Full video

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hello welcome to easy english so today

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we're on the beach and we want to find

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out what brits think about italians now

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this is a special episode because easy

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italian are going to find out what

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italians think of brits which you can

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watch up here

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but let's get back to it this is what

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brits think about italians

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tell me uh what's your opinion on

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italians

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uh

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italians can cook

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and they're very

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well dressed

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and they're very stylish and uh they're

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very exotic and usually quite sexy

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one of my really good friends is italian

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we play volleyball together and she

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meets all of those criteria actually oh

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really yeah i don't think it's a

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stereotype so she has you over to cook

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quite a lot she does actually yes and

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she makes lots of pasta and pizza but i

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think that's because that's what i ask

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for i think i'm the stereotype not hair

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what do you think about italians

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i think they're amazing i think the the

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fact that they are

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so gregarious so charming they love

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their food and they put it all out there

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there's very little in terms of uh

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reserve behavior

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i think the northern italians can in

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themselves very very sophisticated

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you know okay um i remember i was in a

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place called ventamilia which is just on

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the border as you go from uh

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south of france

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nice

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that way you just cross over you go

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through a tunnel you're in italy

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ventamilia

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uh and uh i was sitting outside a cafe

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one evening having a brand in a cigar or

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something like that just thoroughly

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enjoying being a foreigner but no

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british there which is great one of

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those reasons one of the reasons i went

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there and this guy came to me very

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elegant sort of guy about six foot two

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gray hair

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cashmere overcoat over his shoulders you

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know just walking along and he came up

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to me

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with a perfect italian but perfect

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english accent yeah wonderful and he was

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the something like the professor of

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antiquities at the

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um

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where was it torino university

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right and he was just having a stroll

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around and he said i wonder he said um i

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want to try to the italian accent i

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wonder if

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would you like a nice cream

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and that's what they do they have an ice

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cream or they're in lake coma in their

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parade round

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in the evening

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you know everyone even if you're you

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know it doesn't you don't have to be an

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academic or an aristocrat everyone does

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that if you drive a bus you're going to

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be doing that your best clothes they

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seem to wear a lot of tweed as well

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which is really odd i think they like i

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think they like the english the

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geography teachers

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exactly exactly but now you go right

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down south south like you go into a

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village or you're a town like that

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hey you have someone

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come in here for some food is it good

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it's good they they don't dress up it's

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fine there's nothing in their homes

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because they don't spend time in their

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homes right because it's always sunny

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outside

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my opinion is that they're probably

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really nice people

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i'm at st andrews university and it's

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quite international so

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yeah i meet all sorts of people and

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everyone's lovely okay so yeah some

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italians uh

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my best friends aren't italian but there

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are battalions at my unit

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they're not in my social circle but yeah

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everyone's lovely there so and have you

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been to italy before

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uh yes i have i've been to rome and

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venice okay and so

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you've met italians i guess

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yeah just generally very friendly

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probably more friendly

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sometimes

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well of the italians that i have met

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i do find them nice yeah yeah have you

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both been to italy

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i haven't been to italy i've been to

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italy but i was like six or something so

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i don't remember it very well

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okay and where did you go venice okay

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great and how about you what's your

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opinion of

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my opinion of italians is well i worked

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for two families that are italian and

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they live here in salt team so

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yeah and they are very very family

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orientated extremely so

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so more so than us i would say i think

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they have like really good food it's

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quite a cool culture

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i don't think they've got the

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yobishness that we've got here i think

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the

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children are politer and nicer

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okay yeah

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so it's funny when you first asked the

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question i immediately thought about

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food because i love italian food and

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i've had some really nice meals in italy

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um

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[Music]

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i think that the way that they eat as

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well it's a lot more relaxed

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and kind of laid back than british

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people often are a bit formal and

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uptight when it comes to food i like the

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relaxed approach to cooking i think they

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also have more respect for their elders

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yes oh yes that's another thing isn't it

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yeah it seems to be a thing that people

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have mentioned as well family is uh

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very important and they cherish older

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people don't they rather than

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finding them an irritation

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[Laughter]

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before we came with our episode here's a

