A Deal That You Cannot Refuse

So, I haven't blogged in awhile. I've been really busy. I still haven't finished talking about Canary Islands and spring break which was forever ago. Not to mention my weekend in Umbria with my parents at Perguia and Assisi but also my weekend last week in the Amalfi Coast - spectacular. Since I'm still kind of busy and have a lot going on, I'll upload a couple of my past assignments for my Connecting Across Cultures class. These were short paper assignments I did back in early February and it was kind of neat to go back and read them. Anyways, this first one is about Italian values and how watching an Italian movie made me learn about them. Enjoy!

To learn about Italian culture, I watched the 1975 movie The Godfather. This film portrayed many aspects of Italian culture like the importance of family. Prior to my arrival here in Rome, I was aware of this value, but I thought it was somewhat of an exaggeration but I have since learned the contrary after studying and interacting with local Italians.

            The family is a very important of Italian life. As a pure 100% Italian, I was taught these values as I was growing up. These values were evident all throughout the movie. Nothing supersedes the importance of doing and wanting the best for your family. If you are a part of the family, or even an outsider who is considered family, you will be loved and taken care of by anyone else who is in that family. Although I haven’t yet seen anyone here kill for their family, the core message of the movie is that Italians value family over anything else. Since arriving here, I have noticed this value on display in many different instances. The fact that almost everything here in Rome is closed on Sundays is because that is a day that is meant to be spent with the family. For the same reason, most shops will close around seven o’clock in the evening here to ensure that everyone has time to be with their family. I have not come across one single twenty-four hour establishment in this city yet. One can also see the family focus in life in the way that shops are run, typically by two or three generations of the same family.

            Within the focus of family, one can also see other Italian values such as tradition and respect. These relate to family values because the family values are passed on through tradition and are maintained by respecting those values. Both of these values were evident in the movie and in Italian culture as I have observed thus far.