Angeldimana

Hi to all,

Just wondering what opinions are of associating with other people of 'British Origin' ?

The only reason i'm curious to what replies this gets is that i often get the impression that some people who have moved to Italy are not too welcoming when meeting other British.

For us, when we moved here a year ago, if we heard other English speakers it was sometimes good so we could have a decent understandable conversation whilst talking to Italians was difficult in the new language.

But ive heard comments of 'we moved here to get away for England' and i'm sure that some people would rather avoid their fellow Brits all together?

What do you think?

Mr Posh

I love it meeting brits even if it's just for our sense of humour, (could you imagine some Italians on our forum) but saying that I would not like it to be like some Spanish towns where there are lots of Brits..

giodafa

I agree with Mr Posh

6monthshere6monthsthere

I agree with Nick
I agree with Mr Posh
I agree with giodafa

I would hate to be surrounded by brits - but love to meet up with the odd brit

PS - moving to ACITREZZA on 12th September for 36 weeks - beach side - anyone for a coffee?

suncycle

wouldn't some Italians on here be good? Maybe there are - I don't know - I'm a newbie here.

On the subject, beautiful as Tuscany undoubtedly is, the thought of a place so apparently infested with Brits does make me shudder.

Mr Posh

What I was tryiing to say that they would not understand our sense of humour on here, how many of you (I have) tried to crack a joke and they look at you gone out, or said something that you find funny and they do not...

indiebird

I think it depends. I have a few English friends and that is great but I wouldn't fancy being here and only mixing with Brits. I have met British people here though (and where I am there are very few Brits) who live really close to me but are not interested in mixing with me on anyone else British. They are in their lives and they don't want to. There is a woman who works at the local pool who is from the UK and she has said about two words to me. She ignores me more often than not. I think that some people are worried that you might attach onto them and want more than they are willing to give in terms of help and stuff like that....

ononno

I have abdicated totally from trying to tell jokes to Italians; even to family. The only person that seems to share a British sense of humour is one grandaughter; who also has very good English. Try telling jokes to the Senior Citizens club and they fall as flat as a lead balloon. I decided a long time ago that love Italian things as I do; their sense of humour is non-existant. Even nel Napolitano. As for being in the company of other Brits; that is fine by me as long as they are not constantly moaning about either Italy or the UK.
I tried translating this one just the other day to family, and received only blank stares:
Three rabbits escape from a research laboratory. They come upon a field of carrots, and fill themselves to bursting. After a refreshing sleep in a nearby hedge, they spy a group of pretty little bunnies frolicking in a nearby field. They decide to join them, and frolic themselves silly. After sleeping it all off in some friendly burrows, the next morning the first rabbit says 'I think I'll go back to that carrot field'. The second bunny says 'I think I fancy another nice little frolic'. The third rabbit says 'I'm off back to the laboratory, I'm dying for a fag'.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

johnnyj

I like that joke, but I can see how the Italians wouldn't. I would like there to be some more, only a couple mind, of English speaking people around here (Cilento region) as my Italian is still very basic. We didn't move here to be part of an ex-pat community though. The summer appears to be the worst season, as the 4 people I know (2 American & 2 Italian) are all very busy working all hours under the sun, things won't change until at least October on that front!
So is there anybody out there that even knows where we are?

Lorna at Vicenza

I've got a couple of very good English girlfriends here. I'm sure there must be more Britons around in the language schools in the city but I'm not going to actively seek them out myself.

If I bumpred into anybody and they fancied a chat or a drink I'd happily go along with that.

I'm happy to live my life mostly all Italian but I'm very glad that it's not 100% Italian. I'd miss the English, the banter, the sarcasm, the bacon, Yorkshire puds etc.

I've noticed that most Italians don't get the humour but they also don't get it when I'm being a little bit cheeky ... not cheeky as in rude but cheeky -fun, like when I asked the gas man to knock a couple of hundred numbers off my meter.

Anderson Council

Interesting question. In theory I like to think I'm not bothered about nationality ("citizen of the world" and all that). However, in reality a big problem here is that locals don.'t tend to travel very much, for various reasons (poverty, tradition, weather etc). I know many people who have never been out of Puglia in their lives. So naturally they can be somewhat small-minded and provincial in their outlook. Whereas expats tend to be quite cosmopolitan, by their very nature. So often I find foreigners more interesting than locals.
I also agsee with the comments about humour. I don't like 'jokes' as such. But I like surreal humour. Try translating Vic Reeves or Eddie Izzard (for example) to Italians. A total non-starter!

chris120

The only jokes I consistently get a laugh with from Italians is the "How do you know Jesus was Italian" one and the "German soldier in 1944 holding a luger to the head of a Polish priest" one.
Otherwise Italian humour is very unsophisticated; just watch a few comedy shows on TV.

Lorna at Vicenza

They're UNwatchable ! Although Zelig had a couple of fairly funny people on it. Haven't watched it for years though. Don't even know if it's still going.
Le Iene wasn't exactly comedy but it wasn't too bad.

K in Modena

Yes, Zelig is still going strong. I agree that Italian humour on tv is pretty unsophisticated. My Italian DH and I have a great giggle though. My FIL doesn't get when I'm joking though, but then half the time when I speak he looks straight at my DH, not at me, and says "I don't understand what she said." Nobody else seems to have a problem!

I have a couple of wonderful British friends here whom I wouldn't like to be without. The trouble with Brits here in Modena though, is that they're generally on short term contracts with companies like Ferrari and will eventually go back to the UK. Maybe that's what's putting people off meeting new Brits.

Angeldimana

What i mean is about Brit's that you meet for the first time when your out and about - I sometimes get the general feeling that they are very anti UK, anti British and don't really want anything to do with any other Brits.

Example - We recently had an issue when our post stopped arriving at the house. One day, when we were leaving the house, at the end of our drive way a little fiat pulled up in front of us.
We automatically presumed the bloke to be Italian and when he started to talk, obviously he was English.
So, my missus first reaction was 'Oh you're English ?' - He replied in a rather sarcastic voice 'Yes - is it that obvious ? Dont tell anyone else! ' and then couldn't get away from us quick enough.
Turned out he had received our post by mistake because we had a new post woman who just presumed that because it was an English name must have been for him.

But he didn't have chance to like or dislike us - we just felt like he really didn't want to associate with us. - Like we'd invaded his Italian paradise.

Now, i'm not saying that we would have become his best friends but his nature was verging on rude. Although, he did bring us some post so maybe not that bad.

I have noticed this on more than one occasion with different Brits (allthough not all)

re - Italian's personalities - i sometimes think that Italian and Brits have quite similar characteristics but i can see how they'd struggle with some of our humour. I think jokes can often be wasted but i do manage to have a laugh with our locals and for the most part they all seem pretty light hearted.