RpWCiW

Is there anywhere in San Vito dei Normanni where ‘Brits’ regularly meet to chat etc? The Vulcano had been mentioned but have been a few times to no avail so perhaps there is somewhere else?

Regards,
Richard.

RpWCiW

Ah, ok. Does this mean that meets ups don’t occur?

Geordieborn

General opinion I got was that Brits liked to avoid other there in Italy....

philat98

You could be right. I think the BE Italy forum isnt very much used. Look at the Talk the Talk thread. Started almost 20 years ago it managed 1500 posts but nothing posted in the last 2 years. It seems unlikely that everyone has learned Italian.
If you look at TuttItalia there are only 1200 British residents in the region of Puglia.The British population in Italy fell by 6.5% last year too.
https://www.tuttitalia.it/statistich...i/regno-unito/

daniel_t

I second that - except colleagues. Well, I avoid most Italians too, but that's just me.

C.2s

I don't think it's necessarily the case that expats don't meet up. I know lots that do. But perhaps this forum is not the right place to ask a specific question about San Vito dei Normanni. Only because this forum covers people from all of Italy and various others who live in Italy part-time,or want to live in Italy in the future. You'd need to find a way to communicate specifically with Brits who live in that town. Facebook maybe? Or the old fashioned way... bump into someone sooner or later at a bar or the local hardware store or something like that and you'll spot the accent and you can start up a conversation with them and ask them.

Some of our expat friends live in a sort of expat bubble...to each his/her own I guess.

If you just want friendship and aren't bothered about nationality then you might be able to find an English Conversation group (which will include all sorts of nationalities), and that might develop into something more like a friendship. It is a good start if you don't speak much Italian.

​​​​​​Generally speaking (and it's a sweeping generalisation) Italians don't have quite so many ways of inviting the opportunity to meet with total strangers, because the culture tends to rely on personal invitations (one goes to something ONLY if someone one knows is already going). And then of course the family ties are generally much stronger than in the UK. These are things that help create the strong local and family culture here, and they're positive things... but a little difficult to join in with. Having said that most Italians are friendly enough (but perhaps they aren't lacking friends so they're not really actively looking for new ones).

Margaret M

Hi Richard, we live in San Vito, and I believe I met you a few years ago for a few coffees. Vulcano is, or used to be a place where many Brits met up once a month, I think a Friday, but we've never been so can't be sure. We have a few British friends around the place that we do see fairly regularly, but the 'big meet up' isn't really our thing. Have you tried asking Vulcano themselves about it?

SanNico

It used to be on the last Friday of the month at Vulcano, 8PM. December will be hit and miss due to Christmas. As Margaret says, best to ask the owner, Pino. He will just make a space on the table for you.
Other places you might get lucky:
La Tana del Luppolo early weekday evenings.
Why Not Cafe on Via Carovigno early evenings.
L'Orchidea cafe on Via Brindisi, 10am most mornings.
Near the dog food in Lidl during Italian lunch hours or on Thursday morning for the special offers (or whatever days they do them now).

The one place I always met more Brits than Italians was the recycling centre.