Any Irish ever lived in Italy and began to hate Italians?

ladyinwaiting · 26-09-2009 04:06PM #1

U know when I tell people I live in Italy (originally from Dublin) they say , "Wow you are so lucky, Pizza pasta casanova art blah"..Yes all those things are nice, but once you LIVE here and you are dealing with self absorbed Italians everyday it becomes a little different. :mad:

What is with the staring?!? Everyone stares here and its normal!?
And everything being closed all the time?
Do Italians ever work??

Anyone have these experiences? I'm starting to really look forward to leaving here!

Jarren · 26-09-2009 04:26PM

ladyinwaiting wrote: »

U know when I tell people I live in Italy (originally from Dublin) they say , "Wow you are so lucky, Pizza pasta casanova art blah"..Yes all those things are nice, but once you LIVE here and you are dealing with self absorbed Italians everyday it becomes a little different. :mad:

What is with the staring?!? Everyone stares here and its normal!?
And everything being closed all the time?
Do Italians ever work??

Anyone have these experiences? I'm starting to really look forward to leaving here!

Well... when in rome do as the romans do;)

Dannyboi3k · 30-09-2009 02:48PM

Not a truer word spoken

helimachoptor · 30-09-2009 02:53PM

I found the same when I worked in Spain, pretty much everywhere closed on Sundays and for siesta.
I was in La Coruna which wasn't a toursity place but it had 3 Irish bars but only 1 run by an Irish guy but even that closed for siesta!

ladyinwaiting · 30-09-2009 08:55PM

jarecki1976 wrote: »

Well... when in rome do as the romans do;)

Trouble is I am not in Rome. And to be honest I feel uncomfortable just staring people out of it for no reason.

Eugh Italians are dirrrty.

mike65 · 30-09-2009 09:09PM

You sound a bit mad.

mikemac · 30-09-2009 09:16PM

Is it true that all Italians put a massive effort into dressing stylishly and wearing the latest fashions?

I've seen it from a few different sources, mainly books of sports people who move to Italy.

ladyinwaiting · 01-10-2009 08:21AM

mike65 wrote: »

You sound a bit mad.

I do? I probably am yeah.

ladyinwaiting · 01-10-2009 08:25AM

mikemac wrote: »

Is it true that all Italians put a massive effort into dressing stylishly and wearing the latest fashions?

It's all cultural. The men go around in pink trousers, sparkley belts and belly tops, my boyfriend thinks it's the gayest thing ever. And I agree, they look like homosexuals. If this is fashion then yes they are fashionable. Also if you don't adhere to what they call style you are stared out of it...!

Love2love · 01-10-2009 11:18AM

I thought the same and I was only there on holidays! I found the people to be extremely rude and they tried to give me the wrong change 3 times when buying something.
Thing that really bothers me about Italy though is the traffic and congestion! We had to circle the block around the hotel for 45 mins before we could get a spot as the hotel car park was full.

seachto7 · 04-10-2009 10:03PM

I lived in Italy for 2 years (Rome) and worked for an Italian company here, and was over and back a lot. I find the Italians fine, though I speak the lingo fairly well I'd like to think. I find the whole conformity to what you wear a bit of a nightmare but what can you do...

Any Irish women I knew there were always giving out about Italian men, but secretly they loved the attention. I could go on a rant about the differences between continental women and Irish, but I won't!!!

Italian women were high maintenance in general, and wrecked my head, even though they are nice to look at..

If I got attention from Italian women, I'd be happy out. Better than no attention.

Even people who dressed down over there did so in style...

I enjoyed my time there, but don't think I would live there permantly. Not in Rome anyway. France was way more appealing to me...

AARRRGH · 05-10-2009 09:53AM

ladyinwaiting wrote: »

What is with the staring?!?

They've probably never seen the beauty of an Irish girl covered head to toe in about 100 layers of glowing orange fake tan.

Certi Layla!! · 05-10-2009 02:05PM

the minute i seen your post my friend came straight to mind. she lived in italy, thought it was a beautiful country but like yourself wasnt found of the italians. She said they were very outspoken and she noticed the staring too!

