ON AVERAGE, ITALIANS SLEEP 7 HOURS PER NIGHT – The research reveals that Italians sleep, on average, 7 hours per night, but 30% of respondents sleep an insufficient number of hours.
Most all I know eat dinner around 6:00-6:30, go to bed sometime around the evening news 10:00-10:30 (in central time zone), and get up around 6:00-6:30 to be at work from 8:00 to 5:00. Then on weekends we stay up a bit later and some sleep until around 8:00 am.
Italian dinner or la cena, usually from 8:00 to 10:00pm, is another time that Italians enjoy sitting down together and socializing. Dinner can be much later than 10:00pm, especially if eating out or dining at a friend's house.
Contrary to what most travelers think, Italians don't nap for three hours — they close their doors to go home, cook, eat with family, and rest a little.
Siesta is a traditional mid-day break prevalent in many parts of Italy. It's a time for people to take a break from their daily activities and relax or nap.
In Italy, normal working time is 40 hours per week—eight hours a day, for five working days. However, there are some collective agreements (such as the logistics agreement), which provide for a lower weekly working time of 39 hours.
But no other group of people takes their naps quite as seriously as those living in Spain. The siesta - which means "a midday or afternoon rest or nap" - has become a big part of Spanish culture. Many businesses in Barcelona and other parts of the country still shut down every day so that siestas can take place.
Your sex life will thank you
It's not just a cliché that Italians are good in bed – the statistics prove it. One poll that called English lovers 'too lazy' put Italians in the top three nationalities for lovemaking. Some scientists even say a rampant sex life is helping Italians live longer.
The personal shower is an action that everyone does at least once a week, 42% every day, 93% at least 2 or 3 times. For Italians it is better to have two bathrooms with two showers rather than one with a bathtub.
Italians are known to be very devoted to their food and they love seasonal and fresh ingredients. Their foods contain little or no fatty creams and oils and are always in fairly sized portions. These eating habits are basically the proper way a person should eat if such a person chooses to eat healthy.
Showering is most popular in Spain, Italy, Germany and France, where consumers tend to use shower products primarily in the morning to feel clean and refreshed.
Most of your neighbors are average Italian citizens with families and full-time jobs, in need of 7-8 hours of sleep every night. By law, silence is required between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. and again between 1:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. Please respect this law by keeping noise to a minimum during these hours.
Italians eat predominantly sweet things for breakfast. This can be quite a shock if you are used to having toast, eggs, and bacon first thing in the morning. Instead, the traditional breakfast in Italy relies almost exclusively on baked goods like biscuits, cookies, pastries, rusks, and cakes.
Most Italians eat dinner between 8 pm and 9 pm, although dinner in northern Italy can be slightly earlier, around 7pm. Restaurants may serve dinner as late as 10:30 pm, but you won't be able to sit down for dinner before 7 pm.
If you are planning a family trip to il Bel Paese—especially if your teenage children or grandchildren are part of the brood—you may be wondering about the legal drinking age in Italy and local drinking customs. The legal drinking age in Italy is currently 18 years old.
Never go out with wet hair. If you want to see an Italian seriously lose their cool, just go out with wet hair. In Italy, if you go out without drying your hair, you'll risk getting a “colpo d'aria” – or, literally, a “blast of air”. This is said to cause anything from a sore neck to indigestion.
Brazil. When it comes to showers, Brazil is the leader of the pack, and the cleanest. While only 7% of Brazilians take a bath, 99% report taking weekly showers. How many showers?
Skinny jeans or capri trousers are stylish spring options for women. But remember, Italians tend to go high-end even with their denim - so keep 'em rip-free! Men should typically avoid anything they might wear to the beach, gym, or football game, and instead opt for stylish loose linens or fitted chinos.
In Italy, it is a common practice to greet someone with a light kiss on both their cheeks. This is true even if you are just newly acquainted or if you have known someone for quite a long time.
The general rule of the cheek kisses is to give one or two light kisses, one on each side. Your lips shouldn't touch the other person's cheek unless you are extremely good friends; instead, aim to lightly touch your cheek to theirs.
Now, a study of 3,000 tourists conducted by Italian sexologist Serenella Salomoni found that Italians won in five different romance categories, among them passion, duration, and even oral hygiene. French kissers, although in second place, lost out by a considerable margin of 10 percent.
Here in Australia the siesta sounds rather exotic but for many people it is simply a part of their everyday life.
Overall, Japanese people sleep on average 7 hours and 22 minutes a day, the shortest time among the 33 countries, according to a 2021 survey conducted by the OECD.
In fact, employment regulations now state that aside from a one-hour break, workers are also entitled to 30-minute naps. Neurospace President Hideyuki Kobayashi explained that the conditions for taking an effective “power nap” are doing so six hours after rising, limiting shut-eye to 30 minutes and not lying down.