Bella Figura and looking like a tourist
 

On the front page of todays LA Times (latimes.com), there is an interesting article about appearance and dressing in Italy. In particular, I noticed the line about men wearing shorts being marked as tourists.

Well, I like to dress nicely, but when its 90 degrees in the shade, damn appearances. I wore shorts every day (though not to dinner at nice restaurants), and survived. Once we open our mouths (at least for those of us who aren't fluent in foreign languages), we'll be marked as tourists anyway.

What's wrong with looking like a tourist, anyway?

Coachboy

Good question and the answer is for most people who know who they are already probably nothing wrong with it. What i want to know is how do you tell an American tourist from a European tourist and who cares anyway?

This isn't a slam, but how will the italians be able to keep up this pretty fashion facade?

The unemployment rate is sky-high, the very birth rate is low and the social welfare system is way under-funded.

This issue has been discussed many times here, as you know.

I don't know why so many people assume that speaking English equals being a tourist. In Paris there are plenty of French tourists visiting their capital, as well as Italian and German and Australian tourists for that matter, in all the usual places. "Opening up one's mouth" isn't the only way to identify oneself as a tourist.

When we're all on vacation and walking miles every day, we want to be comfortable. Comfortable and appropriate are up to each individual, although there are some rules about dress in some churches and posh restaurants.
On the other hand, the locals going about their business, especially in the big cities, will vary from very chic to those who aren't dressed much differently from the tourists. Not everyone dresses well, not even in the fashion capitals. I live in New York; some days I am pretty well-dressed though far from being a fashion plate, somedays I'm just going to the supermarket and I am decidedly not well dressed.

The stereotyped tourist, of any nation, is wearing shorts and sneakers and a fanny pack, in summer that is. If that fits you, that's fine. If it doesn't, that's fine too. But we each get to decide for ourselves.

Other than the fact that you may be more likely to attract the attention of pickpockets who prey primarily on tourists, there's nothing "wrong" in looking like a tourist, in my opinion.

I can't think of a single thing wrong with looking like a tourist, if that's what you are. What a tourist looks like though, I think is pretty variable. I for one don't really do the shorts, tank tops and sandals thing here at home if in the city and I don't in Europe either. Don't see why others shouldn't though, if that's what fits them.

As long as you're not walking into churches or nice restaurants or anyplace else inappropriate, I don't that many people care. It seems like the tourists are more worried about it than the locals. I have read untold number of threads here where other tourists/travelers are saying that dark clothes, etc are respectful to the locals. Honestly thought I can't recall a single thread where a local said "please stop coming to my country dressed like that". (not saying such threads don't exist, but rare if they do)

If someone enjoys themselves more by being dressed up, cool (we dressed up for the London theatre because we felt like that would be a fun part of the experience. Who cares if we stood out as goofballs for doing it?). And as long as people aren't being obnoxious with it, they should be themselves.

Saw the article, too and just got back from Italy last week. Hated the heat, but we wore loosely fitting light slacks in Rome or we wouldn't have gotten in St. Peter's. Shorts and bare tops aren't allowed near the door. See previous thread on the subject. I think the "tourist" comment means "a slob who takes his or her worst clothes on a trip because nobody knows you anyway and who wants to lose the good stuff if the luggage gets lost?!?!" This equals no respect for others!!!! Dress as you would if you were to meet your boss or future love by accident. This can be comfortable AND tasteful. Don't believe the shoe thing. The ladies in strappy spike heels on cobblestone are miserable and I saw the blisters to prove it. The most popular shoes in the Italian shoe shops are the "bowling shoe" look in dozens of colors. They are comfortable, the Italians do wear them (the non fashion slave ones!) and many are ON SALE right now!
Buon viaggio!!

I will get guff for this but here goes...

Answering Intredpid's querry "How do you tell an American tourist from a European tourist."

I often asked myself this question while in Italy. Apart from the attire, "American" facial features are more homoginized. Many of the American tourists I saw (including myself - Italian, German, Irish, Spanish) have so many different ethnicities and our features are a blending of those. If you look at an Italian face, it is almost as if you can find that same face in any given painting in the Uffizzi. That is what I found so striking about my husband. Even if I wear Italian clothes and shoes, people know I am an American. I am a size 10 (huge by Italian standards) average height, blonde hair and green eyes. American hair styles are also very different from Italian women. Personally, I do not think there is anything wrong with the way American tourists dress (don't get me started about the Germans). Considering the fact that we have to mostly wash our stuff out in the sink and are hard pressed to waste our time ironing every last wrinkle when we could be soaking up the sites, I think we look pretty damn good. We are walking for hours and hopefully are relaxed. Let's not knock ourselves. We are ON VACATION! Now if everyone in S. Cal could realize that they ARE NOT on vacation year round...

Adressing Chat Noir, "pretty fashion facade". A large poputlation of Italian live with their parents or their spouses parents or in a home owned by the family. I do know some people in Italy who would rather starv then not be wearing the latest Italian fashions. Next priority (for some, not all) would be their vacations in August.

