Americanism

There are thousands of blog articles and YouTube videos floating around the internet with lists of alleged and real faux pas that you should “never do” in Italy. I usually don’t like this sort of content, because it’s mostly clickbait appealing to people’s anxieties about “looking like a tourist” or “standing out” and other things that don’t matter. It also tends to portray the Italian people as snobby and xenophobic, ready to gleefully reprimand travelers for breaking “unwritten rules,” which I have not found to be the case.

Americans in particular have always been conscious about this sort of thing, because we send a lot of tourists to Europe and we are aware of the “ugly American” stereotype: fat, loud, loose with our money and ignorant of other cultures. The rise of social media has spread this anxiety around more, because everyone believes that they are the one tourist who’s different and doesn’t do the things that other tourists do.

I see this anxiety even in IES Abroad Students, who aren’t technically even tourists. I certainly understand the wish to get away from the mobs of visitors in central Rome, to avoid overpriced restaurants and experience more as a local, but I find that people let their anxieties get in the way of enjoying and learning about the place they are visiting. My main piece of advice would be: don’t worry so much! Don’t try too hard to “blend in,” it doesn’t usually work. Revel in your Americanism, (or wherever you are from) be polite and kind and friendly, and everything will work out. Italians are very welcoming people, and they are much more tolerant of visitors than TikTok or Youtube would have you believe. More often than not, they are interested to meet people from faraway, especially the US. American culture has much more of a mystical appeal to Europeans than you would expect, although they do usually think we like guns too much and our food sucks.

When you say you are American to an Italian, you will often hear one of the following questions:

“What do you think of Trump?”

“Have you ever seen anyone get shot?”

“Have you ever been to Chipotle? What about Chick-fil-A?”

“Do you like Kendrick Lamar?”

Some of these might seem like odd conversation starters, but they are usually asked with good-natured joking curiosity. Again, politeness and understanding are key to making a good impression, just like anywhere.

Life is too short to go around worrying about not fitting in. Why go to another country anyways? Part of the beauty of travel is not only to expose yourself to other cultures, but to expose other cultures to you! So make a good impression. Don’t be chauvinistic, don’t try to impose your culture on Italians, and you probably shouldn’t try to defend the American government’s foreign policy adventures, either. But be a little proud of your country! Italians are proud of theirs, and they will respect you for it in turn.

I’ll do another post on the “do’s and don’ts” of traveling in Italy. It’ll be brief, because I think a lot of the “don’ts” are overhyped.