Italian Travel Culture – The August Shutdown, Traveling Solo vs Groups, Spotting American Tourists, and Tourist Food Traps
ITALIAN, FOR SURE | Conversations with Italians in Italy About Italian Culture
Host Catrin Skaperdas and WeRoad's Margherita Galluzzo explore the cultural divide between Italian and American travel habits. The conversat
Key takeaways
- Italians typically enjoy 20-30 days of guaranteed vacation, often including a major nationwide shutdown in August.
- The 'bridge' (ponte) is a common Italian strategy to extend bank holidays into long weekends.
Main topics
- Italian vs American vacation culture
- The August shutdown phenomenon
Notable quotes
In August... the office closes for three/three weeks in August. So all of them go on holiday.
Conclusion
The episode provides a humorous and insightful look at how deeply ingr
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) I was still working with an American company when I first moved here and I took two weeks off in August and I remember my manager said to me, oh is it a special occasion? And I said no, why? He said because you're taking two weeks off and I said no that's just a vacation Speaker 1 (0:15) here, that's just normal. Average is three weeks. on a row and usually it's in august and then another big uh vacation peak let's say it's for christmas and you receive and then the rest is spread like in the year how Speaker 2 (0:28) can an italian spot an american tourist in italy football hat we say baseball cap baseball Speaker 1 (0:34) cap sorry Speaker 2 (0:34) water bottle that you can refill while traveling the big one i think stanley has the market sadly Speaker 1 (0:41) Or like shorter trousers. For Speaker 2 (0:45) men. Speaker 1 (0:45) Yes, exactly. For men. Or even like extremely white Speaker 2 (0:49) teeth. Really. This is Italian for Sure, the podcast about Italian culture. I'm your host, Katrinska Pertis, an American living in Italy. And I interview Italians who passionately share their wisdom, stories, and insights about Italian culture. Speaker 2 (1:10) Welcome to Italian for sure, Margarita. Thank you. I'm very glad to be here. I'm really excited about our conversation today, which is... all about travel, how Italians travel, how it differs from how Americans travel. So we're going to talk about the habits of both citizens in both countries, but focus more on the Italians because it's really interesting to me as an American who moved to Italy four years ago, how Italians travel, the habits of within Italy, abroad, etc. But before we get started, I need to make a little announcement to my listeners who are not maybe watching this right now and can't see it, obviously. that I'm pregnant. I am 34 weeks pregnant. So anyone watching this is like, I can tell anyone who's listening might not know. So this will be the last episode of Italian for sure for a little while, but we'll be back with a season three next year. And if you have any ideas for topics that you'd like to hear us talk about on Italian for sure, please DM me on Instagram. It's just Italian for sure is the handle. And if you've been enjoying the 20 plus episodes that are out there, please go ahead and leave a five star review, comment on a YouTube video, comment on a Spotify video. It really helps tell me that you're enjoying the content and to keep going. Now back to today's episode. So Margherita, can you please introduce yourself, Speaker 1 (2:32) including where you're from in Italy? Yes, I'm Margherita Galluzzo. I'm the brand marketing director at WeRode. I'm originally from Palermo, Sicily, but I moved to Milan, so from the south to the north of Italy, now 16 years ago. Do you prefer Sicily or do you prefer Milan? Really hard to tell. Sicily is the best place in the world. There are many reasons why me and a lot of people in my generation decided to leave for the north. Better to say that I've been loving Milan for a long time and now after 16 years it's also my home, my family. So really hard to tell pros and cons about both cities of course. What do you miss the most about Palermo? I lived very close by the sea so this is for sure the thing that I miss the most and then also not surprising but food. Speaker 2 (3:23) Yeah. Speaker 1 (3:24) I think sometimes Speaker 2 (3:24) this comes up a bunch on the podcast about different regions in Italy and how the food is very different because in America, I think many Americans think that Italian food is Italian food, that we don't think of it as different regions. I really only learned that four years ago when I moved here, how different the food is. Even, I mean, for us, I know it's a plural word, cannoli, but in America we use it for the singular. And we think, you know, maybe, oh, I can get a cannoli in Milan and it will be the same as in Sicily. And now I know it's completely, completely different. It Speaker 1 (3:58) is very different. Also, I keep discovering local cuisine from different regions, like every year exploring a new part of Italy and I learn something more. And it's surprising how different the history, the monuments, the culture and the food can be in Italy. Speaker 2 (4:12) And you said every year exploring a different part of your own country, so we definitely will get into that as a travel habit of Italians. But I'd also like you to tell us where we are recording today. We Speaker 1 (4:24) actually are in the WeRoad headquarters. So we are in WeRoad office in Milan. That's where all the WeRoad magic happens, all the behind the scenes, behind our amazing trips all over the world. Speaker 2 (4:39) Thank you for having me in the WeRote office. It's such a pleasure. And I think what WeRote is doing is