I hope other Italians are not like you.
Mike,
As my best friend - who now lives in Italy - married an Italian girl, and I was lucky enough to be invited over there to be his Best Man and had an amazing time (I think, there was so much wine a lot of the wedding reception is a bit of a blur to be honest...!), I can assure you that Italians are generous, family-loving, passionate and considerate peple on the whole. True, they drive like absolute lunatics, and have tempers that can ignite like a Saturn 5 engine, and can't walk past a shop window without checking themselves out (but you can't blame them for that when 99% of them look like they've just come off a catwalk anyway ;-) I think they must ship all the ugly kids off to some island somewhere, cos seriously, everyone is a supermodel; walking down an Italian street is so distracting it's unbelievable..! ) but you'll be hard pressed to meet a more welcoming people, believe me. I know you're being severely provoked here, by some truly disgraceful and despicable insults, but don't tar them all with the same brush, ok? That's like saying all we Brits are umbrella-carrying, pinstripe-suit wearing, bowler-hatted hee-haws... or that all Americans are Hawaiian shirt-wearing, burger-chomping, gun-toting... well, you get the idea. Stereotypes... dangerous things, you know?
The world's an angry enough place right now as it is without hurling this kind of language about. It's hard not to rise to it, I know, but in situations like this there's much more dignity in taking a deep breath and not stooping to the other guy's level. I think - no, I know - you're a better man than that.
Take care out there, and forget this nonsense and just try to keep your mind on getting out - and back here to your friends on the List - in one piece, ok? :-)
Stu
