As a side note, maybe the single restaurant manager interviewed does normally that, but it is highly unusual that a restaurant manager hugs and/or kisses (or even shakes hands) with a customer of the restaurant.
There is this sort of folklore about Italy that everyone kisses and hugs everyone else.
This is simply not accurate.
If you are introduced to someone (a stranger), it is normal courtesy to shake hands with him/her (and that's it, no hugs, no kisses), as well, unless the other person is an old friend the normal shaking of hands is the normal means of greeting.
It is extremely rare that you are touched (again let alone hugged or kissed) as a customer when you enter any shop or similar.
> If you are introduced to someone (a stranger), it is normal courtesy to shake hands with him/her (and that's it, no hugs, no kisses), as well, unless the other person is an old friend the normal shaking of hands is the normal means of greeting.
In northern Italy, most of the times. In southern Italy, kissing is much more common and it's often used even in formal environments. Shaking hands it's seen as polite but cold.
The stereotypical Italian is, for many reasons, the southern Italian, hence the kissing meme and other exaggerations that really do not apply to northern Italy.
Why are we talking about strangers when the context was a restaurant manager greeting customers? Every decent restaurant that's been open for any length of time has a large number of regular customers.
And - again - regular customers are NOT normally hugged or kissed by the restaurant manager as a "standard" form of greeting, UNLESS they are - besides regular customers - also "friends" (and even that is not "common").
> If you are introduced to someone (a stranger), it is normal courtesy to shake hands with him/her (and that's it, no hugs, no kisses)
Are you sure you aren't extending the culture of northern Italy to all of Italy?
When I lived in Rome/Naples, it seemed like with almost everyone I met we shook hands and did the "air kisses" (not a real kiss but you still lean in close and touch cheeks).
It didn't ever happen to me with restaurant owners, sure, but then again I never really interacted with anyone other than the waiter/waitress/cashier. I could see it happening in a super small hole-in-the-wall mom and pop type restaurant though.
I am from Rome, the cheek kiss is common amongst people who know each other, and sometimes it applies "transitively" (e.g. a friend's partner which you don't know), but it is definitely not done when meeting random people at work.
You could be kissing someone on the cheek coming in your restaurant if you are familiar with them, but it's not very common.
>Are you sure you aren't extending the culture of northern Italy to all of Italy?
Yes, I am pretty sure, as a matter of fact I am more familiar with non-Northern Italy habits, as I am Italian (from the center and living in the center) but I have lived years in the South and also some time in Rome and near Naples.
Again I am not talking of people you know and are friend with, I am talking of:
1 - people that have just been introduced to you
2 - normal greetings between people that meet in commercial or professional environments
The case of:
>I could see it happening in a super small hole-in-the-wall mom and pop type restaurant though.
can surely happen, but it is not common/everyday as the folklore might lead to believe.
Based on context in the article, it seems to me that the owner is probably not talking about his interaction with customers, but that in his private life.
There is this sort of folklore about Italy that everyone kisses and hugs everyone else.
This is simply not accurate.
If you are introduced to someone (a stranger), it is normal courtesy to shake hands with him/her (and that's it, no hugs, no kisses), as well, unless the other person is an old friend the normal shaking of hands is the normal means of greeting.
It is extremely rare that you are touched (again let alone hugged or kissed) as a customer when you enter any shop or similar.