Gangsters and Pizza?

Italians shouldn’t be judged by what you see in the movies

Italian+exchange+student+Valentina+Frau+hangs+out+with+her+friends+in+her+city+of+Terralba+during+Carnival%2C+an+Italian+festival+similar+to+Mardi+Gras.+

Courtesy of Valentina Frau

Italian exchange student Valentina Frau hangs out with her friends in her city of Terralba during Carnival, an Italian festival similar to Mardi Gras.

Stereotypes of Americans can be easily created by a large part of what we see on television and on social media platforms. The most common ideas that we have about Americans are, they are fat because they eat a lot in fast food.  This is because in a normal city in America you can find more than 20 fast food/restaurants on a single street. Also Americans are seen as very patriotic.  Once a day, in school, they say the Pledge of Allegiance facing the flag with a hand on their hearts.  In my country, Italy, we don’t even have a single flag in the whole school. We can also see that your gun crimes and gun  possession are out of control because you can own a gun/ obtain a gun with ease. For us Italians, we think it’s crazy that you can buy a gun without any serious reason or qualifications and that you can have one in your house and carry one around in your pocket. This is especially seen in movies. Also, we Italians think that Americans  are crazy about football.It’s like they never miss a game.        

On the flipside, I also want to talk about what Italian stereotypes are to Americans. People think that Italians speak loudly with their hands constantly gesturing. We have so many actions that mean words that you don’t even need to say it sometimes, for people to understand it. Here, in the U.S, as well as other places  around the world, people think that Italians are connected with the organization crime. I think that in Italy there is a mafia as there is in  every country in the world. Some have more and some have less organized crime  but were not the only country with one, but they have a larger presence in Italy.

Another thing that I’m sure you think is that we eat only pizza and pasta. We actually eat pasta every day but it’s not the only thing we eat as well as pizza. Italy has a diverse culture of food and culinary techniques. Breakfast is usually sweet with hot or cold milk or fruit juice accompanied by baked goods such as biscuits or bread with jam or hazelnut cream. We also drink coffee, cappuccino or espresso. Lunch is the most important meal of the day. We usually eat a dish of pasta and after that meat or fish or cheese or ham maybe with some vegetables. For dinner we eat meat or fish usually with salad.  

The last stereotype that is often perceived about Italians is that they are obsessed with fashion and what their wearing. While yes, we are very influenced by high fashion and put a large presidence on our look; we are not obsessed with it.

So, through stereotypes we can partially know the culture of one country, but often, stereotypes, are not right.They make us think that we really know what’s going on in other countries, but our ideas are really different from what a country really looks like.