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short snippet about what matteo thinks

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about brits and what katie found out on

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the streets

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what do i think about the brits

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where they are cold

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snobs

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alcoholics

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joking my wife is british

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someone says that

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brits are like coconut and italians are

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like peaches that's because

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it's very easy to like be friends of

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italians because italians are like

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let's be friends

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instead with british people it's very

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difficult but once you manage to break

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the art shell

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it's

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all friendship and

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love that's kind of it and you drink

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[Music]

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[Music]

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okay

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and um have you been to italy before uh

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i've been to venice

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which i think is in italy so i'm very

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confident about it

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i see

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and uh do you have plans to return to

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italy after your experience in venice

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absolutely it's beautiful definitely

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perfect

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i had the the the pleasure working with

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a number of italians and spending visits

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there i went to milan went to rome went

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to like homework other times and they've

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just absolutely the best hosts i loved

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it but rome was just amazing i had the

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the archetypal italian experience i was

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sitting by the colosseum

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having pasta and wine and next to me

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there was a padre there in his uh no dog

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collar as a vespa and a ferrari went

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past so i i i took a picture of it just

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to i mean it can't get more than that

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that's your italian overdose right there

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well that's like a sketch or something

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yeah it's absolutely amazing wow okay

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and would you say from your you've been

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to a few places in italy then yes

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and

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this like archetype that you sort of

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said fits to all the regions you've been

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bits of it do and that's just i suppose

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the caricature but the the fact you can

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see um some things permeate all the way

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through so the openness the willingness

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to engage the uh the love of food and

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love of wine everybody loves scuba i

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think they've got it down to fine art

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in italy it's much more accessible than

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perhaps some fine cuisines it's just

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lovely what do you think everyone in

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england kind of or britain thinks of

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italians they're like a cliche if you

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know what i mean

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of what we think of them

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i think right now

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some um british people might not like

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the italians as much as they may have

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used to a year ago or something as

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the they lost the euro final to them so

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i wasn't waiting for someone to say that

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okay so you think maybe we're a little

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bit sore yeah

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and what's your opinion of italians i

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like them even though they upset you

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only a month ago

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i i thought they deserved it firstly

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is there like a resounding

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maybe you've already sort of said it

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with the kind of the pride or the kind

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of the

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yeah the the yeah maybe the pride and

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the culture of want like a resounding

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feature throughout all of it yeah i

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would it's their enthusiasm enthusiasm

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yeah especially when it comes to did we

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mention cooking at all yeah especially

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when we do that because and quite

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frankly i am a little bit biased here

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there are no greater

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waiters

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in the world than italians and how does

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your opinion compare to

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the kind of cliched general populate

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populous opinion of italians in britain

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hey i think that um we've always got a

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real soft spot for italians because i

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think much of so my first experience of

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all things italians as a scotsman was

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going to vazoki's ice cream and carrie

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muir and seeing just this wonderful

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wealth of flavors that you know your

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home you wouldn't get and so that

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italianness would come through and a lot

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of people as we grew up and then you

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take the chance to to travel and see it

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in italy and it it's the same again but

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a thousand fold more we have the same

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channel but in italy asking the opposite

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question

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what do you think italians will say when

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they ask questions what do they think of

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brits i don't really know well i guess

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i'd like to think it'll be good but

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like

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oh

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i guess on the same sort of like

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football

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we're not very nice in football yeah i

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think like the football fans aren't the

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football fans haven't been that nice no

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certainly right because of the brewing

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and stuff oh yeah

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so

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so maybe they're getting the wrong

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perception of them yeah we have a team

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with easy italian that are making the

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same counter questions british people

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what are they thinking

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i don't know i think they must

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think because they seem to cherish their

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heritage so much and we do have and

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we're a very historical nation aren't we

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our attitude to it is very different i

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think to the italians but they may kind

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of find that really fascinating thanks

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for watching this week's episode let us

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know in the comments below what you

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think about italians any of us brits are

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a bit like coconuts and we'll see you

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next week bye

11:48

[Music]

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have you ever tried making italian food

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for her

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no i don't want to be disrespectful

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absolutely not