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Yes, we have family in Sicily and would not mind returning. But next trip we have only about ten days to spend in Italy before heading to Prague. All we can comfortably cover is Naples, and then four nights to see parts of Calabria.
Two weeks would cover Sicily well. Puglia and Matera need at least a week and the Amalfi coast at least a week.
Keep in mind that parts of southern Italy operate in a way that can be quite alien to those from some other parts of the world. Often the long lunch is still in place and you find shops and museums etc closed when you think might want to go there. On Mondays many attractions are closed, businesses often open later in the morning than we are used to. My friend with family in Sicily found their pace really exasperating when she stayed with them. Ideally you need to slow down and run with their pace, but easier said than done.
Yes, we have family in Sicily and would not mind returning. But next trip we have only about ten days to spend in Italy before heading to Prague. All we can comfortably cover is Naples, and then four nights to see parts of Calabria.
Two weeks would cover Sicily well. Puglia and Matera need at least a week and the Amalfi coast at least a week.
Keep in mind that parts of southern Italy operate in a way that can be quite alien to those from some other parts of the world. Often the long lunch is still in place and you find shops and museums etc closed when you think might want to go there. On Mondays many attractions are closed, businesses often open later in the morning than we are used to. My friend with family in Sicily found their pace really exasperating when she stayed with them. Ideally you need to slow down and run with their pace, but easier said than done.
So is it more of the Southern/Midwestern kind of laid back, or the Mexican, Latin American siesta type of laid back mentality?
So is it more of the Southern/Midwestern kind of laid back, or the Mexican, Latin American siesta type of laid back mentality?
I imagine it is more the Latin American style of living, but I live in the busiest city in Australia so hard to compare with parts of the US.
The hardest adjustment for us were the hours. Here life seems to be lived earlier and earlier. My local coffee shop opens at 4 30am, and this week we went to a musical in the city, which finished at 9pm. We commented that in Sicily we would just be thinking about going out to dinner, not home to bed.
As a tourist you have to factor in that closing time in the middle of the day when a lot is shut.
But one memory we have was going to visit a cousin. They started making home made ice cream and pizza at around 10pm. It was at least an hour back to where we were staying and we wondered whether we would ever be fed and free to leave!
So is it more of the Southern/Midwestern kind of laid back, or the Mexican, Latin American siesta type of laid back mentality?
It's neither. Southern Italy is a different sort of place. School finishes at lunch time and shops shut, everyone goes home to have lunch with family. Lunch will be reasonably simple, pasta, bread, maybe some vegetables and cheese, but expect a "meal" not sandwiches.
After lunch you take a nap, usually just everyone falls asleep talking in the lounge room and it all goes quiet for 30-45 minutes. After that you go for passeggiata where you stop and enquire with people you know what they had for lunch. Almost everyone has had the same thing "pasta with tomato sauce".
Around 4-5pm shops will reopen and people will go out window shopping and stopping for coffee (which you rarely sit for). At about 8-9pm they will have dinner.
It is an extremely family-centred culture. Like the whole nonna thing is not exaggerated. The problem is, who wants to spend that much time with people for no other reason than being related to them.
It's neither. Southern Italy is a different sort of place. School finishes at lunch time and shops shut, everyone goes home to have lunch with family. Lunch will be reasonably simple, pasta, bread, maybe some vegetables and cheese, but expect a "meal" not sandwiches.
After lunch you take a nap, usually just everyone falls asleep talking in the lounge room and it all goes quiet for 30-45 minutes. After that you go for passeggiata where you stop and enquire with people you know what they had for lunch. Almost everyone has had the same thing "pasta with tomato sauce".
Around 4-5pm shops will reopen and people will go out window shopping and stopping for coffee (which you rarely sit for). At about 8-9pm they will have dinner.
It is an extremely family-centred culture. Like the whole nonna thing is not exaggerated. The problem is, who wants to spend that much time with people for no other reason than being related to them.
The bolded is traditional with the Spaniards and it became widespread in Latin America. In the big cities even in Spain life has become faster and things like the siesta has either been shorten or eliminated, but go to the small towns and things are still like that in Spain and much of Latin America.
