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Italian to English - Rates: 0.05 - 0.05 GBP per word
Italian to English: Tourism Article Detailed field: Tourism & Travel
Source text - Italian Colpiti da un’insana voglia di tropici
Nel mondo del turismo internazionale c’è una bestia rara che gli antropologi del “tutto compreso” chiamano homo esoticus italianus. Fisicamente assomiglia a un turista qualsiasi, ovvero ha statura eretta e porta al collo, come appendice, una macchina fotografica.
Ma a differenza degli altri individui della sua specie, l’homo esoticus italianus è capace di stranezze. Pretende gli spaghetti alle vongole in Thailandia. Corre in Amazzonia in abito da sera e tacchi a spillo sperando in chissà che notti folli. Affronta traversate del Sahara come se andasse al bar dell’angolo.
Dopo anni di studi, gli esperti sono arrivati a una conclusione unanime. Questa: l’homo esoticus italianus è sicuramente appassionato di viaggi transcontinentali, ma raramente sa dove va, conosce poco la geografia, ignora tutto dei climi. Né, per carità, si preoccupa di informarsi. Così riesce a volare verso i Caraibi in piena stagione degli uragani, alle Maldive in quella dei monsoni e se decide di arrampricarsi sulle Montagne Rocciose d’America non sta tanto a guardare se è estate piena, quando da quelle parti il sole ammazza anche le pietre.
Voglia di paradisi. Eccome. Il conto è presto fatto. Secondo un’inchiesta Doxa del luglio scorso un italiano su tre coltiva il romantico mito di Gaugin, sogna di vivere in un’isola tropicale l’esistenza avventurosa e felice che non ha.
Ma perfino uno come Roberto Brunelli del Movimento Consumatori, che di solito cerca di tutelarli da truffe non indifferenti, sostiene che i turisti italiani son fatti di una pasta assai particolare.
“Sono tutt’altro che grandi viaggiatori, non hanno ancora imparato come si fa”, dice. “Vogliono l’avventura, ma anche tutte le comodità, l’aereo sotto casa, il Brasile a un’ora do volo, l’aria condizionata nel tucul in pieno deserto. E guai soprattutto se non trovano gli spaghetti cucinati al dente. Come li fa la mamma. Anzi meglio”.
Questa insistenza sul cibo può apparire artificiosa, ma le cose stanno così, né più né meno. Un inglese o un francese mangiano quel che c’è da mangiare. Un americano sta forse un po’ più attento all’igiene. A un tedesco basta mettergli in tavola patate e birra in quantità. Quella è gente che non viaggia per mangiare, ma per prendere sole, fare bagni, conoscere usi e costumi locali.
Con gli italiani niente da fare. Degli usi e costumi se ne fregano, bagni quel che basta, sole idem tanto per tornare con la tintarella esotica. Ma alla pasta non si rinuncia, quella ci deve essere per forza, pasta e pizza, a qualsiasi latitudine. “E’ un’abitudine di cui gli italiani non sanno proprio fare a meno”, dice sorridendo Francesco Bassini, uno degli uomini marketing della milanese Turisanda. “Noi abbiamo un villaggio nello Sri Lanka, dove per legge è proibito importare prodotti alimentari. Abbiamo dovuto acquistare macchinari per fare gli spaghetti, altrimenti rischiavamo di peredere la clientela italiana”.
Agli agenti di viaggio poco importa sapere se questi cordoni ombelicali sono figli del mammismo italiano piuttosto che delle gite domenicali, delle scampagnate fuori porta, dei pranzi di nozze per cui non c’è festa se non si mangia tanto e bene. Loro, gli agenti di viaggio, si limitano ad arrendersi all’evidenza e si organizzano per offrire ai clienti ciò che i clienti desiderano.
Eccoli là, gli italiani. Agli antipodi ma con la caffettiera appresso. E poi per stare sempre imbrancati. Cercano l’evasione, ma viaggiono in gruppo, fanno migliaia do chilometri ma per lo più per conoscere altri italiani, parlare italiano, mangiare italiano portandosi dietro l’occorrente per sentirsi a casa il più possibile.
