We met just to chat together about the differences noticed between American and Italian without any precise ideas, but the discussion became quickly interesting. The main topic was the men-women relationships (!). Actually we missed a male point of view, but the discoveries are worth mentioning.
In general we drew the conclusion that the relationships in Italy are much more informal. There are no steps of dating, being engaged and above all you can feel free to invite anyone for a coffee without being scared that he/she thinks "she/he likes me" (as suggestion: pay anyway attention girls ;-).
That obviously doesn't mean that the relationships are less complicated! People are people... men are men (as said we missed the male point of view!;-). So the answer at the question "are the Italian men always unfaithful?" was no. It depends of course on the person.
A quite big difference is about marriage. Comparing some facts we realized that in Italy (in the north above all) people marry later or, nowadays, many couples simply live together with or without children.
But the hugest different habit was about PDA. In fact, in the U.S. people think that kissing should be a behaviour to keep privately. In Italy no one cares if you kiss someone, there is not this PDA expression.
So go to Italy and feel free to kiss your lover :-)
