After living in Florence for a year now I’m starting to finally feel like it’s my home… slowly understanding my way around and having my favorite hangouts and restaurants in my back pocket. As an expat in Italy, I’ve seen a few things that other expats (including myself) may do often in their expat life abroad.
You might be an expat in Italy if…
- you start referring to your girlfriends as ‘bella’
- you put ‘la’ in front of any woman’s name before you mention them
- you cut pizza with scissors
- you are a regular on Ataf
- you can parallel park like a beast
- your hands start to talk for you
- you push people in line, it doesn’t matter the gender or age
- you can’t eat pasta in the States anymore
- you bitch about politics even though you can’t vote
- you drink cheap wine that’s worth drinking
- you’re used to air drying your clothes
- you watch movies in Italian pretending you don’t need the subtitles
- you are astonished that people still speak to you in English
- your friends in the States think you have a magical life filled with rainbows and unicorns
- you can’t stand tourists
- you pride yourself on speaking the city’s dialect
- you own a vespa
- you date or married a local
- you’ve picked grapes during harvest
- you have more than one job
- you say caffè instead of espresso
- you drink caffè standing up
- you take trains more than cars
This will be an ongoing list like the American phrases that don’t translate well I wrote a while back, which seemed to have been quite a popular one.
Add more in the comments below and don’t be shy share this post and pin that meme!
17 comments
great post Tiana, guess I fit the bill, especially when it refers to being an ATAF regular and calling my girlfriends ‘bella’. Its a hard life, isn’t it ;-). Happy July 4th!
Thanks, Happy 4th! 🙂 I use bella in emails more for Italians, I’m not sure if I’ve called anyone that in person… can’t remember. I still use ‘mami’ from Miami sometimes.
Yes. Hate tourists! (except when I’m the tourist in another country and then I make sure to be as cheesy and annoying as possible as payback). I have found myself pretending that I don’t speak English when a tourist — American or other — asks me for help. I swear, I’m trying to become a better person.
Oh boy Silvia! I know you are better than that lol. I am pretty nice to tourists, but get irritated by loud ones taking over places… some people in general don’t know their surroundings.
hahaha this is really a fun post – I love it. going to share it with my readers 🙂
Thanks, found it! 😉
A lot of these are so true for Spain too! Like:#6 or #14 🙂
#14 for sure—I wish my life was filled with unicorns and rainbows!
I was just going to second this, Kaley! I use pet names like ‘guapa’ and ‘hija’ constantly (really sets me apart up here in Galicia, as it’s very, very Andalusian), and the part about the lines! Hilarious.
Ya it’s incredible how people push here, at least in Florence and up in the Alps in the ski lines. Kind of annoying!
I haven’t called anyone ‘gorda’ in awhile, but sometimes I throw in a ‘mami’.
Love all of these and even tho life isn’t filled with rainbows and unicorns, sounds like the cheap wine worth drinking and well-deserved pasta snobbery still make Italy a great place to live! 🙂
Yes Jess, there is major pasta snobbery going on over here! Who needs unicorns when you have €4 a bottle wine that would be $18+ in the states?!
Perhaps point 2 belongs better to a “You might be an expat in northern Italy if” list 🙂
Ire, I’ve heard someone from Twitter mention that as well, but I hear it loud and clear in Florence. They use ‘la’ in front of names in Latin countries/cultures too, so I’ve been ‘La Tiana’ for many years even in Miami. Perhaps the difference is how often it’s used and if you are referring to someone or calling them ‘la xxx’ to their face.
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