Italian Stereotypes

Today we’re here to talk about Italian stereotypes and communication!

Here, as in every other nation, obviously, we have our stereotypes and to be honest they’re just amazing!
My favorite one is: “Italians only eat pizza and pasta” Really? Do you think that within the nation with the best cuisine, we only eat pizza and pasta? Well, almost. Here we eat pasta at least 3-4/7 times a week but we never eat the same type of pasta in a week.

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In our country we have lots of type of pasta, such as “orecchiette” “spaghetti” “penne” “farfalle” and so on. The second one is: “Italian people are lazy”.

This one is just true. We are so lazy, that we invent every day some excuses in particular for justify our actions. For example, when we have to do something for our parents, or for school, sometimes we use some excuse like “just a sec!” and then time flows, “i’m coming!” and then nobody comes or “5 more minutes!” and then we stay in bed for another good hour.

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When you think of Italy, you obviously think about communicating with gestures. And it’s true. In Italy we can communicate with just gestures, so if you want to communicate here, you must know some them, at least.

The first one you must know is: hand that touches chin. This gesture means “I don’t care” and you can use it if someone says something that nobody cares about. This gesture is pretty rude so I suggest you not to use it often.

The second one is: horns with hand.

This isn’t a very used gesture, but you can use it when you are talking about something you never wish would happen to you, it means “I hope it doesn’t happen to me”.

Another used gesture is the classic one that is very useful, in fact you can use it to ask literally any question, it doesn’t matter what you’re asking, you can use it anyway. And you can use this gesture also when you disagree with someone.

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To communicate here you also have to know some common says. Most used here are “arrampicarsi sugli specchi”, “datti una mossa!” and “avere la testa tra le nuvole”.

The first one is translatable into “climbing mirrors” and it means doing something very difficult or impossible, you use it when you know that you can’t do something.

The second one is translatable into “give yourself a move!” literally, but it means “hurry up!”. You use it when you have to do something really fast.

Finally the third one is translatable into “have head up in the clouds” and it means be distracted, you use it when you want your friend to concentrate on what they’re doing, pointing out that they’re distracted.