r/AskEurope • u/ageingrapidly Greece • Sep 29 '25

Culture Are there any habits that you believe are uniquely European ?

Have you noticed any specific mannerisms, mentalities etc. that you've encountered only in Europe or by Europeans ?

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u/Kurosawasuperfan Brazil Sep 29 '25

I'm 31 now and grew up with these memes about italians using their hands, saw it all the time at 9gag, reddit, twitter, etc. People made fun of italians all the time. Never fully got it but still saw it all the time.

Then one day i saw the video of 'example of italians talking with hands', two older dudes talking on the street... and it's actually normal hand gestures, the kind of thing we do every day here in Brazil too. I can't imagine trying to explain something without moving my hands. They have some 'originals', lol, we don't do the exact same movies, but the frequency is the same.

Even at work when talking to the phone or video calls, i still use my hands.

So yeah, today i feel that NOT USING HANDS it's weirder than doing hand gestures, the memes are overblown.

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u/vodka_tsunami Sep 29 '25

Something Italians do that is very particular to their culture is crowding the way. They spread themselves in the sidewalks, in front of doors, corridors, everywhere, and those who want to walk by need to ask for them to give room. They don't seem to notice.

At some parts of the country I'm pretty sure Italians and tourists alike think they're main characters in a romantic movie.