A day in the life of a tradition italian home?

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Chiara C

I am Italian, I moved a couple of years ago to the US, and honestly I didn't see much of a difference in the lifestyle. I don't know if it's because I come from Rome that is a big city, but more or less...
I'd say that the average day of an Italian family goes like this: wake up in the morning, make an espresso for brekafast. Some people go to the snack bar in the piazza and get an espresso or cappuccino there, and maybe a cornetto (croissant) before they get to work. The working day for a regular employee is from 9-5 average, depending on the job. Dinner is around 8, in the north it's usually earlier and in the south it's later, and families tend to have dinner together and wait until everybody is home.
People who work don't nap after lunch, lol. I've heard people believing that! The nightlife is intense, you can usually find places to eat at every time of the night and day, people go out more often even during the week and they tend to meet up later at night than the average American (we're night owls!) and a lot of restaurants have outside areas where you can dine while you watch what is going on in the piazza. As for the religion, almost everyone is Catholic. We only celebrate Catholic holidays, we get days off around Christmas and Easter and we have other Catholic holidays that in the US are not known, like the "lunedÃ¬ dell'Angelo" (Monday of the Angel), that is the day after Easter, where everyone usually takes small trips and have pic-nics outdoor. People also celebrate their "onomastico" that is the day where the Saint carrying your name is celebrated on the calendar. Almost every calendar in Italy will have a name of a saint for each day. Even those Italians that proclaim to be "atheist" or simply not very religious are more Catholic than they realize. I realized when I moved to the US how much the Catholic religion is deeply radicated in every Italian's culture.
If there's anything more you want to know, feel free to write to me, I'll be glad to help!

Denetella

Hi! Ask your question on Yahoo Italy to get a really good response! Use a free translation service to ask your question in Italian, then use it to translate answers to english.

alberto lupi

as all in the western world, no more Italian specificity (exept food!) a grat deal of the social life expecially for young is in the piazza, the square, where you do "la vasca" the pool to see and be seen.

--Flavia--

h 7.00 wake up and run to work
h. 8.00 you are blocked in street traffic with your car and start screaming and hooting imaging that the hooter is the head of the stupid person in the car in front of you who doesn't drive as fast as you wish...
h 9.00-1.00pm work
h 1.00pm-1.30pm put a sandwich in your mouth, an espresso coffee and eventually a cigarette( always before espresso and after cigarette..it's a must...)
h 1.30-5.30 pm work
h 5.30 ...my god... not the traffic again..
h 6.00-7.00 some gym... I have to burn off my office (and traffic) stress
h 8.30 pm dinner with all family... tv news...
h 12.00 go to bed..

dinning together is a strong value, generally dinner is cooked fresh (not frozen things) by mom.. pasta is generally a "must", then you eat meat or fish or cheese with vegetables... also because you can eat pasta in a really "light" way (ex. extra virgin olive oil and some parmiggiano cheese --> pasta in bianco ).
religion.. well, it depends a lot by where you live and from family to family... I know just few person who are 20 years old who goes to church (at sundays).. about older persons it's different..

banana

i'm 20 and live with my dad and my bro (21) in a little modern house near milan.
i usually wake up in the morning when my dad's already gone to work, i have a lil breakfast alone without watching tv, then i go out to go to university in milan.
i have lessons 3 days a week, only in the morning until 12... there i meet friends...
in the afternoon i get back home (by public transports), and prepare my meal...
sometimes, when i feel good, i also prepare meal for my brother, who comes back later than me.
we hardly ever take lunch together.
seen that i don't work still, i spend my afternoons studying (we study a lot...), doing the housework or meeting some friends.
my dad comes back at about 8 pm and it's usually me or him who prepare the dinner, that we take all together...
we are not religious, never go to church and never mention god... dune if it's better this kind of life, but we are doing good anyway.
my brother goes out all the evenings till night because all his friends and his girlfriend live in the neighbourgh... my boyfriend lives here around too, but he works a lot, so we got less nights to spend together. when we do, we are used to going clubbing in milan, where there are tons of great places.
i love to buy high heeled shoes for pretty events and spend a lot of money on it!
at high school i studied languages... so i can speak english, french, german and a little spanish... this has helped me travel and meet foreing friends from all over the world, who i'm still in touch with...
well it's hard to try to describe a typical day in my life... it sounds a routine!
i don't think there is much difference between an italian girl and an american one, seen that we both live in a western country and are stuck in modernization...
there may be some different cultural aspects, that i would be unable to explain unless i saw myself through your eyes.
however, let's be stereotyped: love to sing, love pizza and pasta (which i eat nerly once a day), love to go on holyday to the seaside in the summer and talk very loud :-)

PALLELUIA

first go to study spelling

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