Italy - expectations vs reality

Comparing misconceptions and rumours about Italy to our experience in Italy.

by Lissel Lõhmus

When people think of Italy, usually the first thing that comes to their mind is how romantic Italy is and how romantic the people there are. It of course depends on the region and the person but according to our experience, the cities are quite dirty and the people (mostly strangers) seem to be rather short-tempered. There aren’t many trash cans in the cities and if you throw your trash to a shop where you haven’t bought anything from you will get in trouble. Nevertheless, the countryside – the nature is amazing, we all enjoyed the spectacular views of the mountains, valleys, and vineyards and of course loved the tall and thin Cyprus trees, which are typical to Tuscany.

A thing that is true about Italian people is that Italians do cheek kissing while meeting for the first time. Secondly, we noticed that Italian people do tend to be late a lot and it’s not really a big deal for them. At the same time, the Italians are very helpful. If you ever get cold, don’t be surprised when people go out of their way to make you feel warm. However, one rumour that is sadly true, is that Italian men catcall women a lot. While walking around Pisa and Florence there were numerous cases where strange men (some according to their appearance from Arabian countries) said something flirty to us. One time they started even following us around, but luckily, nothing bad happened. It should be mentioned here that Italy is a very multicultural country which was a bit disturbing.

Italians are very protective and heartfelt about their (national) food. There are rather limited food choices (a lot of pasta and pizza). For example, if you are hungry for some fried potatoes and meat (the food we mostly eat in Estonia), there is a big chance you won’t get it. Most of the food is made from bread and you have to consider it when travelling there. However, the pastries are delicious in Italy. You can drive with 0.5 g/l of alcohol in your blood. Therefore, after a few glasses of wine, you are still good to drive. One more unexpected aspect - you have to pay 2.50 euros for service every time you go to a restaurant.

There are some things that are a bit annoying about Italy and Italians. Not many Italians speak fluent English, which was surprising. Furthermore, the texts in the museum aren’t in any other languages except Italian, so it was difficult to learn about Italian history and culture.

Compared to Estonians the biggest difference is that Italians are very talkative and open-minded, even when you first meet them. Estonians are on the contrary mostly reserved and shy. But as a group and when we are getting used to new people Estonians can also be social and chatty. But for sure, Italians come off as more outgoing than us and we liked it.

 Istituto Comprensivo Alto Casentino 

by Gete Jürgenson

This institution has 8 school buildings. 2 secondary schools, 3 primary schools, and 3 nursery schools. We visited a secondary school on Monday and Thursday. On Thursday we also visited a primary school.

These schools combined have 580 students and 32 classes. We visited the secondary school (mid-school) with 9 classes (1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, ..., 3C). There were around 100 students. The students come by school bus or their parents bring them. The school starts around 8 am and ends at 1 pm. So they don't mostly eat lunch at school (though they have a snack with them every day), except the young ones who aren't picked up. Students go home to have lunch. 

Students have tablets that they use in their lessons to make the lessons more interactive and to visualize. They also have a garden where they grow some herbs and vegetables. It helps to teach kids about plants and how to grow them themselves. 

Students'  presentations about their mobility: