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YOUR CONCEPT OF MEAL IS DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERS
You easily find yourself saying: “Is it 3 pm already???” Lunch is not just feeding yourself in an Italian family: it’s a way to stay together, to enjoy both a good conversation and a delicious dish.
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YOU CANNOT KEEP YOUR HANDS DOWN WHEN TALKING
It’s a fact, everybody must accept it: we talk with our hands and we cannot help it! We have such a wide range of different gestures that nobody could ever understand them all, unless they grew up in an Italian family.
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YOU GIVE A PERSONAL MEANING TO THE WORD “PORTION”
There’s always food for an entire football team on an Italian family table…and you must eat it all! You’re always a bit disappointed when you go for dinner at people’s houses and you think “is that bowl really for all of us?!”
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YOU HAVE A PERFECT ACCENT WHEN YOU SPEAK DIALECT
Nobody can tell you were born in another country when you get back to your Italian hometown…your family spoke dialect at home every day! Your accent is so perfect it seems you’ve lived in Italy your entire life.
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YOU UNCONSCIOUSLY FORCE PEOPLE TO EAT MORE FOOD
Who didn’t have a grandma that constantly repeated “MANGIA, MANGIA!”…now you do it with your kids and all the friends that come for dinner!
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YOU’RE AN OLIVE OIL FANATIC
What? You can also cook using butter?! Your nonna cooked with olive oil, your mamma cooks with olive oil…you would feel like committing a sin if you used anything else but olive oil! And nobody could ever convince you that a freshly baked slice of bread with extra virgin olive oil is NOT the best thing in the world!
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YOU CANNOT STAND OVERCOOKED PASTA
What’s worse than an itchy sweater for a true Italian? Overcooked pasta! If you really detest them, force them to finish a plate of mushy spaghetti.
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YOU’RE ALWAYS LOUD!
We’re cheerful, we’re funny, we enjoy life…and we do it loud talking! We were raised by people that were naturally loud, how can you ask us to speak quietly?
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YOU KNOW WHAT “REAL” BREAD IS
Do they really call bread that chewy, sugary, white thing? Bread for you is nothing else but a crusty, fresh and crunchy loaf that comes out of your oven…or out of the greatest bakery you found in town, which passed the crunchiness test!
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WHEN IT COMES TO FOOD, YOU DON’T KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD “NO”
Could you ever say no when your nonna gave you more spaghetti? Now you simply don’t know that meaning and you believe nobody can refuse your food when you offer them a third serving of pasta!
Alessia Odoardi is an Italian travel specialist, who shares the passion for food and travel with her husband www.mapleandsaffron.com
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