of the ones I’ve talked work at PwC and have moved here indefinitely from other countries, some are Americans that have moved here, some are others working in Rome for a short or long period of time that I happen to run into from various countries – really sometimes I have just met people in random places and start talking to them. When you are alone and have no friends, you find yourself just talking to anyone else who speaks English too. Before coming here I said I didn’t plan on joining any of the ‘American’ or ‘English speaking’ groups here, but now that I have learned how difficult it can be to get into the Italian ‘circles’, I’ve changed my mind about that and plan to join some. I have to be able to network and socialize somehow! I do have several people (Italian & non-Italians) that are friends of friends or from online discussion groups that I’ve been corresponding with that I plan to met up with in person after the August holidays, so that will be nice to at least have people to visit with.
· There are a lot of priest and nuns here – I probably see at least 10 priests/nuns a day. At this point I’m not sure how many are tourists and how many live here, but in a couple months I will know. Also I’ve found that the more nuns here wear their habits compared to back home. In the US it’s actually hard to pick out nuns because many dress in normal clothes, but here even when it’s really, really hot they will wear their full dress…habit & all.
· It gets hot here and although not as hot as Houston, there are less places with AC and you walk a lot more – thus there is no way around it, you’re going to sweat! Many buses/ metros don’t have AC’s in them, most places the AC isn’t as low as in the US, you will eat outside, wait for the bus outside in the sun – yes no way around it you will sweat!
· Tattoos and piercing seem as common here as in the US. Even models in some of the ads have arm tattoos that aren’t airbrushed out.
· There is more American music and movies played here than I ever thought would be. The movies and TV shows are dubbed in Italian, but the music is in English. I will be in a store and start signing along (yes I do have a habit of people one of the annoying people who starts singing to music and not even realizing it) and then it hits me…oh wait I’m in Italy and this is a song in English!
· Not all Italian men are Italian models! I’m not walking around with my jaw dropped drooling over men all the time! Now they do have some very nice ads I have to say, but again those are models.
I have to throw this one in because of all the comments I received about me coming to Rome to find an Italian husbands or that I’m definitely going to come back married…or those of you who have asked me to find an Italian stallion for you! ;-) Now yes, there are some very attractive men here & the dark skin, dark hair, sense of fashion, etc. are very attractive, but again just like everywhere not all are hot Italian men! The men are of every shape, size, personality, etc. – not all tall, dark, handsome with a six pack and gorgeous hair. And most of the time when you do see that very attractive man, he has a very beautiful Italian girl on his arm! And yes it is tourist season, so sometimes it is hard for me to pick the Italian men out from afar compared to tourists (at least for me right now), so maybe when the tourists are gone I’ll say there are more attractive Italian men!
Anyway I have found that now what I see as ‘attractive’ has changed a bit already. I was never one for the ‘metro’ guys, but here all guys seem a bit ‘metro’ - men to seem to have a very good sense of fashion & it seems that there might be just as many clothing stores for them as there are for women and they flock to them. Maybe it’s that the men here also typically wear suits to the office, which to me a man in a suit always seems a lot more handsome. As a side note, I haven’t really figured out the dress code at PwC for us females. It’s supposedly business, but most wear knit sleeveless shirts with no jacket, etc. – so I’ve started doing the same since it’s so hot here & all I’m doing is sitting in the office. I bought a black blazer I have in the office if need be, but don’t typically wear it.
The other thing is finally it’s not odd for me to see guys hugging…or most of the time greeting each other with a kiss on each cheek or calling each other ‘bello’ (beautiful in English)…that’s just normal here. Italian men seem to show there emotions more…towards females & towards other males, that’s just how it is!
Oh and also found out that most Italians are very much into astrology and even before they will date you some will want to know your sign and even the date and time you were born to see if you are compatible before they will go out on a date with you! (A non-Italian told me they did indeed have this happen to them).
I have never been one to say – when I get married I want to wear this dress, or have it here or my bridesmaids dresses will be like this…never any wedding planning…but I must admit that after seeing the brides & grooms walking around taking pictures, and seeing pictures in windows, and being in the churches, I have found myself thinking ‘well Rome would be a great place to get married’ (and I now know you don’t have to be Italian to get married here…even in St. Peter’s). And after I went to Noi and saw a bride in there having her hair and make-up done, I caught myself thinking ‘Oh I could have my wedding in Rome & could come to Noi to have my hair done…”. I think it all has something about being in Rome in July and all the weddings!
But any of you thinking you’ll come to Rome in a couple years for my wedding…don’t book anything yet! Or those who have said I’m not coming back to Houston because I’m going to get married here and never return…don’t count on the fact that I won’t return…not yet! ;-)
So with all that said, no I’m not on a husband watch here and not already planning my wedding here – I mean if it happens, it happens, but it is not something I am on a mission to do!
· Italians do talk a lot with there hands. There are 2 common gestures they use often I’ve noticed – one with one hand where they kind of have it cupped & move it in a gestured to & and from them…the other where they put there hands together like they are praying & will move them back and forth (not sure if I’m explaining it will…easier to demonstrate). Usually they do this to emphasize a point I believe. Once I was looking out on my balcony and say a guy on his scooter talking on his phone with his Bluetooth doing these gestures while at the stop light. It’s actually a bit entertaining! I will say that when I start using them regularly, I will know I’m becoming a bit more Italian!
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