Here is another impossible mission... fun facts about Italy are a gazillion, how could I list them all? Fun facts abound in this peninsula.
For a start, have a look here at some differencies between Italians and other Europeans.
A very common feeling among Italians traveling or living abroad – included myself – is the feeling of powerlessness which assails us when we are asked about some main interesting facts about Italy. It happens that foreigners can not even conceive that some facts have been occurring in a so called Western Democracy.
Really fun facts about Italy
I’ll start with one of them, actually a tragicomic fact, taken from current events.
The Italian Premier, that is the media tycoon Mr Silvio Berlusconi, over the years has been charged of:
tax fraud
bribery
embezzlement
ties to organized crime (aka mafia)
cronyism
Last but not least: sex with an under age prostitute and....bunga bunga parties with prostitutes..please don’t ask more..I can only say that he was taught by a close friend of him, a Mr Muammar Gaddafi, about those exotic sexual practices
Lastly, abuse of power, trying to hide his involvement with prostitution and minors
He’s also strongly involved in:
conflict of interests (he owns a huge part of the Italian media)
frequent attempted suppression of free speech: in which Banana Republic does a premier continuously gives talk shows phone calls scolding hosts who dare to criticize him?
establishment of immunity for the highest offices of State to protect himself against its gazillion trials
since the Supreme Court recently declared immunity illegal, he has been pretty busy.. trying to accomplish the Italian issue he mostly cares about: the reform of Justice in order to limit the power of judges...and do not think that it may be in order to protect him from allegations...
last but not least, his English makes my flesh crawl..
Check it out.
The funniest thing of all that? He is still in office as a Premier, unwilling to relinquish power. Had him been charged with just one of all those allegations, he would have resigned right away. Where? anywhere but in Italy. How can I explain all that? Simply, I do not even try. At least here... after all, this is a travel site! Let's go on.
Other fun facts about Italy
The creation of Starbucks was inspired by the Italian coffee culture, after its founders made a journey to Milan.
Despite that, there’s no Starbucks coffee in Italy. Why? My two cents:
Italians do not like chains. They like unique restaurants, unique bars, unique pizzerias, each one different, with their personality, different furnishings, different ambience and such
Italians would never walk around holding a huge hot cardboard glass in their hands (unless they are in the US): they prefer sipping a very small quantity of coffee in a tiny ceramic cup or – for those most refined – in a small handled glass
Starbucks offers just a small variety of types of coffee, and if I remember well, just in three different glass sizes. Italian bars instead boast a lot of different types of espresso. I will talk about that in another page, as it takes an entire article just to describe the types of espresso you find in the Italian bars
Lastly, Italians love to drink their coffee standing at the bar counter.
More fun facts about Italy
Women from other European countries, especially those from Central and Northern Europe, usually feel like a beauty queen when they travel to Italy. Why? In Italy, when you run into a stranger or cross him while walking down the street, in case you are a woman he may stare at you right in your eyes. He may also make a comment, especially if he is along with a bunch of other men. We Italian women are used to that, and the result is that we feel transparent, or even worse like a monster, when traveling abroad, where men use to be more discreet.
When Italian friends or acquaintances meet, they use to greet each other with 2 kisses, one for each cheek, no matter if they are men or women.