incredible, and we will definitely dive into that in detail later in this episode. I thought we would kick it off more general about, you know, something that has come up in many conversations I've had with Italians about how in Italy, it's government mandated, right, that employees get... minimum of 20, it might be more than 20, but I just for easy numbers, I know it's at least 20. Then there's something called ex-visita. You get many days off and it's guaranteed if you have a certain type of contract in Italy. By law, you get a minimum amount of vacation days and people use them. If you don't use them, they do roll over. Whereas in the US, it's based off of your employer. used to be a director level at a major radio station group and I got 10 days off for the whole year. Crazy. It's crazy. That's the reaction I always get from Italians. And it didn't, it wouldn't have changed until three years later that then I would get five extra days. So it would just go up to 15. And I know that there are other countries, even in Europe, they get even more days than Italy. I think France gets more. So sometimes even the perspective of maybe a French person talking to an Italian person thinking, wow, you only get, you know, 20 plus. days and we get you know so it's really just respect is very interesting what are your thoughts on an Italians view that vacation days are a given whereas to an American they could be a privilege to have yeah Speaker 1 (6:08) that's true like on average for an office job the minimum holidays you should take are between 20 and 30 days per year and this is a very relevant important topics for all the employees. It's true for us. It's something that should be granted. It's our time to rest, to disconnect, to travel. While also the feeling that for Americans is something that you need to earn exactly. And it's not something to take forgiven. Like you really have to earn it. and I mean 10 days seems like crazy from an Italian perspective. I'm American and it seems crazy for me so yeah I could imagine. So yeah let's know that at least we can allow ourselves to have like a long vacation which usually is a trip either in Italy or abroad for two but average is three weeks in a row and usually it's in August. And then another big vacation pick, let's say it's for Christmas and you receive and then the rest is spread like in the year. Then of course there are some differences. I'm talking about like very general, regular office job. Then in startups or tech companies is way more common to have more, even more flexibility. So basically like in WeWork, for instance, we are free to plan our holidays. There's no limit to them. So it's really like based on the team member employees responsibility of understanding how many days off we can take while keeping our goals and objectives. But in general, Italian companies, they have 20 to 30 days off. And most of the times it doesn't really feel enough to do all the things we want to do and all the trips we want to do. Speaker 2 (7:57) And you mentioned, you know, two to three weeks off in a row. I'm going to tell you a quick story. I was still working with an American company when I first moved here. And I took two weeks off in August. I was going to Portugal, I think, that year. And I remember my manager said to me, oh, is it a special occasion? And I said, no, why? He said, because you're taking two weeks off. And I said, no, that's just a vacation here. That's just normal. And it was very interesting. And by the end of that conversation, he said to me, wait, you didn't tell me that you'd be available. And I said, I'm sorry, what do you mean? And he said, yeah, normally people say, you know, I'll be available if you need me. And I'm very protective of my vacation days. Maybe I've learned that from the Italians. But I was like, of course, if there's an emergency, which for context, I work in marketing, I work in podcasting, I'm not saving lives. So I don't think there's going to be too many emergencies. I said, of course, in an emergency, I can be available. But otherwise, no, I won't be checking my emails, etc. How is it in Italy when you go on vacation? Is it respected that you will be fully off and unavailable for the time that you're off or are you expected to check your emails or check in or Speaker 1 (9:07) answer, you know? It depends on the kind of job, but I have to say that in general time off is time off. Like you shouldn't be available unless it's an emergency. Then I think like that it's also a good... habit and attitude to be available if it's truly an emergency, but it has to be something very serious and impacting potentially the business of the company. Otherwise, it's time off and should be respected for what it is. But the other interesting thing, the Italian structure is made to stop in August. So it works also because for most of the companies, the company, the office closes for three weeks in August. So all of them go on holiday sometimes they're forced to take holidays on those days because then like you stop you don't even have that pressure of like you'll be back and you'll have 1000 emails to read because everyone is on holiday then i have to say that with the climate change now the fact that you are kind of obliged to take them time off like holidays in august is kind of getting tricky because like for many people august is not anymore like the ideal month to travel because it's like extremely hot of course expensive because we all move in august so it's getting expensive and overcrowded so who knows it maybe in the next years things will change but right now yes like august is a dead month and i also noticed that for instance milan is now part of