AARRRGH · 05-10-2009 05:36PM

I only found out today they don't have the dole in Italy. Isn't that mad?!

Ponster · 15-10-2009 10:11AM

AARRRGH wrote: »

I only found out today they don't have the dole in Italy. Isn't that mad?!

It's not the same system as in ireland but it's not true to say that if you lose your job that the state doesn't help you out. As in France you can get 80% of your previous wages for a limited time which runs out should you not manage to find another job.

oisindoyle · 15-10-2009 10:21AM

ladyinwaiting wrote: »

It's all cultural. The men go around in pink trousers, sparkley belts and belly tops, my boyfriend thinks it's the gayest thing ever. And I agree, they look like homosexuals. If this is fashion then yes they are fashionable. Also if you don't adhere to what they call style you are stared out of it...!

"They look like homosexuals"???Whats that suppose to mean.
What does a homosexual look like by the way ?Or are you just making a huge generalisation and stereotypical comment?

ladyinwaiting · 15-10-2009 10:58AM

AARRRGH wrote: »

They've probably never seen the beauty of an Irish girl covered head to toe in about 100 layers of glowing orange fake tan.

U must be referring to someone like your mother/ wife/ girlfriend.
I don't wear fake tan.

Lanaier · 16-10-2009 08:38AM

Haha, love the comments.

What does a homosexual look like?
Well pink pants would be a good start :P lets not disappear up our own asses for the sake of being politically correct.
If someone asked me what an Irish person looked like I'd draw them a leprechaun for gods sake.

Anyway, back to staring and hating.

I think you'll find that your attitude is actually fairly normal for people adjusting to culture shock and a new country.
Just don't let it get out of hand.

As for staring, I used to live in the sticks in western China.
You think staring is bad in Italy?
Crowds of people used to follow me around when I went outside.
Want to have a quite bowl of noodles? Prepare for the whole room to be staring at you like a deer caught in a headlight.

fmess · 21-10-2009 01:25PM

ladyinwaiting, I guess you had a bad experience and I'm sorry to hear that, but generalizing by saying that ALL Italians are dirty and don't work is just not fair and not true . You shouldn't jump to conclusions after ONE bad experience. There are many other Irish living there with other ideas(most of my friends for instance)
I'm Italian and living in Ireland since the 90's, My wife's Irish and she lived 5 years in Italy having no trouble at all (she spoke well the local lingo or dialect thought)
Obviously our cultures are different so you cannot expect to live in Italy at the Irish standards, but that's only common sense. Same for me when I moved here I thought that despite what they say about Irish (been friendly) it has actually been hard to be accepted (still is at times!) and very often been pointed as "foreigner". Reality is that Italy, as the U.K., is a big country with about 60 million people and the difference between a region and another is massive. I come from a busy working area in the north east and I used to work 10 hours a day 6 days a week back there and since i came here i can tell something about workload (40 hours a week is heaven!). In relation to fashion, what's wrong to dress well and try to appear nice to others? Isn't it better rather then see someone with dirty muddy wellies at the counter in a shop or in a pub? especially given if one works with public and when the stereotype spread by the media is way different from the one in Ireland.
(I guarantee I do not wear ping clothing!!! ;-) ).
I hope things work out for you.
best of luck

seachto7 · 22-10-2009 08:34AM

Ciao fmess! ha bosogna di qualquno vicino di Clare per lavoro che parla italiano

;)

ladyinwaiting · 28-10-2009 10:42PM

well im home now and bloody delighted!

Arrvederci

Priapus · 04-11-2009 05:48PM

ladyinwaiting wrote: »

dealing with self absorbed Italians everyday it becomes a little different. :mad:

And everything being closed all the time?
Do Italians ever work??

Very funny title to this post btw.

Have to agree with your frustrations. Very self-absorbed people in my experience! Everything is a big drama too.

Welcome back!

Blackpitts · 12-11-2009 11:26AM

ladyinwaiting wrote: »

well im home now and bloody delighted!

Arrvederci

I'm sure they are also delighted to see you go.

