We recently spent an extended vacation in Italy and Greece. Some of the cultural differences were pretty interesting. These are a few things that I noticed…I have made some generalizations which imply that my experiences reflect on the entire country of Italy. I haven’t done any scientific research, these are just my thoughts and I’m probably mistaken about a few items…especially after a few glasses of vino (wine).

1. Snack foods are almost non-existent. Our grocery store in Milwaukee has a whole aisle of snack foods (chips, pretzels, tortilla chips, etc). In Italy, you might see some bars that offer free chips around 5pm for a happy hour, but otherwise…we didn’t see any snack foods commonly available.

2. Water is not free. At nearly every restaurant in the US, you can enjoy unlimited free water with your meal. In Italy, if you want water, you will need to pay for it. Served in bottles, it comes with gas or without. The gas makes it similar to a seltzer water. (We usually ordered Sin-gas). The tap water in Italy is just fine…but they don’t serve it to you at restaurants.

3. There are no free refills. You will not have the option to have free refills on soda. Soda is also served in bottles.

4. Dinner is enjoyed later in the day, usually around 8pm or later.

5. Your hotel might not have soap or shampoo. Hotels only had a bed and bath towels. You will need to find your own soap.

6. Grocery stores will charge you for a bag. In general, you will need to pay for everything that you want. If you want a plastic bag for your groceries, you will need to pay. If you want water with your meal, you will need to pay. If you want more Fanta or Coca-cola, you will need to pay. This is unlike in the US where many things are free with the costs included in something else…

7. Free Wireless (WiFi) Internet was difficult to find. In the US, most businesses seem to give away WiFi to customers. This is not the case in Italy.

8. Pizza is served uncut. When the pizza arrives at your table, you are responsible to cut the pizza as you desire.

9. Ice is very rare. Since most of the drinks are served in bottles…and probably for other reasons, ice cubes in beverages is rare.

10. Some toilets do not have toilet seats…other “toilets” are just a hole in the ground for you to squat. Toilet paper is usually available, but in Greece you are not supposed to flush it. They have a little garbage can for the dirty work. Public toilets are not freely available. You may have to pay to use a public toilet, it may be crappy. 🙂

11. People walk a lot. People smoke a lot. People don’t eat snack foods. People don’t have 300 ounces of free refilled Coca-cola with meals. People are thin.

12. People wear nice clothes. Only the tourists wear shorts. Most of the men wear suits. Rome is a little more diverse in the clothing and young people often break the fashion rules.

13. People move at a slightly slower pace. Many businesses close down in the afternoon for Siesta. (Usually between 1pm-3:30pm.)

14. People are generally friendly towards tourists and willing to help. You don’t need to speak Italian…but at the same time you shouldn’t expect the Italians to know English. We noticed a few American tourists who were visibly annoyed when a waiter didn’t understand English. This is not Olive Garden, you are in a Foreign country.

15. Most people pay for things in cash. Credit and Debit cards are not very popular.

I might add more to this list, but right now it’s looking pretty good. From what I can remember about our other trips to Europe…many of these differences may also apply to other European countries…like Spain, France, Switzerland, etc. Heidi might also have some corrections or additions. Stay tuned or ask me some questions if you have any interest. I’m not an expert, but I play one on this website.