Italy is one of the most famous if not THE most famous travel destination in Europe. I mean, how can you disagree? They have the Colosseum, