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What I Don’t Like About Italy

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Italy is a beautiful country and Italians are great. I am extremely proud to be Italian and absolutely love to go to Italy on vacation. I left Italy because living there is too frustrating for me but a piece of my heart is still there. But there are a couple of things that are particularly noticeable in Italy and that really bother me.

The first thing that I don’t like about Italy is that there is cigarette smoke everywhere at every hour of the day.  This is because Italy finally banned indoor smoking in public places. But, of course, they didn’t ban smoking outdoors. I first noticed the impact of this at a trade show in Milan when I stepped outside and entered a cloud of smoke. My first thought was that this was temporary and it will pass. Unfortunately it didn’t pass. As I started travelling with my family I often felt like sitting at a cafe` in a busy pedestrian area to enjoy a Cappuccino. Well, if you do not like the smell of second hand smoke you cannot do that in Italy. By the end of this last trip we took we were having dinner indoors as far away from the doors as possible. And that is pretty pathetic.

The other thing is waiting in line. I hate to admit this, but we are like water: at the counter to ask for your cappuccino after you paid, you cannot stand in line or you will NEVER get a turn. Like water, you have to melt into the crown and push your way to the counter, then you have to shout before the barista can pay attention to someone else. But the best place to see this is at the airport. They shouldn’t even try to do priority boarding for little children any more. And the best came as we were about ready to go through the x-ray machine. A couple (granted they did not look Italian) came from behind us, put their bags on the rollers in between our bags and headed for the x-ray machine ahead of us in one very swift motion. I really felt like removing their bags, but I desisted. It would have been fun to watch them wait for their bags at the other end.

I don’t know if everyone acts like this, but certainly it is a significant number of people that forces you to act the same way if you want to get what you want. I might master waiting in line Italian-style, but I will not begin smoking: I am afraid that a nice cup of Cappuccino enjoyed with a beautiful view of the sunset, the smell of the sea, and the sound of waves crashing will have to wait.


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