Are Italians really the friendliest Europeans?
 

Whenever a poll comes up about the friendliest Europeans, Italians usually rank first. But as someone who's been to Rome and witnessed the horrors of Italian customer service, I somehow feel these polls are rigged. Italian people seemed nice, but in addition to Barcelona, Rome is the place where I encountered the rudest and grumpiest customer service: from the waiters at Termini Station, to the bus operator who yelled at me for daring to ask them a question, to the woman who pushed me because I was unknowingly blocking her way. While buying tickets, I've also noticed that the staff were incredibly racist towards some African travellers who were standing in front of me.

I'm looking forward to my upcoming trip to Italy, but I'm somehow dreading the thought of having to deal with Italian customer service. Wish everyone could be as polite and courteous as the French.

Wish everyone could be as polite and courteous as the French.
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This must be hoax.

Italians are in my opinion no more or less rude than any folks you encounter in large tourist cities - NYC is a good example. I've seen some scenes similar to your Italian ones in Paris- really rude clerks and wait people but it is often the poor incidents that stand out.

Friendly?

Absolutely!

Benito Amilcare was overly familiar, just had a poor judgement in friends who led him astray.

Italians the No 1.

Who writes the piffle?

The Daily Mail would be proud.

No

Italians are smart. When they see darkness or unsatisfaction or unhappiness or criticism they don't see the point in being friendly.

How do you say in English ? One harvests what he sows ?

And yes e always get one side of a story. If you were blocking my way 'unknowingly' there is a chance that after a while I'd push you. And you'd find me rude.

And how would I find you ? How would I write my side of the story ? Ever thought of that ? What would Loacker say if he was blocked by a rude and uncaring tourist ?

Anyway welcome back, I had nearly missed your negativism. Lost your pills ?

Agree, PalenQ. Poor incidents do stand out, but in some cities like Prague and Rome, lousy customer service is the norm, not the exception.

Having been numerous times to Paris, I have yet to encounter one rude Parisian. They are usually very courteous and polite, if you do the effort to greet them in their own language.

Wo - one reaps what one sows.(You owe me a beer now in Paris:

I don't find the Italians to be any more or less friendly than anyone else in Europe. Generally speaking, I find Europeans to be friendly. It helps a whole lot to speak at least a bit of the local language, though, and not just bark at them in English, which I see happening a whole lot, and which is just incredibly rude.

WoinParis, stop playing "l'avocat du diable".

This grumpy old woman didn't ask me to move from her way. (I was standing in a shop's door agile waiting for my friends to leave. She pushed me violently and cussed something in Italian that ends with culo.

Done deal for the beer.
Since we are being nice and civil, I must ay that I find a lot of US people friendly.
The best people in the world are for me people from Quebec : as open as americans, but frenchspeaking and thus civilized. Without being arrogant. ;-)

I have a friend we call Vafan. Italian origin. Go figure.
A guy best being your friend.

So arrogant of you WoinParis to think one must speak French to become civilized.

StCirq, I do speak Italian when in Italy. But thanks for alluding that I'm a barking dog.

Having been numerous times to Paris, I have yet to encounter one rude Parisian.>

I have not unusually - I walk into an RATP Info office in a metro station and am naive enough not to say "Bonjour madam!" - she was up front and I was just browsing map racks in rear - she lights into me yelling in French 'you come into a place and don't say bonjour madame?

I was so irate - a municipal employee treating a dumb visitor like that. (If I would have even seen her I would have said bonjour madame bien sur).

Or the veggie vendor in a small store - bought some peanuts and found they were all wormy - took right back and he said "No return"

My French son often says the French are rude to each other-I've been at restaurants with in-laws where they often received what they thought was poor treatment.

But these are relatively isolated incidents and in my decades of visiting Paris. Just mention that it does happen.

St-Cirq is right - attitude plays a big part (and not accusing OP of that) but I've seen many Americans literally barking "Do YOU SPEAK ENGLISH" without even so much as a pardon me"

Frankly, I have been just about everywhere and in my own experience, the Portuguese and the Maltese have been the nicest.

Strangely I find people more or less the same everywhere - some nice, some not so nice, some friendly, some not.

