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Advice for women in Italy


Advice for women in Italy

Sexual harassment is not regarded in the same way in Italy as in English-speaking countries. The general atmosphere is pretty loose, and women should be prepared for attention. However, the tone of this 'attention' is generally less aggressive than you may have read and seen in movies. Men may call out compliments such as 'bella' (beautiful) or, if you are lucky, 'bellissima' (incredibly beautiful), as they did in the 1950s and 1960s. Bare in mind that this is still a macho country and one led by a man (Silvio Berlusconi) who is famous for his associations with women. Men and women should therefore expect to hear people saying things that would be considered very offensive in other parts of Europe and North America. Anyway, culturally, these comments are not seen as harassment; if you respond angrily, everyone will be very surprised. Whereas women of other nationalities may be used to telling strangers (in no uncertain terms) to shut up and go away, in Italy, the norm is to ignore the attention. In any case, responding in English or in imperfect Italian will only encourage more attention. Do as the Italian women do, and sail past with your head held high. If you avoid eye contact and don't respond, you are extremely unlikely to be pursued or hassled further.

The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Italy


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Italy Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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