Why Italy - What are your favorite sites to learn about Italian Culture?

What are your favorite sites to learn about Italian Culture?

Looking for sources that can educate me to feel and behave like a local.

Public Comments

Don't rely on websites, Italian culture is a diverse as any other small country. What is common in on area may be insulting in another. Language and dialect are as diverse as the UK. Example... In Milan people obey traffic lights, In Roma people look at traffic lights, In Napoli, people see lights in the street, it must be a festival!!
Don't miss Torino!!! It's still an underestimated city to visit but it's worth the journey! It was the first capital of Italy and many baroque palaces still witness for its glorious past. People are nice and the city is elegant and neat. Moreover the best choclate of Italy is made there; you gotta try it! ;-))
There is a great Yahoo group that you can join for free. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portalitaly/ This will give you access to all the answers you need. Anyone can join. Ciao and see you there.
Italy is a mix of 'regional' cultures, but there are behaviors that are common across the country, such as eating, dressing, driving and shopping. There is a blog that illustrates it well using pictures and videos (particularly edu-taining the video about pedestrians crossing the street).
living in Italy will be a little bit wired if i had also to look for sites lol, study the language, it will help u, and maybe chat with Italians.
Journeying around Monti Pisani like 200 years ago Journeying on to Florence through the Tuscan countryside around Monti Pisani: Lucca, Pisa and other delightful towns dot the road to Pisa where who are guested of the Agostini family Villa di Corliano. The family - and 2 resident ghosts - still welcome guest at the Villa, much as it they were at the height of its fame in the 1770’s. The stay at Bagni di Pisa (health giving waters are still offered to an international clientele) and visit Pisa during one of the city’s festivals, staying at the Agostini Pisa Palace to enjoy the best view of the festivities http://www.provincia.pisa.it/pisalive/it/Pisalive/pisalive.html San Ranieri festivities - Pisa Lungarno The Villa has hosted many illustrious guests such as Gustavus III of Sweden, Federico IV of Norway, Christian II of Denmark, the Royal Family of Great Britain, Benedict Stuart Cardinal of York, General Murat, Luigi Buonaparte, Paolina Borghese, Carlo Alberto of Savoy, the poets Byron and Shelley, and various other personages from the history books. The area of the Pisa hills was already an attraction for enlightened travellers in the first half of the 1700s with the growth of the thermal spa of San Giuliano (Bagni di Pisa), which became a fashionable spot for the well-off classes. The mansions on the road along the hills, already renowned as places of gentle idleness and relaxation in the heart of the countryside and also for their small industrial facilities for the transformation of agricultural products, soon assumed the characteristics of true leisure resorts, just like those narrated by Carlo Goldoni and which we can continue to enjoy today http://www.bagnidipisa.com/ . Shelley's house in Bagni di Pisa The Villa Agostini della Seta di Corliano http://www.villacorliano.it/ is on the road which runs along the foot of the hills from Pisa to Lucca, passing through the small town of San Giuliano Terme. The Villa is a historical fifteenth century mansion surrounded by a centuries old park. It is a property of great charm in which the owners offer, in 12 rooms and 2 suites, a relaxing stay immersed in the beauties of the local countryside. Guests, if they like, can join in the day to day activities of the villa. They can have relaxing strolls in the park, potter around in the gardens, chat or have dinner with the owners in the farmhouse of the villa – today a high class restaurant http://www.ladycarlotta.it/ They can also organize all the necessary details for your meetings, events, weddings in the 1700’s small pivate church or in the small Pisa Palace 1400’s sky garden or in the 35.000 smt park of Villa della Seta di Corliano. Villa di Corliano – San Giuliano Terme Conventions can be hosted in a historic Italian cinema http://www.lumierecinema.it/ (founded on 1905) and restructured with modern audio visual technologies on 2004 near the Vecchio Dado Resturant http://www.vecchiodado.com/ (founded on 1746) and the Royal Victoria Hotel http://www.royalvictoria.it/default-it.htm (founded on 1839). We also suggest a very good italian ice cream in the old “diacciaia” of the Caffè dell’Ussero, (founded on 1775) now located to De Coltelli gelateria http://www.decoltelli.it/ Caffè dell’Ussero – Pisa It is a monument to Italian culture in the 1400's Palazzo Agostini, on Lungarno. Its walls are covered with glorious memories from its most famous visitors of the Italian Risorgimento: Carlo Goldoni, Giacomo Casanova, Count Alfieri, Filippo Mazzei, Gioacchino Belli, Giuseppe Mazzini, John Ruskin, Domenico Guerrazzi, Giuseppe Giusti - who made it famous in his "Memories about Pisa" in 1841 - Renato Fucini, Giosuè Carducci, Cesare Abba, Giuseppe Montanelli. In 1839, it was seat of the meetings of the first Italian Congress of Scientists.