A bit like Fodors, actually.

You want to talk about rude - anyone who ever traveled behind the Iron Curtain will know what rude was when dealing with clerks or store personnel - literally throwing the stuff at you over a counter you had to order from because there were no self-service. USSR was the very worst- ubiquitously obese women in dirty white uniforms never saying anything more than a grunt.

Kerouac, I don't know any Maltese people but the Portuguese I have met were delightful.

My personal favorites are Madrilenos and Sevillans. They are very warm and welcoming.

In Madrid, my neighbors would always greet me with a smile.
In Prague, your neighbors would probably avoid you.

annhig, that's politically correct talk. Neither more or less. The discerning traveller knows better than to paint all countries with the same brush.

I agree with annhig. People are people we all have a need for social interaction. We all feel annoyed sometimes, we are all mostly polite most of the time.

", that's politically correct talk. Neither more or less. The discerning traveller knows better than to paint all countries with the same brush"

Now I'm going to step back and fundamentally consider whether anyone with an ounce of intellect would put type those words out. At the risk of sounding patronising ... Go back read your opening post, read Ann's response and then yours and establish who is racial stereotyping and then consider which one of you is a "discerning traveller" .

To give you a little hint it's the one that lives in Cornwall and has become a rounded individual over years of travel.

Now run along and play with your Lego.

"USSR was the very worst- ubiquitously obese women in dirty white uniforms never saying anything more than a grunt."

PQ, you should visit again..St.Pitersburg and Moscow are great cities ;
you can get first class service ( in English) in many restaurants and shops.
The still grumpy people are passport control officers and security guards in hotels.
The ordinary Russians were always very kind and helpful when I asked for directions (in my
limited Russian).

Petersburg

The best people in the world are for me people from Quebec : as open as americans, but frenchspeaking and thus civilized. Without being arrogant
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They are detested in south Florida as being cheap, surly, and rude.
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In all our travels the people who have been the rudest are the French and Guatemalan military.

Among the nicest: Scots, Irish, Belizeans, Italians, Spanish, Turks, and Portuguese.

I have found people in Europe very friendly especially when they discover we are Australian and not English. In Fiesole in the bathroom a woman asked if I English and when I said Australian she insisted I meet her family sitting at the next table. Turns out her grandfather was interred in Australia in WW2 and he was visited by the local community regularly and the locals treated him and the other detainees really well. Her elderly mother had tears in her eyes when it was explained to her who we were. I wasn't even born when that happened yet these complete strangers were so friendly. We have also had experiences in France where people have been friendly as well.

Now England is a whole different story......

Excellent post BC.
Problem is that poster has no Lego. He/she comes back every so often with incredibly offensive posts.
which fits the definition of a troll.

Cheska. Why in hell do you think people like Australian better than English ? Some friends behave the same way and say they are Belgians not French. I don't. If someone is stupid enough to dislike the English or the French as a whole - or to think the Italians are the rudest - I just let him believe it and avoid him as much and as fast as I can.

And some people disliked the Jews and some dislike the Mexicans and build a wall.

WO I don't think any particular way it was what we experienced. Our English friends commented on how the reactions were different. Maybe we have been lucky enough to see and meet people of different nationalities when they are having a good day. Either that or my language skills were so lousy in French and Italian they took pity on me. I put money on the latter.

Same for me Cheska !
Even when speaking French the French take pity on me...
Now err no they are mocking me !
Can't trust a French.

I must confess that a sentence like 'can you call me later to tell me about it' can be said in Belgium like 'tu sais me sonner tantôt pour me dire quoi'.
Which does use French words but is a challenge for anyone non Belgian.

WoinParis on Feb 15, 17 at 9:17am

Can't trust a French.

<<----- This from the guy who spends his time lecturing about civil rights and chastises me for overgeneralizing.

Loacker I've taken the sentence by WO as a joke. From my short time on this forum I have found WO says things that makes me laugh,although building a wall anywhere is not a joke.

Loacker has no sense of humour. Which explains his dark spirits. and cannot read emoticons either.
But... ansi soit-il. Amen.