Regarding the dirty and lazy people, please take a ride on a dublinbus and you will see all the variety of bad smells coming from irish people/ About lazyness, I can see many wasters around the city centre and the quays too spending all their money from the government in alcohol and cigarettes.

I hate this kind of generalizations, you can meet this kind of persons all around the world.

ladyinwaiting · 13-11-2009 08:35PM

Blackpitts wrote: »

I'm sure they are also delighted to see you go.

Regarding the dirty and lazy people, please take a ride on a dublinbus and you will see all the variety of bad smells coming from irish people/ About lazyness, I can see many wasters around the city centre and the quays too spending all their money from the government in alcohol and cigarettes.

I hate this kind of generalizations, you can meet this kind of persons all around the world.

What are u on about? Citizenship??? I can assure u the people I am referring to are 100% Italian..Thats the problem. EVIDENTLY.

seachto7 · 13-11-2009 11:36PM

ladyinwaiting wrote: »

well im home now and bloody delighted!

Arrvederci

I think maybe you are the problem, and not Italy. Did some bloke dump you over there or something?

ladyinwaiting · 16-11-2009 08:37AM

seachto7 wrote: »

I think maybe you are the problem, and not Italy. Did some bloke dump you over there or something?

No. You wouldn't catch me going out with an Italian so that was definitely not the issue.

Anyway, whatever you think yourself Seachto. Spoke to alot of people since about it who have been to Italy and the general concencus is in and around the same as what I think.

Ciao.

Blackpitts · 16-11-2009 09:57AM

ladyinwaiting wrote: »

What are u on about? Citizenship??? I can assure u the people I am referring to are 100% Italian..Thats the problem. EVIDENTLY.

I'm sure they were 100% italian, but are you talking about people with hygiene problem and no will to work?
then I know some people here 100% irish who have the same issues.

You are doing some generalization that I really don't like and I'm sure people over there is glad to see you went away.
I'm also curious to know who are these people here that you have spoken to alot and have built this "general concencus", how long they have been there and if they really look around them when they go from home to work or when they are on a night out...
The problem was not "italy" but you and your attitude.

gdbjoe · 17-11-2009 01:00PM

lmao

Ya made my day!!!

Ciao, statemi bene, e grazie a chi mi ha segnalato questo thread.

seachto7 · 17-11-2009 07:37PM

Blackpitts wrote: »

The problem was not "italy" but you and your attitude.

c'hai ragione!

Fratton Fred · 19-11-2009 02:32PM

Lanaier wrote: »

I think you'll find that your attitude is actually fairly normal for people adjusting to culture shock and a new country.
Just don't let it get out of hand.

As for staring, I used to live in the sticks in western China.
You think staring is bad in Italy?
Crowds of people used to follow me around when I went outside.
Want to have a quite bowl of noodles? Prepare for the whole room to be staring at you like a deer caught in a headlight.

After a few months of living in Ireland i started to hate Irish people. As you say, it has a lot to do with different cultures and coming out of your comfort zone. You can put up with it at first, then it starts to annoy you, then you start hating, then you get used to it and everything's grand...I mean fine.:D

I had a similar experience in North East Thailand we stayed in a village near Sa Kaw up towards the Cambodian border) by the way. We would walk along the street and people would be waving out of bus windows at us, or staring at us. We even used to get people point and shout Farang!!

In that part of Thailand, the only weterners a lot of them had seen were on TV so to see a European in the flesh was something new. they meant no malice, they were just genuinely curious.

Auslander · 23-11-2009 02:35AM

If you want everything to stay the same, stay at home.
Sorry you hear you feel the way you do about your experience in Italy, but Europe is a big place and not limited to Italy.
It sounds like you are back where you belong.

Remember that if at first you don't succeed, try again.

btw. I agree with your sentiments on living in Italy, it's all furry coats and no knickers!

I'm resident in the Alps in Austria, but regularly travel to Aachen working.
Great spot up here on the German/Belgian/Dutch border, highly recommend it.

Ladyinwaiting, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get your ass back over here. It's yours for the taking.

Any Irish ever lived in Italy and began to hate Italians?

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