They make sacrifices that most of us are not willing to make in the name of fashion. Also, they buy a few great pieces.

Calamari,

I'm not sure this'll count as guff, but hopefully it's just enough off-the-cuff guff to not be too rough and tough.

I don't have any homogenization going in my background at all. Ever single ancestor was straight out of Germany 3 to 4 generations ago. They all lived in isolated farming communities, speaking German, until my parents generation, at which time the folks were tossed out for bad behaviour (just kidding, really).

Anyway, my point is I'm almost positive that I'm going to be pegged as an American, regardless of that. Not that I mind. I think it's that I have a style (or lack thereof) that comes not a whit close to the tight chic fashions of Europe. I'm not cherub with that constant service-oriented smile so often associated with our fair nation, but I know I stand out as one of our own. I dunno... I just do.

You would be in a class of your own...The German Tourist.

Odd isn't it - and here I am, never having been to Germany and only the most rudimentary pieces of the language left in my head - as the German Tourist. Think I'd fool 'em? ;)

Except for your charm.

he he... (or lack thereof)

On a trip to Belgium with my husband, I took a photo of a nice group of college-age students waiting at the train station. I thought they looked so perfectly European! I looked at how chic and relaxed they all were (feeling rather dumpy and touristy myself by the end of a long week of sightseeing). I knew it would make a great souvenir photo.

Lo and behold, when we all boarded the train, this group was right behind us. Every single one of them was American, as their regional accents so readily gave away! Ever since then I never make any assumptions about any tourist based on what he or she is wearing.

I think it is hard to tell if the women are tourists these days because the fashions are translated so fast across the pond. At breakfast last year there was a woman wearing a malibou trimmed jacket. I thought to myself, shé must be English or American. She was Belgium.
You can't always tell.
To me, neat, clean, a good fit is all you need to know.
Common sense to cover your self at a church and to dress up for a gastronomic temple. Restaurants like it when you dress for them and you'll get a better table . Same for the theater or concert. It always seems sad to me to see the orchestra in tuxs and the ticket holders in very casual wear,

The blending theory of American facial features is interesting, especially since I've heard people try to explain American culture in a similar fashion, but it doesn't seem to work in my case. I'm part German, English and Native American, yet when I travel to Germany, everyone assumes I'm German. Although I have some distinct non-German features, such as high cheek bones, the blond hair and blue-green eyes seem to override all other considerations and scream Germanic.

When someone approaches me and begins speaking in German, a language that I am unable to speak, I point to myself and say "dumb tourist." It's a great ice breaker. They almost always laugh and often start speaking to me in English. A word of caution, however. If you try this technique, be sure that you point at yourself, and not at them, when you say "dumb tourist."

This reminds me of the first time I brought my then-fiance to meet my Irish grandmother. My husband is English, but long ago his ancestors were in Ireland and he has dark hair and eyes (most likely havng its origins in what the Irish refer to as black Irish, having the blood of Spanish sailors in them). Grandma took one look at DH and said "Are you sure your people aren't Maltese?"

The article in the LA Times today stated that the plastic surgeons in Rome were guilty of making everyone look alike with "the same nose, 18 year old-girls (!)- were having their folks pay for bigger boobs-and lunch breaks were booked for "age reducing treatments." Sound like NEW YORK TO SO.
CALIFORNIA>????!!! Soon we will all look alike. However... WE OBSERVED, the old folks in small Italian towns -the ladies were stout and wearing flowered and full house dresses and slippers and men in baggy slacks and shirts (the guys were usually skinny(?!), billed caps and slippers...just like the movies in 1950...SOUNDS LIKE NY- cALIFORNIA!!!!

Deloris. That is a really interesting point. Now, with so many people having cosmetic surgery, are they all going to start to look the same in countries with a similar "ideal beauty"?Boy, it sure is going to be difficult to raise daughters in this new global society!

Although I'm American, most Europeans assume I'm English (even before I say anything). I'm very fair, so I guess that's part of it.
My husband is Canadian. Most people meeting him for the first time assume he's English.
BUT...we lived for five months in Germany this year near our German relatives. One day, his German cousin sent him off to the local small-town hairdresser. He came back and whoa! Deutsch mann! The transformation was amazing--a simple hair cut turned him into Herr Tilke. All the family and the neighboring friends couldn't get over the change. For the next several weeks (until his hair grew out), he was taken for a German, no matter what he wore.
Although I come from a very strong Pennsylvania German background, a German haircut didn't change my apparently English look.
Re American v. European tourist, there is an informality, a naturalness in American appearance (plastic surgery notwithstanding) that is hard to dispel. It's not just clothes, it's body movement, etc. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Informal is not the same as sloppy or in bad taste. In fact, there is something very attractive about American informality at its best. There are times when we think Europeans spend *too much* time and emphasis on their appearance and in *some* not all Europeans, there is a hardness, a brittleness, in that glossy appearance.

I think Americans make eye-contact with strangers more readily. And many of us are certainly "larger" than the average european, both in weight and height.

