At one time, we Italians were immigrants who left with a cardboard suitcase to go and seek fortune in America. Then we were labelled as “pasta, pizza and mandolin”, the country where VIPs decide to get married and buy a house.
Italy is beautiful. Point. Let us realize this without needing foreigners who remind us of it. Why tourists love Italy is a fact. Let them take their vacation, and that they do not come to teach us that great artistic and cultural fortune that we find ourselves in our hands. But thank goodness they are there to remind us. Unfortunately, we don’t always notice our heritage, and we dream of the hectic life of the American or Asian metropolises or the still uncontaminated islands of Australia.
What if, instead, we tried to be tourists in our land? We would discover how much it fascinates outsiders and, perhaps, we would appreciate our boot even more.
Sometimes, foreigners also participate in our trips, some during a stay in Italy those who have just moved, and those on Erasmus. We asked them why the beautiful country fascinates them so much: here are the 10 reasons tourists love Italy
1- SLOW FOOD (BECAUSE MCDONALD’S MAKES US A MUSTACHE)
Our culinary products are healthy and genuine and do not require 123456789 ingredients mixed together. 5 senses, 5 ingredients, so easy they can be counted on the fingers of the hand. We love slow food, and if Eataly has made it worldwide, there must be a reason.
It almost seems a contradiction, though: tourists under 35 preach our ITTALLIAN FOOD so well, but then you see them queuing up at Burger King or McDonald’s for an afternoon snack, the one that equates to our snack. This is not too surprising, given that they offer those convenient menus, or the euro-saving formula, which in this period of crisis is considered an excellent alternative to hot chocolate with cream or 5 o’clock tea. British, and I only take it more madame, ladies as we call them (in a derogatory way) in Piedmont.
2- HOMEMADE FOOD (THE GOOD ONE, EH)
We all have at least one friend whose relative makes food at home. It doesn’t matter if he is an uncle, a cousin, a brother-in-law or a grandfather: raise your hand if you don’t have at least someone who makes bread at home, or cheeses, or salami, or jams, or liqueurs. And he always gives us at will. The freshness is immediately felt in the mouth, and it is also because one bite leads to another, and we manage to finish everything immediately.
My grandparents, in the countryside, prepared cured meats by killing and gutting the pig (Sunday was considered a real feast) and the mythical tuma, the Piedmontese sheep toma, whose preparation was almost a ritual. My aunt and my mom, on the other hand, are unbeatable in preserves and jams. And my other grandmother, an old-time cook, was number one for homemade pasta. This explains why I have become a good eater (in Italian una buona forchetta).
Booking.com3- WINE, THE NECTAR OF ITALIANS
Our wine is that of the house, which is bottled in the cellars and served loose in the trattorias’ jugs or the Piedmontese piole. And we don’t even have time to pour two glasses, because the litre is already finished and we have to order a second jug.
According to the balance sheet drawn up in the summer of 2010 by the Enoteca Italiana (Siena), the oldest national body for promoting Made in Italy wine, 5,000 visitors a month let themselves be conquered by the Italian nectar.
4- THE ITALIAN BREAKFAST
Our breakfast at the bar is “the usual”, with croissants and coffee. We have no soft drinks to choose from, a thousand varieties of chocolate doughnuts, cookies with various flavours or fruit juices to combine vitamins. Our choice is between cappuccino or coffee, brioche with jam, cream or chocolate.
Some have Breakfast at Tiffany’s and those … in the Italian style, to each of their own. Still, I believe that not even a sophisticated one like Holly Golightly could have resisted a literary café located on the corner of some medieval village in our country.
5- KEEP CALM AND… TAKE IT EASY
In the trattorias, we can take it easy, and after coffee, take a limoncello. An amaro, then the house bitter, then a homemade grappa, then have a little more chat with the manager who sits at the table with us, then another drink with him, and then maybe we get up and pay. All very calmly, without having to stuff ourselves because we have to clear the table within half an hour.
Estimated budget? Undoubtedly, the time we are talking at the table is more time than what we eat.
6- THE STEAK (IT DOESN’T MATTER IF AT FIORENTINA OR MILANESE)
The meat is not burgers, but it is an authentic steak. It does not matter if it is Florentine or Milanese, it is a meat lady, and tourists know this very well, and they don’t let it be said twice.
They order her because she looks fantastic. They taste it because they pay for it. They fall in love with it because they can’t do otherwise. Then the bill arrives, and they seem to fall out of the clouds. Some may grumble, others try to get a little discount, but in the end, they pay because they know they have tasted a delight. For everything else, there is Mastercard.
7- THE PORCARO
Porchetta sandwiches on the street in front of concert halls beat the New York hot dog cart by far, both in quality and price. The Porcaro, as we often call the paninaro, has nothing to envy to the little man in the food truck, who is there trying to attract customers.
He sits there quietly, minding his business, and when someone comes, he cleans his hands and begins to prepare the sausage with sauerkraut, onions, peppers and so forth. Because the dirtier the cart, the more it makes us drool in our mouths.
8- THE AUTO GRILLS
Bus trips have a fixed stop at the Autogrill, where between a slice of pizza from Spizzico and the other, she always wins, the legendary Rustichella, slightly warmed up. It seems to us that we complain about not being comfortable because whoever is sitting in front of us pulls the seat down and makes us feel like canned sardines. And even more, we do not tolerate the motorway restaurants, for the high prices, for the queue in the bathroom (if they can be called that, given the dirt), for the late passengers.
Autogrills are almost a stop as per program for foreigners, so much so that one of the things they ask as soon as you leave for an organized trip is not “When do we stop for a break?”, But “We stop at the Autogrill, no?”.
And we who complain because the stop always lasts 5 minutes longer than expected!
9- FREE ART ON THE STREET
For most of the works of art, we don’t have to queue in museums, like the 3-hour queue to go up to the Empire State Building in New York: we just walk around the city centre and here is Piazza Navona in Rome, Piazza San Marco in Venice, Piazza Della Signoria in Florence.
Wherever we turn, if we know how to look a little beyond our nose, we find a piece of free artistic heritage.
Free art that can visit 24 hours a day. Sorry if it is little.
Booking.com10- GIVE ME A VESPA AND TAKE YOU ON HOLIDAY
We still go on vacation with the Vespa. For certain types of trips, it will certainly not be the best of comfort, but do you want to take a ride through the fields or hills in spring? A show. Not to mention a romantic tour like the one in Roman Holidays. With spring just around the corner, who doesn’t want to leave?
Because the Dolce Vita is not just a utopia brought to the big screen by Fellini, it is our reality. It is part of us, of our country and our culture. And every time we hear a Special pass, we look out on the balcony, hoping that Cremonini will be driving.
This is why tourists love Italy. And you?