Initially when Sylvia suggested that I write about this topic, I thought that it would be simple seeing how there were so many famous Italian stereotypes. I mean, we’ve all heard about it. Italians are this and they are that …
But the more I thought about it, the harder it was to write because most of the stereotypes are based off the Italian-American community. And shows like Rocky, The Godfather, Saturday Night Fever, The Sopranos as well as Jersey Shore are definitely not helping.
Even innocent games like Super Mario plays on the Italian stereotype. And interestingly enough, it orginated from Japan.
It’s-a me! Mario!
But in any case, at the top of my head, I’ll try to recount a few popular misconceptions about Italians.
Myth 1 : All Italians have dark hair and olive skin
This is my Romualdo from the classic movie, “Cave of the Golden rose“. He’s very good looking isn’t he? He I’ve put his picture here as he fits the description of a typical Italian.
For a long time, I’ve the impression Italians typically have dark hair and tanned, olive skin. Hence, when I see natural red heads, sometimes I’d quip to Cartcart, “Is he Italian? He doesn’t seem Italian to me” and Cart would explain to me that since Italy is an amalgam of population, areas up north are closer to countries such as Switzerland and Austria and hence would have paler skin and lighter eyes and hair. While areas down south are closer to the Mediterranean, hence the darker skin and dark hair.
In fact, there is a whole melting pot going on in Italy since the 1930’s. Thanks to globalization there are many migrants settling down in Italy and starting their own family and children. Increasingly I’ve witnessed Black-Italians, Chinese-Italians, Arab-Italians, Filipina-Italians … the list goes on.
If blessed be that Cart and I would have kids of our own, we’d have a Matalian perhaps. Malay+Italian.
Our baby according to Morphthing
Myth 2 : Spaghetti and meatballs
Looks good doesn’t it?
But after living in Italy for the past one and a half year, I’ve yet to see it being served in any restaurants, trattoria or osteria. And Cart would passionately tell me that pasta and meatballs are two separate foods. The closest thing is probably the Pasta al ragú which uses grounded beef in tomato sauce, but never shaped as a meatball.
Speaking of which, I’ve yet to see any chicken being cooked in pasta. Nor Fetttucine Alfredo. And also peperoni means bell peppers in Italy not spicy cured sausage slices.
Myth 3 : Italian men are womanizers
Well, mostly this man who thinks that he is a stallion.
Its true that Italians are very open in showing their affections. All the kissing and the hugging. There are times when I cant even get through a journey without at least seeing one public display of affection where the guy pulls the girl’s hand and kissing it, smooching the girl, hugging the girl and others.
And many a times if you are a woman and walking alone, a big chance you’ll have an Italian man flirting with you. They’ll back off respectfully though if you are not interested.
Myth 4 : Italian men has an unhealthy obsession with their mothers
There are a number of Mama’s boys in Italy and they are termed as, “Mammone”.
There are a huge 80% of Italian men above 30 years old who still live with their parents. And while there are some people who might scoff and find the entire idea as unfathomable, to still have their mothers to wash and clean for them as well as the lack of privacy and independence, the biggest reasoning as to why Italians stick with their parents for so long is mainly because of how expensive housing are. Thus they’d need some time to save up.
This house alone which is not too far from where we live, costs at least 500k euro. That’s quite a lot of money for the regular person.
Myth 5 : All Italians ride gondola and sing O Sole Mio
I was watching this interesting show about how Napolitana pizza is made. And towards the end of the show, I innocently asked Cartcart, “Why are they playing O Sole Mio? Isn’t it a Venezia song?”
Cart started to burst into peals of laughter. Several moments later when he’s calmed down, he explained to me.
Cart : You’ve fallen into the biggest Italian fallacy that when you sit in a gondola, the boatman will sing this song to you
Me : You mean, its not from Venezia?
Cart : Oh no! In fact the lyrics of the song is in Napoli accent! Haha!
—
Alright, so those were my top 5 Italian stereotypes. I’ll update this page if I can think of more. Do you know of any others? Do share 
There’s no spaghetti with meatball in Italy?? My world has crumbled down.
You can has pasta and you can has meatballs but you can not has them both mashed together :p
Dont worry! They still taste good! I cook for you!
You know I will hold you to that. Hohoho.
Eek! You know Romualdo! It’s not many that they remember that character or even know that series of Cave of the Golden Rose!
Also, woaah on the pasta with meatballs bit.
Come on, you cant deny his sexehness that transcends nationality, race and age :p
Oh totallyyyyyy. And he’s so dashing. Though, I like Tarabas too!
AWESOME SAUCE!
That whole pasta thing shocked me. No pasta + chicken, and no fettuccine Alfredo? O_O
Whoa.
No, no such thing here … I’m serious!
Eee your baby disgusting, girl but got stubble. HAHAHA! The only stereotypes I have of Italians are that they are super-romantic, and yes, the tanned with dark hair stereotype, and the hand gestures no matter what they’re talking about, and how loud they are. I dunno, I’ve never any REAL Italians apart from yo husband mah brader. :S
What to do, the father doesnt shave so the morph will always have a facial shadow :p
Where can the road sign ‘Via Singapore’ be found in Rome?
You could try searching for “Via Singapore, Roma, Italia” in Google Maps 🙂
LOL @ the O Sole Mio one! Please don’t ruin for me the image of the gondoliers singing that… ^^
I’m sure they sing something else, so don’t worry :p
The funniest thing is that I’ve never meet anyone called Romualdo in my whole life. I’m sure it does exist, but it’s a veery rare and old name. But this post gave me opportunity to know that the series Fantaghiro had a relevant international succes, I wasn’t expecting that at all (by the way I’ve never seen a single episode..) Anyway, Kim Rossi Stuart is sexeh, that’s for sure :-). As a Italian, I cannot contribute in giving you stereotypes about italians :-))
“As an Italian, I cannot contribute in giving you stereotypes about Italians”
What? Surely there has been situations where people generalise Italians :p
Of course, but it is hard to have stereotypes about a situation in which you are involved. You are supposed to know it well enough…anyway, I appreciated your effort in enumerating only positive or neutral stereotypes, I think foreigners also have some negatives ones about us, probably deserved.