Culture Differences and Our Trip to IKEA

First, I just wanted to say this post is just to some things about Italian culture that are just different than ours. (The pictures all have to do with alcohol, but that was not really intended to happen). The second part of it was about our trip to IKEA in Naples to get some items for our apartment in Salerno.

These pictures were all taken at an Italian mall.  As you can see the drink in the bottom left is a Virgin Mary not a Bloody Mary

This is a Burger King meal.  Yes they have beer on tap at Burger King, I had to get it because of how ridiculous it is.

This is a bar/restaurant but in the back of the picture is the playplace that you would find at McDonalds or Burger King.  They had plenty of room in the restaurant but decided to put it there.

In Salerno, it is not common to see some public displays of affection.  I did not attach any pictures because I feel that would cross the line :)  In the U.S. people would get so many stares and it is so culturally insensitive it would not happen too much.  It is just people hugging and kissing on the sidewalk or on a bench.  If you are not Italian it will surprise you every time.

In the U.S., Sunday night is a night of getting stuff together for your week, relaxing, resting before the week starts.  In Salerno, Sunday night is one of the busiest nights to go out.  You will see people the most people walking around at 1am or 2am.  I think for this reason Monday morning many stores are closed and do not follow there normal hours.

This brings me to my next point.  Stores close at all different hours here.  Sometimes stores are closed and the hours on their door say otherwise.  These are not just "mom and pop" stores in the city but chain stores outside of downtown.  When you travel to the store, be prepared.  You could travel 30 minutes and the store could be closed and have no sign of opening soon.

The culture here is so laid back.  Servers at restaurants are extremely slow.  Not in a bad way of course:) but in the way that they want you to enjoy your experience.  After a 2 to 3 hour meal, they will ask if there is anything you need.  You say, "No I am done", then you sit there for about 10 minutes, and you are like where's the check, I do not want anything else?  You have to ask, its not assumed you want to leave.

Coffee is a short shot of expresso not a relaxing drink to sit down and enjoy.  It is meant to help with digestion, give you a pick me up for the day, or give you a chance to do something with a friend.

Driving is absolutely crazy. There are no real lines in the road in the city. So even though there is enough room for two lanes of traffic, people weave in and out in cars and mopeds. This brings us to the story of us driving to IKEA to get some small furniture and things for our already furnished place.  We rented a car to go about an hour north to Naples where the IKEA is.  So after praying a prayer of safety, we started on our way.  For all the guys out there, driving here is driving how you always wanted to in the U.S. but never had the ability to.  Its like have 5 of the most aggressive drivers you have ever experienced on all sides of you at all times including the weaving moped component. We only had one person back up on the highway because he missed his exit :) Once we reached the area that the IKEA was at in Naples getting to it was another story.  There were a series of signs that look like the one below and there was no continuity between signs so you follow a few of them for a while taking turns off what looks like interstate off-ramps and then after like 5 IKEA signs you stop seeing them for the next few off-ramps.  These off-ramps are coming every 1000 feet so its rapid fire signage.  Lets just say it took 20 minutes to get to the IKEA we could see from the interstate :)

   

We finished and headed home.  The road names are small and only the to and from cities are listed.  When you traveling in a small area, two roads could go to the same place but just take a different route, so it made it difficult but we made it. I pulled into the small streets of the historic center of Salerno where we live and unloaded the stuff as quick as possible so that I would block anyone because I was double parked.  

I went uphill to get the car out of this area which was a bad idea.  I should have just gone the wrong way one-way (which I have seen Italians do so many times).  There are two cars behind me as I go uphill with mopeds coming at me with about one foot of space on each side and I had to pull the emergency brake, rev it up, and drop it to risk from stalling out and going backwards down this 60 degree incline.  I spun out a little since the street was wet from rain in front of a store with about 5 Italians watching me on the street.  This by far is expert driving, beating my advanced driving I learned in Miami a few months prior.  I do not want to do this for a very long time!

Below are some pics of the car filled to the brim of stuff we needed from IKEA and Carrefour (the Italian version of Wal-Mart).