Che farci? L’homo esoticus italianus è così, carnefice e vittima di una esigenza collettiva. Solo che non sa dove va, e quando ci è arrivato si chiede non di rado: ma io che ci faccio qui?
Translation - English Afflicted with an insane desire for the tropics
In the world of international tourism there’s a rare beast that the package deal anthropologists call homo esoticus italianus. Physically it resembles an ordinary tourist, that is it has an erect stature and carries a camera round its neck as an appendage.
But unlike the other individuals of his species, homo esoticus italianus can behave strangely. He wants spaghetti alle vongole in Thailand. The female tourist rushes to Amazonia in an evening dress and stiletto heels hoping to have goodness knows what wild night-life. They face Sahara crossings as if they were going to the bar on the corner.
After years of study the experts have arrived at a unanimous conclusion. The following: homo esoticus italianus is certainly an enthusiast for long-haul travel, but he rarely knows where he is going, he knows little about the geography there, and is ignorant of the climate. Neither does he worry about informing himself. In this way he manages to fly to the Antilles at the height of the hurricane season, to the Maldives in the monsoon season, and if he decides to climb the Rocky Mountains he doesn't bother to find out if it's the middle of the summer, when the sun burns even the stones.
A longing for paradise. Yes indeed. It's easily worked out. According to Italian research institute Doxa, in a survey carried out last July, one Italian in three cherishes Gaugin's romantic utopia. He dreams of escaping to a tropical island to live the happy and adventurous life that he doesn't have at home.
Even a person such as Roberto Brunelli of the Italian Consumer Movement, that usually tries to safeguard Italian tourists from appreciable swindles, considers that Italian tourists are made of very particular stuff.
"They're anything but great travellers. They haven't yet learned how to behave on holiday", he says. "They want adventure, but also all the comforts, the airplane near to home, Brazil within an hour's flight and air conditioning in a hut in the middle of the desert. There'll be trouble if they don't have spaghetti cooked "al dente". Like Mamma makes it, rather, it should be better".
This preoccupation with food may seem affected, but that is how things are, just so. The English and French eat what they are given. Americans are perhaps a little more worried about hygiene. Germans are quite happy with a good quantity of potatoes and a glass of beer. These are people that don't travel to eat, but to sunbathe, swim in the sea and get to know local customs and traditions.
With the Italians it's no use. They couldn't care less about customs and traditions, and as for swimming in the sea, they only do what's necessary. The same goes for sunbathing. It suffices to go home with an exotic suntan. Of course they won't give up pasta, this they must have at all costs, pasta and pizza shall be served at any latitude. "It's a habit that the Italians can't kick", says Francesco Bassini smiling. He is one of the marketing men of Turisanda of Milan. "We have a village in Sri Lanka where it is prohibited to import food products by law. We had to buy pasta machines. Otherwise we risked losing our Italian clients".
Knowing if these umbilical cords are the result of doting maternal behaviour rather than Sunday outings, picnics in the country or wedding receptions where it isn't a banquet if you don't eat a lot and well, matters very little to the travel agents. They, the travel agents, limit themselves to yielding to the evidence and they organize themselves to offer the clients what they want.
That's the Italians. In the antipodes but with a coffee percolator at hand, and then always herded together. They look for escape, but they travel in groups. They go thousands of miles, but mostly to meet other Italians, speak Italian and to eat Italian food, taking with them the necessary things to feel at home as much as possible.
What can be done? Homo esoticus italianus is like this, victim and perpetrator of a collective need. It's just that he doesn't know where he is going, and when he arrives there he often asks: what on earth am I doing here?
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Years of experience: 35. Registered at ProZ.com: Aug 2007.
I am an Italian to English translator doing technical and commercial translations. I have 2 years' translation experience. I lived in Italy for 4 years where I taught English as a Foreign Language. The fields in wich I have experience are: mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, commercial documents, medical, naval and fishing industry.
Keywords: Engsih to Italian, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, commercial documents, medical, naval, fishing industry
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