An Italian greeting......kiss no kiss

Kiss or Handshake?

When I go Home to Italy each year I am often greeted by my Italian friends and contacts with the double kiss.

It was no different when I returned to Pulia to spend a week filming and writing about the great adventures Yle with yltours.com  can offer.

Of course Yle met me with her natural enthusiasm and a hug.   No hand shake for Yle even if you are a new 'friend'.

Americans can be more formal with a 3 foot space required between strangers.    Invading your personal space is consider .a no no.

So it was a great surprise and even a pleasure that after I had filmed mamma Guilia at the incredible massaria that Yltour includes in her cooking adventures,  that Mamma G.   who had shaken hands when I arrived, gave me the double kiss when I left.

I was accepted, I am Italian!

Talking with Yle later in the trip about the touch no touch decision everyone makes, she told me she could never 'not touch'!  How very interesting.      How very lovely.     Human contact is not dead in Italy.