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Culture Smart! Italy: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

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It is impossible to be bored in Italy. To excite, delight and stimulate you there is the beauty of the land, the elegance and charm of its people, the variety of its regional cultures, the quality and dash of its design and engineering, the reputation of its artists, sculptors, writers, musicians, and filmmakers, and, of course, the glory of its monuments and architecture.

One of the great pleasures of Italy, though, is eating and drinking. Each region has its individual cooking style and ingredients. In the north black pepper, butter, and rice are the staples. In the south it’s hot red pepper, olive oil, and pasta. In Piedmont scented truffle may be grated over your risotto; Liguria has a pasta sauce of crushed basil and pine nuts called pesto; in Tuscany you may eat freshly caught hare and tomato, or wild-boar sausages; and in Sicily you will be offered the most delicious sardines. Many of these ingredients will have been prepared that day, brought fresh from the market.

Italy’s rich diversity and localism explains why there are more than two thousand names for the huge variety of pasta shapes, and more wine labels – at least four thousand – than anywhere else in the world. Italy has many food festivals, called sagre, where local food is on display.

A full-scale Italian meal is substantial, and so varied that it bears out the adage, l’appetito vien mangiando (the appetite grows with eating). Two main courses are preceded by a starter and followed by cheese, a dessert, and/or fruit. And no one is in a hurry when eating out in Italy! The interval between secondo piatto and the cheese and fruit, followed by dessert and coffee, is the time for leisurely conversation and is what authentic Italian dining is all about.

Like all our guides, Culture Smart! Italy focuses on the people. How do they behave? What makes them tick? What is the best way to get on good terms with them? For that is the real way to enjoy Italy. Buon Appetito!

Book Details:

    • ISBN: 9781787028760
    • Format: Paperback
    • Page count: 200
    • Dimensions: 170 x 110 x 15mm
    • Published at: £9.99 / $12.99 / CAN $17.99

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We have relaunched with 25 new titles!

~ kuperard ~ Leave a comment

Culture Smart! guides are designed to help you have a more meaningful and successful time abroad through a better understanding of the local culture.

With chapters on navigating local culture and etiquette, effective communication, and how to avoid cultural misunderstandings, our guides make sure you are a better-informed guest.

After 15 years in publication and more than 100 titles published, we are excited to announce the relaunch of CULTURE SMART!, a series of guides designed to help people have a richer and more meaningful experience abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. CULTURE SMART! guides offer a qualitative improvement to people’s experience abroad by telling readers about the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of people of different countries, so that when they arrive they are aware of local manners and sensitive issues, and are well equipped to make friends or enter into successful business relationships.

25 new editions of bestselling guides were published to mark the relaunch, with more to follow. With a new design and improved format, we aim to reach a wider audience and solidify the series’ standing as market leader of this travel category niche.

What’s New

• The updated guides have been entirely redesigned, both inside and out.

• The new design will help the series appeal to a wider audience at a time when the content covered in traditional travel guides, like restaurants and hotel listings, is readily available online for free.

• The guides remain compact and travel-sized but have 32 extra pages. The layout of this chunkier guide has allowed us to include more content, such as a section on Useful Apps, and to make use of larger images for greater impact.

• The new layout was designed to help make the book more user friendly and, due to better spacing and use of images, offers a better reading experience.
Check out our online shop to see the 25 new books available now to help you prepare for your next trip!

Wednesday Wanderlust – 10 Cultural Tips from South Asia

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Planning a trip to South Asia or just want to learn more about the region? The following tips and facts will give you an insight into its rich and varied culture for all your travel needs:

Bangladesh

1. There is a saying that Bangladeshis maintain ‘Bangladesh’ time, and so you might notice that they display a rather casual attitude toward timekeeping. If you are visiting someone socially, allow plenty of time for this relaxed attitude: they will want to chat before a meal and then relax and chat some more, afterwards.

2. The many festivals and celebrations of Bangladesh have given rise to the expression “baro mashe tero parbon” (thirteen festivals in twelve months). These include Nabanno Utsab (Harvest Festival), Basanta Utsab (Spring Festival) and Pokela Boishakh (Bengali New Year’s Day). This New Year celebration is actually held on April 14th as it follows the Bengali calendar, rather than the Western Gregorian calendar.

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Wednesday Wanderlust: 10 values and attitudes of Eastern Europe

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Eastern Europe has some wonderful landscapes and people – here are ten cultural facts taken straight from our CultureSmart! Guides on Eastern Europe.

Armenia

1.

‘Names beginning with a first name and ending with –ian or –yan are indications of the father’s first name. Diasporans tend to use –ian, while Armenians use –yan. For example, Davidian is the son of David, and Krikorian is the son of Krikor or Gregor. Typically, first names were taken from the bible, so many last names have a religious origin.’

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Wednesday Wanderlust – 10 Values and Attitudes of Central Europe

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Home to some of the best beers in the world, Central Europe is one of the most culturally rich regions to explore. Check out these 10 values and attitudes straight from our guides!

  Czech Republic 

Photo credit: www.pixabay.com

  1. It is the reserved nature of the Czechs that visitors may notice at first, however emotion in speech is hard to gauge as Czechs speak in low tones and with a minimum of inflection.
  2. Czech has fewer names considered to be “acceptable”. Parents must submit the names they are planning to give to their child to a sort of ‘name police’ – a government bureaucrat – to determine whether the name is suitable. So you’ll probably meet more than one Petra, Jans, Zdeněk or Palvas. Czechs also do not use middle names so finding the proper for example; Radek Dolezal will be a challenge!

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