Also, Southern Italy was a part of Spain for a while. There is no such thing as being territory or a colony of Spain and not getting any Spanish influence. Even Equatorial Guinea, the only place in Sub-Saharan Africa that was a colony of Spain though for a shorter time than Latin America, and the Spanish influence there is paramount. This is even taking into account that most of the people don’t have some Spanish ancestry, whereas having some Spanish ancestry is normal in Latin America. Along with that ancestry comes certain cultural “Spanish influences” that aren’t true influences since you inherited them from people that inherit it them from their parents, etc. In Equatorial Guinea you have a case of true colonialism where at a certain point there is a schism between how they were and the injection of the Spanish influence.
Take the Spanish language as an example. Most Mexicans have some Spanish ancestry, so their Spanish language didn’t start with someone being taught the language since “it came down with the furniture.” For the typical Equatorial Guinean, they can’t trace the Spanish language going at a certain point back to Spain from one or severwl of their ancestors. At a certain point the Spanish language was taught to them. Their ancestral language(s) are things completely different from Spanish.
I have a feeling Southern Italy still retains certain aspects it may inherited during the Spanish era.
It's neither. Southern Italy is a different sort of place. School finishes at lunch time and shops shut, everyone goes home to have lunch with family. Lunch will be reasonably simple, pasta, bread, maybe some vegetables and cheese, but expect a "meal" not sandwiches.
After lunch you take a nap, usually just everyone falls asleep talking in the lounge room and it all goes quiet for 30-45 minutes. After that you go for passeggiata where you stop and enquire with people you know what they had for lunch. Almost everyone has had the same thing "pasta with tomato sauce".
Around 4-5pm shops will reopen and people will go out window shopping and stopping for coffee (which you rarely sit for). At about 8-9pm they will have dinner.
It is an extremely family-centred culture. Like the whole nonna thing is not exaggerated. The problem is, who wants to spend that much time with people for no other reason than being related to them.
Problem for us is that I would love to go back to see the family there for a short visit! But he who is the one actually related to them totally agrees with your last statement and cannot be bothered.
What my friend found exasperating was that the cousins would announce that they would go on a day trip to some place of interest, she would be all ready to go and they would muck around so much that lunchtime would come, then the siesta, and they would set off on the day trip in the afternoon.
It's neither. Southern Italy is a different sort of place. School finishes at lunch time and shops shut, everyone goes home to have lunch with family. Lunch will be reasonably simple, pasta, bread, maybe some vegetables and cheese, but expect a "meal" not sandwiches.
After lunch you take a nap, usually just everyone falls asleep talking in the lounge room and it all goes quiet for 30-45 minutes. After that you go for passeggiata where you stop and enquire with people you know what they had for lunch. Almost everyone has had the same thing "pasta with tomato sauce".
Around 4-5pm shops will reopen and people will go out window shopping and stopping for coffee (which you rarely sit for). At about 8-9pm they will have dinner.
It is an extremely family-centred culture. Like the whole nonna thing is not exaggerated. The problem is, who wants to spend that much time with people for no other reason than being related to them.
Maybe that’s one reason why Southern Italy is poorer than the northern part of the country. They don’t work as much. It could be that it’s just too hot.
Maybe that’s one reason why Southern Italy is poorer than the northern part of the country. They don’t work as much. It could be that it’s just too hot.
Southern Italy flourished when it was part of a Mediterranean network, not Europe.
But that was a long time ago and it’s never coming back.
Anyway, I wouldn’t describe northern Italy as poor and southern Italy as poorer. Instead one is wealthier than the other in a European sort of way, the latter being relatively close to the core, the former at the periphery and never a priority for industrial development.
But, yes, the bulk of the blame, assuming there is any, lies with themselves.
Or maybe they simply don’t care about all that and live for reasons other than rank on somebody else’s wealth scale.
Southern Italy flourished when it was part of a Mediterranean network, not Europe.
But that was a long time ago and it’s never coming back.
Anyway, I wouldn’t describe northern Italy as poor and southern Italy as poorer. Instead one is wealthier than the other in a European sort of way, the latter being relatively close to the core, the former at the periphery and never a priority for industrial development.
But, yes, the bulk of the blame, assuming there is any, lies with themselves.
Or maybe they simply don’t care about all that and live for reasons other than rank on somebody else’s wealth scale.
Northern Italy is wealthy. People from the South have migrated there for decades to find work.
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