This past summer, in Switzerland, an old man and his wife stared at my husband and I throghout our entire outdoor cafe meal. We're both very tall and Germanic (blondes, fair eyes and skin...) looking and were drinking local beer with a Swiss dish. When my husband went to the bathroom, the old man came up to me and said, "We are so happy you are here. We welcome people like you in my Germany too." What did that mean? I smiled and spoke a little German thank you. Later, I thought that he meant something a little different. Anyway, I TRY not to look too touristy just because I don't like fulfilling stereotypes of any kind. I wear long skirts in Spain, the "bowling shoes" or black boots with dark jeans in big citties, and in a nice dress or pants outfit for dinner/theater. There's nothing wrong with looking like a visitor; however, since 9/11, things have changed. Like it or not, Americans are going to be more targeted. The chances may be small, but why not try to blend in a little? What could it hurt?

If terrorists selected predictable targets, they wouldn't be terrorists.

The nightclub bombed in Bali, those were Australians in the main, not Americans. As for 9-11, it's doubtful Al Quaeda took time to examine the passenger list of those planes, still less to examine whether the poor doomed people in either the planes or the towers wore shorts and/or sneakers. (It seems likely that many victims were in business attire at the time.)

Life has always been a risky undertaking, but consider the alternative.

While doing research for a November trip I looked up a website kindly posted by a fellow Fodorite:

http://www.germany-christmas-market.org.uk/index1.htm

This site will provide copious links to pictures of Christmas markets throughout Germany. Please somebody tell me if they can distinguish Germans and Americans in those pictures; ski coats type, sneakers and jeans is all you see. Bottom line is: be aware of your surroundings and have a good time.

Has anyone seen the Dentyne Ice commercial with the gorgeous dark-haired woman on the subway car? The song that is playing during the commercial is by a band called Papas Fritas and it's called "Way You Walk" with the line "I can tell by the way you walk" and that's how I often can tell Americans from Europeans.

IMO, many Americans (myself probably included) have what I can only describe as a "bounce" to their walk. I'd say approximately 90% of the time when I've seen someone walking like this and get close enough to hear them talk, they're Americans.

You can tell a German male tourist from an American male tourist quite easily. The German male's shorts will be much tighter, and his shirt is more likely to be of a man-made fiber and quite shiny with some bizarre pattern. The German male will have either white or black socks with his sandals. Younger German males will frequently have New York Yankee baseball caps in any color but the color of an actual Yankee cap.

Rufus

You forgot the Birkenstocks with the knee high socks.

in Rome last fall I noticed that not everyone was as well-dressed as I had always been told. I wore mid-ankle slacks with a very smart jacket(it was 80+ degrees in Rome)& most well-dressed people were in wool, scarves, overcoats..they had to be perspiring as I soon noticed on the train!! Finally figured they were just rushing the fall fashion season as some do in the US. What about that red hair dye they favor? My friends from the UK & another UK guide I know tell me that the English travel in their oldest clothes and that it embarrasses them. I think I can usualy spot an American because so many are overweight with huge bellies, in their plaid shorts with their fanny packs & they are very loud. Guess we all have our preferences of what appearance we want to put forth.

pws remarks
> I think I can usually spot an American because so many are overweight with huge bellies, in their plaid shorts with their fanny packs & they are very loud. <

Are you sure they weren't German tourists?

I have never seen an American tourist in plaid shorts in my life! I noticed some hefty Brits on my last trip over, perhaps those are the people you are referring too. All that clotted cream don't cha know.

Could even be Belgian! Newest stats report that 50% of Belgians are overweight and 15% are obese and the numbers are rising steadily. Although not common, I have seen Belgians as obese as anyone in the U.S.

I've never seen an american in plaid shorts in Europe, and what if I did?. And Germans can give Americans a run for the flab anyday. I am reassured that some people wear "a very smart jacket" and long pants when its hot outside. Balances out my shorts.

"What's wrong with looking like a tourist, anyway?"

Absolutely nothing!

I can tell who are the European tourists in the NYC subway as easily as Europeans can tell who the American are in the metro or in the tube.

I don't think Americans are the worst dressers, anyway.

In Verona, we were heading into a museum (the one in the castle next to the bridge, close to via roma)...it was a warm day, and in front of us were two germans in shorts, sneakers and NO shirts. They just started walking into the museum, until a guard stopped them. That was a first for me.

They didn't have tickets, either.


Coachboy

were they plaid shorts? What? no Birkenstocks with socks?

Let's face it, most countries are getting fatter...could it be that because there are more people hitting middle age right around NOW? I just hurt myself.

Being German-American - I'm already doomed. ;)

I went over to Beverly Hills the other day for shopping and dinner and I couldn't walk down the street for all the tourists with their cameras, etc. I spotted them because they were wearing shorts and tshirts and tennis shoes, taking photographs, posing in front of the stores and whatever else tourists do.
Inside the restaurant there were the "chic-er" looking tourists, dressed casually but elegantly & w/o cameras.
It was odd but they were all European.

I don't know what opinions can be made of this, but it was interesting since I have been primed by this web site to be aware of such things.