Ah Woin :-)

I generally find everyone in Europe are very friendly. I'm British and have a natural "self-reserve" which I have to turn off as much as possible as I cross the channel. While this group is not completly European I find
Syrians
Moroccans
incredibly friendly,

then most of Europe until I hit the old Iron curtain, where their "natural-reserve" (or even self-preservation) steps in.

I suggest slow down, show respect and interest in anything the person says and you'll find that people get nicer.

I suggest slow down, show respect and interest in anything the person says and you'll find that people get nicer.>>

agreed, bilbo, but of course we're just being politically correct [though with what motive I cannot discern from the posts of the OP who seems to want to be argumentative for the sake of it, which may explain some of his problems]

Cheska - your anecdote does not support the conclusion your draw from it - the lady was interested in whether you were English or Australian because she had a particular and well-founded fondness for Aussies, not because she disliked the British.

On the same subject I was surprised to say the least many years ago to be welcomed with open arms by two elderly Germans who it turned out had been PoWs of the British; one in Hamburg and one in Nuneaton. It was not what I had been told to expect by those who had been to Germany and found Germans unfriendly which has never been my experience.

When people are unfriendly I tend to think that it is because I have not understood their customs or that they are having a bad day - I can think of some days when I rudely pushed through the tourists on Oxford Street which would have given them the impression of extreme unfriendliness but that would not be typical of my behaviour towards them.

On our first trip to Corfu in the 70's, we stopped for fuel at a small petrol (gas) station on the way down south. When the owner found we were English he brought out a water melon and soft drinks, sat us at a table on his forecourt and produced pictures of his family in Manchester. As we are from Manchester it took us an hour and a half to resume our journey.

We learned from him that he hated the Germans, despised the French and Italians from his war time experiences of Corfu being occupied and found the Brits most friendly out of all of the Europeans, especially the Brits from the North of England.

How right he was! :)

Annhig I didn't know much about WW2 history at that stage and it wasn't until this woman had said to me that her grandmother did not like the English because of the war. I was so surprised that someone felt like this. Yes she did have a fondness for Aussies and at the time I was a bit embarrassed because I didn't know that Australia interred people for the war or much about the suffering of countries like Italy during that time.

Australia recognises battles in WW1 more than those of WW2 and there is a lot being planned for Villiers Bretonneux next year and we hope to be there.
I did then find out more about WW2 though.

I truly don't notice if people are standoffish especially in Italy and France because I haven't got a clue most of the time what is being said or understanding the nuances.

I had an uncle who was PoW in Germany. He spent 4 years there and well, actually it wasn't that bad... He was sent on 'sonderkommando's' which despite its ugly name could - adn did - mean for him to be sent to a farm. Of course the husband was away on the eastern front. I know it looks like a movie but it was like that. I'll add that my uncle was married and despite the temptations and the duration remained faithful. For the anecdote he let himself die when his wife passed away.

On the other hand it was strictly forbidden to speak German with two of my aunts (not same blood) one having been pushed by soliders by the butt of his rifle in the stairs, resulting in several broken bones and the other one never saying why.

This being said, I find the Germans absolutely charming, fun, full of humour. And it is not (totally) their fault if Adolf turned out to be the monster that everybody sees he was from the start - afterwards - when a lot of other countries had the same kind of ugly people (Degrelle in Belgium, Laval in France to name a few I know).

You'll notice I didn't say anything about recent elected guys...

In Moscow and St. Petersburg the people were wonderful. Yes, even the initially scary, uniformed Soviet era looking woman at a metro station in a telephone type booth from whom I asked directions. She even walked me to the correct stairway.

Rudest waiter was in Lugano, the Italian speaking section of Switzerland.

<i> Strangely I find people more or less the same everywhere - some nice, some not so nice, some friendly, some not.
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I agree, and no traveler ever sees enough people to make a generalization about a whole nation.

In Italy, Tuscans have a reputation for being reserved and people from Romagna (as in part of Emilia Romagna) have a reputation for being outgoing. Of course, this is a gross generalization, but, for the sake of argument, let's say it's true. A tourist who goes to Pienza and a tourist who goes to Rimini would encounter entirely different types of character, but both would go home and attribute it to "Italians".