One aspect of Milan I’m really tired of is that it seems so old. Europe’s population in general is ageing, but the average in Milan seems to be even older, though I don’t know why that should be. Surely they could find some cheaper and more congenial place to retire. New Yorkers retire to Florida to… Continue reading Generation Gap: Italy’s Ageing Population
Category: Italian culture
Making Friends in Italy
This question came up recently on one of the expats-in-Italy boards I hang out on (it had coincidentally already been on my mind): How do you make friends with Italians? Although most of the Italians I’ve met are warm and friendly and great fun to have dinner with, I’m not sure that I have any… Continue reading Making Friends in Italy
In Italy, Dyed Hair More Common than Natural
(for women) I read somewhere that an astonishing proportion of Italian women dye their hair – was it 60% ? Wouldn’t surprise me. Look around you on the Milan metro any crowded morning, and it’s hard to find a woman who doesn’t dye her hair. There are plenty of blondes, few of them natural. A woman’s hair… Continue reading In Italy, Dyed Hair More Common than Natural
Teenagers and Cellphones – Standard Equipment for Italian Adolescents
David Pogue, technology writer for the New York Times, mentioned in his weekly column (some time ago) some ways in which Europe is technologically ahead of the US. We’re certainly far ahead in the use of SMS (short message service), by which you can use your cellphone to send text messages to someone else’s cellphone.… Continue reading Teenagers and Cellphones – Standard Equipment for Italian Adolescents
Holiday Hell – Italian Vacation Traffic
Almost every Christmas, we drive halfway down Italy to Abruzzo, where my in-laws are retired by the seaside. This puts us on the road with millions of other Italians going home for the holidays. Much of the flow is north to south: the many southern Italians who migrated to northern Italy decades ago to find… Continue reading Holiday Hell – Italian Vacation Traffic