What to Wear
 

Hi all, I will be living in Italy this June for 4 weeks and I was wondering what my wardrobe should be so I can fairly blend in. It's my first time to the country, but I can speak the language and I want to feel comfortable. I'm sure ill go out and see some "touristy" stuff while I'm there, but this trip will be mainly for me living there and experiencing things that the locals would do/go.

Where will you be, big city or rural area? What will you be doing, fast food or dinner out or in? Are you in a hotel or staying with a family?

If you answer these questions you'll find it will become obvious. Oh yes and North or South? June will be warm to hot the further South you go.

Male or female?

What do you wear out and about at home? I dont find people dress that much differently when going about their every day life.

I wear the same thing in Italy that I wear in the US doing like activies in like weather.

"... but this trip will be mainly for me living there and experiencing things that the locals would do/go." Presumably, you don't mean locals who are going to work.

Like others, I don't have a specific travel wardrobe and do take my everyday clothes. That said, I tend to buy things/pieces that travel well.

For a trip in June, I'd be packing for warming temps and, depending on where you're going, the possibility of some rain.

Agree that I don't wear different clothing in europe than I do at home. But then I live in a big city and don't wear super casual clothing in any city unless actually doing something athletic - biking, tennis, etc.

I think you may find that attire in very small towns may be more conservative than in the US unless you are a student.

But agree we really need more info to help.

It's difficult to live like a local, unless you want to go to work, come home and clean the house, walk the dog etc. You are a tourist and you will be considered a tourist by the majority of Italians. Having said that, I hope you have a lovely trip and that you will write a trip report, either while you are there or when you get home. Some of my favourite trip reports are written 'live' while the trip is happening.

>>>><i>Hi all, I will be living in Italy this June for 4 weeks</i>

Only 4 weeks? Then I guess that means I have "lived" in Italy too! But really, 4 weeks is a vacation, you're not really "living" there - you're a tourist. Sorry.

And, I agree with cathies.

When I'm older I hope to have longer to really 'live' for a time in different places - in the meantime I will treasure the week I lived in Manhattan, the week I lived in DC and the wonderful week in December when our whole family lived in London ;-) - and were only 1.5 days short of "living" in Paris!

my experience from myriad visits to Italy but particularly from staying in a small italian town last May is

1. they wear more clothes than I find comfortable in their temperatures

2. you can wear jeans all day every day and you'll fit in everywhere so long as you dress them up with a jacket.

3. jackets are good.

4. if you were to live there 30 years you still wouldn't be fully italian but it doesn't matter!

Willsharman, I get it, when I "lived" in Paris for a month, I too wanted to fit in. On a good day some other American mistook me for a PArisian and asked directions, but the BEST day was when one of them mistook me for a fellow Parisian! That said it sounds like this is easier than Paris! :)

I don't agree with all this advice, but that's my problem. We can all wear what we want.

But there is one big exception: almost all churches require that your cleavage, shoulders, upper arms, and knees to be covered. Since much of the great art in Italy is in churches, you will need to take a cover-up OS some sort if you usually wear sleeveless, scoop neck, or tank tops, which you may well want otherwise. Even when it is not yet hot, Rome is close enough to the coast to be sticky.

All those church rules only apply to humans not trolls.

OP needs to realize that a troll will never blend in even if she/he "speaks the language".

Italians often suffer from sudden air movements which cause them to catch colds, I'd suggest a scarf (obviously light for June, perhaps in silk) so that if in doubt you can keep the dread drafts away.

Careful with shorts. The Italians don't mind but some of the people here go ballistic. There's kind of a parallel Italy here when it comes to clothes.