Ciao, America!: An Italian Discovers the U.S.

• Paperback - 13 May, 2003 - Broadway
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• By: Beppe Severgnini
• ISBN: 0767912365

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Reviews by readers

Grazie Beppe...lei e' stato molto gentile!

Only a charming Italian such as Severgnini could share what makes American culture both obnoxious and endearing at once. His tactful observations make you smile and sometimes laugh out loud in their gentle honesty.

His year in the Washington DC area begins with the basics that are so routine to most of us ...reading ads for a house, getting a telephone, cable, etc. Through the eyes of a different culture we see these things quite fresh and remember the days where, perhaps through the eyes of a child, we too wondered why we get channel 44 on channel 12?

This book took me back to my own expatriot days in Europe where everything left me with more questions than answers. I hope all young people read this book to experience a hit of gratitude and compassion for all of the visitors and immigrants that immerse themselves in this Brave New World.

Most Things Are Accurate.....

Beppe Severgnini, an Italian writer who spends one year in America living in Washington D.C, writes in this book his personal observations on American life and culture. While most things are very accurate and at times, funny to read, I found the overall tone very negative. There must be some good things about America, other than such material thngs as jeans and Klondike bars... Later I learned that this book was first published in Italy and is primarily written for an Italian audience. I also found the book very unscientific. I think Severgnini should have shared his observations with other fellow Americans and asked them why they do the things that they do. I think some of the things that Severgnini finds peculiar, like the superficial friendliness of most Americans, are due to misunderstandings of cultural differences. Italy, like other European countries, have town centers where folks can go and see other folks, as Severgnini does mention in the book. America is seriously lacking town centers in most places. We Americans lack means to see and meet people as easily as they do overseas. Our overt friendliness is just a way to be social. If he had shared his views, maybe he would be able to discern which are truly bizarre traits and which are just a misinterpretation of cultural differences. I also do not believe that one year is sufficient time to discover all the cultural differences that exist in a country. It's one thing to whine and complain and criticize. It's another to try to see things from the other person's perspective... I was also surprised that in his afterword why he didn't question himself that perhaps the reason he may have found America different when he returned 5 years later was that he was already old-hat to America, he already knew what to expect and it was no longer a new experiece to him anymore, as well as that people are indeed different and a community is only what people put into it. And I don't care how much he whines, driving in two lanes at the same time is not only not done here, it is dangerous and dumb.

It's an OK book written by a rather narrow-minded author. I do agree with most of the things he points out... I just think the tone of the book is a little too critical.

Nice cover.

Beppe Severgnini certainly seems to have mastered the English language, at least the British version. As for American, one has to wonder how much he comprehends of the idioms of everyday life in this vast country. (Many Europeans do not seem able to grasp the ramifications of living in a unified democracy the size of their entire continent.) The best part of his book is the cover, an amusing "Americanization" of the famous painting of Federico da Montefeltro by Piero della Francesca. It's easy to understand Severgnini's bemusement over "the sky is falling" tone of the endless weather forecasts on TV, or the sheer number of channels whose numbers don't match. It's widely known that Italians don't especially like air conditioning, but he himself experienced its blessed relief in the D.C. summer. His attitude toward the way Americans treat their children, which admittedly can be wildly overindulgent, is puzzling, however, in view of the way Italian mammas dote on their own offspring (especially sons). And I'll pit my own ability to spell against his any day.
Much of Severgnini's writing is pretentious in tone, which can be annoying. But this is not a book to be taken too seriously, and it provides an interesting picture of how one European regarded America and Americans in 1995.

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