Xenophobe's Guide to the Italians

Leisure & Pleasure

The Italians live life to the full, and do not feel in the least bit guilty leading a life of leisure and pleasure 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. This is what life is all about: Italians do not live to work, they work to live.

Italians love shopping. Their cities are full of wonderful craftsmen and skilled tailors, as well as shops catering for every taste and whim. The quality and luxury of the goods on display in the main streets is stunning. As are the price tags. But although only the rich and famous will actually enter Prada, Gucci, Armani, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino to buy, Italians are not put off for they know that the end price of the goods on display could turn out be very different, especially when sooner or later they could turn up in the sales or in a street market.

Shopping is considered fun, especially at the markets where there are real bargains to be found, but one should never enquire too deeply into the provenance of the goods. As long as it fits, does it really matter that the beautiful little black Moschino cocktail dress being offered to you at 90 euros is the same as the one you saw on sale in the Via Veneto last night at 990 euros? Of course, the risk is yours, and that real bargain could just as easily be a real fake.

Haggling is acceptable in the markets, and customers are expected to ask for a discount in shops. Italians will sell anything and everything, from their grandmother to their next-door neighbour – at the right price, of course. In Naples, for example, the street kids will unscrew your car number plate at one set of traffic lights and sell it back to you at the next, with a smile and, naturally, at a bargain price.

Football is far and away the most important sport in Italy. Matches are played on Sunday afternoons and Italian men are often to be seen holding radios to their ears as they take their family out for a Sunday afternoon stroll. When the national team is playing in the World Cup, the whole nation comes to a halt and everybody forgets their regional differences – in front of the television. The only other sport taken seriously at a national level is cycling, and the progress of the Italian competitors in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France is followed (despite doping scandals), with rapt attention.

The Italians are not brought up with much active sport apart from physical education classes – few Italian schools have good sports facilities – and it is hard to find anyone participating seriously in sport. Beautifully dressed Italian joggers are easily overtaken by the average walker as they flaunt their way around the park on a Sunday morning. Nevertheless, Italy regularly manages to produce world and Olympic champions in a whole variety of sports, from swimming and fencing to rowing and shooting, with both the competitors and their country relishing and making the most of every opportunity for occupying the centre stage.