The more I travel in Italy, the more convinced I become that India and Italy are somehow cousins. Not literally, obviously. But there are so many moments when I am somewhere in Italy and suddenly think: Wait. We do this in India!
It could be something as simple as food. Or a superstition. Or the way a grandmother talks to you. Or the way a whole street seems to come alive around you. And then I start noticing another thing. And another. By the time I recorded the two episodes of the India and Italy Similarities series for The Italophilia Podcast, I realised I had a running list in my head. So here it is.
1. Food is regional. (And we are both very proud of it)
Let’s start with food because, honestly, how can we not? India is huge on regional food. Himachali food. Gujarati food. Maharashtrian food. Assamese food. Kerala food. Kashmiri food. Punjabi food.
And we take a lot of pride in our region’s food. I grew up saying things like, Oh, we eat it like this in our state.
Or, This is not how my mother makes it. Or even, This is how I make it now. Because food becomes part of who you are. And Italy is exactly the same in this way. Italian food is incredibly regional. You don’t just travel around Italy expecting to find the same dishes everywhere. You go to Rome and you have Cacio e Pepe and Carbonara. You go somewhere else and the food changes completely.
You wouldn’t go to Milan and ask for Carbonara as though that were the local dish!!
And this is something I understand instinctively as an Indian. We may be two very different countries, but we both understand that food has geography. Where you’re from determines what you eat. And sometimes, what you eat tells people where you’re from.
2. The evil eye. Or Nazar. Or Malocchio
This one genuinely made me laugh. Because Nazar is BIG in India. In my part of the country, we say nazar. You do too well, you have too much money, something wonderful happens and suddenly someone will say:
Nazar na lag jaye.
There is always the possibility that someone is looking at you with jealousy or bad intention. And then I discovered malocchio in Italy. And I thought ….. okay, so you guys do this too? Then I started discovering all these other superstitions. Seventeen being unlucky. Chrysanthemums being associated with death. Black cats. The Italian corno gesture.
And suddenly I was thinking about all the things I grew up hearing in India. Don’t cut your nails at night. Don’t ignore a twitching left eye. Don’t let a black cat crossing your path stop you from thinking something bad is about to happen.
There are so many of these little beliefs that sit quietly in the background of everyday life. Different countries. Different traditions. But somehow the same thing!
3. The black cat deserves its own point
Because this is too specific. In India, if a black cat crosses the road while you’re driving somewhere, someone will immediately say: Don’t go.
Whatever you’re going to do won’t happen. When I was younger, I actually used to stop. You might touch wood. You might wait. You might turn back. Or you might simply stand there wondering what you’re supposed to do now. And then I discovered that in Italy, a cat crossing your path can also get a reaction. I mean, isn’t that crazy?
We have somehow given a cat the power to decide whether our day is going to go well!!
4. Don’t go outside with wet hair
This one really made me feel like India and Italy were secretly the same country. In Italy, there is colpo d’aria …. literally a “hit of air”. The idea that you shouldn’t step outside with wet hair and suddenly expose yourself to cold air. And in India? We’ve heard this our whole lives.
Don’t go outside with wet hair. Don’t sit directly under the fan. Don’t sit under the AC. Don’t suddenly move from a warm room into a cold one. You’ll catch a cold. And when I first heard about colpo d’aria, I honestly thought: We have this too.
It’s one of those incredibly ordinary cultural things that you don’t think about until you hear another country saying exactly the same thing.
5. Don’t go swimming after a huge meal
Apparently, in Italy, you’re also not supposed to go swimming after eating a heavy meal. And honestly? I agree. Why would you eat a huge meal and then go swimming? Swim first. Come back. Eat. I found this so funny because it’s another one of those pieces of everyday wisdom that somehow feels completely normal to me.
6. Il cambio di stagione
This is one of my favourite parallels. Because in North India, changing seasons is not just something that happens outside. It is an operation inside your house. Summer clothes go away and winter clothes come out. Basically you take things out of storage, put clothes under the sun and get some things dry-cleaned. You reorganise your bags and cupboards and suddenly the entire wardrobe has changed because the weather has changed.
In Italy, there is called il cambio di stagione.
The change of season. That period of transition when you’re moving from one season to another and changing what you’re wearing and storing. And I love this because it is such a small thing. You don’t normally think: What does India have in common with Italy? Oh yes, our seasonal wardrobe management. But this is exactly what travel does for me! I notice something incredibly ordinary and then realise I’ve seen the same thing at home.
7. Family is everything
This one came up immediately when I recorded Part II of India and Italy Similarities
Family. Everything begins and ends with family. In Italy, you have your nonna and nonni. In India, we have our nani-nanu, dadu-dadi. They are the anchors. Things are discussed at the dinner table and debated over an espresso or a chai. And somehow everyone has to have a say. Family businesses are also incredibly common in both cultures, just like a small shop in India, a trattoria in Italy.
Something that gets passed down from one generation to another. And sometimes you don’t even feel like you can escape it because it has become part of your bloodline.
In both India and Italy, it isn’t unusual for people to stay with their parents well into adulthood. Thirty, forty, even fifty.
And in India, at least, living with your parents isn’t necessarily seen as dependency. It is comfort and societal pressure. Things are changing, of course since nuclear families are more common and joint families are becoming less common. But the centre remains the same: Family is everything.
8. Faith and Festivals
This is another thing I really noticed in Italy. Faith lives both inside and outside the house and is not just restricted to a church. In Italy, you can be walking through a town and suddenly find flowers, candles or a tiny shrine tucked into a stone wall. And India has exactly the same thing, for instance a little temple under a tree with marigold garlands, a diya burning beside the road.
I remember being in Naples and seeing tiny shrines outside houses with fresh flowers and candles. Sometimes there would be a photograph of someone who had passed away and people would leave flowers or candles there. It felt incredibly emotional and familiar. Even for festivals, we are the same, very loud and expressive!
I was in Gubbio, a small town in Umbria, and witnessed Festa dei Ceri. It was wild as people were running through narrow streets carrying these massive wooden structures. There was shouting, energy, laughter, devotion. It reminded me of home, the Ganpati Visarjan, Navratri, Durga Puja. That particular kind of collective celebration where faith is so loud and passionate.
When I was younger, I was sometimes embarrassed by this side of Indian culture. Now? I’m incredibly proud of it. Because I think this is something India and Italy share beautifully.
9. The street is where the life is happening
This might actually be my favourite similarity because if you really want to understand India, sometimes you don’t need to go inside a museum but to the street. You’ll find chaat stalls, temples, honking cars, crowds, probably even a cow! You will see people shopping, eating, arguing….
And when I travelled through southern Italy, especially places like Naples and Palermo, I felt something I can only describe as nostalgia because it reminded me of India. Kids playing on the road, people yelling to each other from balconies, laundry hanging outside, scooters flying past, there is so much life!
The street feels alive in a way I recognise in South Italy especially.
10. Street food is the soul of both countries
And this deserves its own point since Italian street food is seriously underrated- pizza portafoglio, arancini, seafood cones….Italy has it all. And then India has its own enormous street-food universe-chaat, vada pav, bhel puri, samosas and so much more.
I don’t think enough Indian street food gets the international attention it deserves. Globally, people know butter chicken and naan, but our street food is a whole different world. And what I love is that street food in both countries is that it is fast, cheap, part of our daily routine. Street food is our soul. And I think that is true of both India and Italy.
Don’t India and Italy seem like cousins? They look different, sound different, thousands of kilometers apart yet they are remarkably familiar. There are so many more observations in my head. Stay tuned!
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This post was inspired by my two-part India & Italy Similarities series on The Italophilia Podcast.
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