Amy

I am going to Rome next week, for 7 days, including Easter Day. I think my boyfriend and I will take a day trip to Capri, but other than that, we will do Rome top to bottom. It is interesting to read the perspectives here on Rome, including how long it takes to "do" Rome. We took the same type of 1 week trip to Paris, where we did not rush around like crazy people....just paced ourselves. I hope that Rome is wonderful!

mark

I would have to admit that Italy is not my favorite country. I found the people to be a bit arrogant and cities dirty. Not that I am judging an entire people and country by my one time visit but I would go to Germany over Italy anytime.

John G

Mark, your statement is so ironic because I find the converse is true. I think the Germans are very cold, aloof, and arrogant, and the Italians warm and hospitible. I hate German cuisine and think the people lack style and a sense of humor. Which cities in Italy do you find dirty? I think Italy is a far cleaner country than America when it comes to litter.

Dina

Regarding "dirty cities": I was only in Italy once, and most of Naples, for instance, was unquestionably dirty, but Sorrento on the other side of the bay and Bari on the eastern coast looked like you could eat off the streets. Rome about middling.<BR>I didn't love Italy quite as much as I expected to, because I imagined the people would be much friendlier. But I can't make sweeping generalizations based on that one trip. If I returned, speaking better Italian, and staying in nicer places, or smaller towns, it might be quite different. <BR>On the other hand, as soon as we arrived in Greece, we encountered everywhere the warmth and friendliness I had imagined from the Italians. I had also expected Athens would be dirty, and it wasn't at all (except for the air pollution of course.)<BR>I'm sure someone will relate a completely opposite experience; but reading the posts on this board cannot help but make one realize how extremely subjective such impressions are.

Amy

I was glad to read this thread, since I came away from my first trip to Italy feeling the same way; I loved my experience on the Amalfi Coast, but would never go back to Rome again. It was beautiful to see what we did, but there is no draw or nothing spectacular to get me back there. In contrast, I have been to Paris three times and would go back tomorrow happily if someone offered me the ticket (and time off!) There is something magical about the city that makes me feel no matter how many times I go, I will never satisfy my desire to return. However, that said, I did not have the same "dirty" or "unfriendly" experience others did. I found that Rome was the dirtiest place we were in, and actually smelled a bit on a very warm March day. And the people everywhere were very friendly to us, and most more than eager to help me practice my spoken italian!

Gino

I think I can sum it all up with an old saying: "There are two kinds of people in this world...Italians and those that wish they were Italian..." Ciao for now...

frances

I can identify with a lot of what's been said.I think that Italy generally is lovely but I feel the people (of course not all of them )to be slightly unfriendly.I am talking about people you pass on the street.My daughters felt they were being stared at by women and not in the sense that someone was just interested, but in a slightly hostile manner. I noticed that a disproportionate number of men seem to be momentarily touching their genital area in public.This happens everywhere but not in the numbers that I noticed in Italy.<BR>As for the driving!...........

PW

I definitely love Italy. But one of my friends who now lives in the US (been here for 2 years) is from Italy and she doesn't like Italy!<BR><BR>She's from Venezia and she loves it when people thinks she's French. That's how we became friends -- I told her I thought she was French and she gave me a big hug. <BR><BR>So I guess not everyone loves Italy. The grass is always greener.....

Erlsegaard

Audrey Hepburn was one of the cult old time movie stars among liberal arts types, at least at my school; her big movies are certainly known by a wider young audience than say, those of Robert Bresson.<BR><BR>I don't really value "friendliness" all that highly unless it's coming from a beautiful woman or some other person whose affections would mean a great deal to me--the kind of people least likely to be friendly in that way usually anyway, so the brusqueness or indifference with which the Italian people may sometimes impersonally treat me does not distress me too greatly. I find it far less likely there actually that someone will offer you the sort of direct, unprovoked, cutting, hostile insult that honor demands you respond to than in most other European countries (perhaps this is only because not as many Italians comparatively have mastered English to that incisive point). I found that overall people seemed very secure with themselves and their culture to the point of not needing to ridicule Americans or other foreigners so much, they were polite to the extent that you demonstrated you required so long as you didn't demand obsequiousness of them, and yes, the people seemed to be more keenly discriminating of individuals that maybe the mass of the population is here, but to me that gives life some intensity at least, which can be a little lacking at times in one's interactions with people in this country.

Pat

I went to Italy for the first time last fall. I enjoyed many sites and found the natives warm enough, but after just returning from South Africa, I must admit that that is the country I really yearn to return to. Consistently better food, superb wines, much friendlier people, saner drivers, no smoking indoors, much, much better prices on everything, great wildlife and wild places and marvelous accommodations. Each to his own.<BR><BR>

mpprh

Hi<BR><BR>For some reason I was never too interested in visiting Italy.<BR><BR>Then I made a few visits privately (Med coast and northern mountain areas / lakes) and liked it.<BR><BR>Later I visited, maybe 15 times for business........ and liked it even more !<BR><BR>It grows on you<BR><BR>Peter<BR>

John

Europe's own little third-world-country!!! Corrupt, dirty and mediocre........<BR>How cute!!!

Wary

When I think of Italy, I think of always having to be on guard for short-change artists and ripoffs. I find it interesting that on the thread about people in your reserved seats, the only posters who had problems were on Italian trains. On the thread about ripoffs, the majority of posts involved Italian waiters, taxis and "guides." These people are persistent and very difficult to deal with. Perhaps if you are fluent in the language, it is different. I have had some pleasant experiences in Italy, but it is just too enervating to have to cope with the rest. (That said, I'm still contemplating a trip to Venice.)

Nonamethistime

I've always loved Rome in particular and Italy overall. I have been there 6 times in the past 6 years for each 2 weeks vacation. This last vacation only a few weeks ago the climate in Rome was different, so maybe it is as much the events in the world as anything. So maybe the poster has a point because we also noticed it and had not in the past. At the time of travel I did not mention it to others that were with us because I didn't want to "color" their vacation with my perceptions, but after we got back I was discussing it and found that others of our party felt the same. The tone and how we were treated was different.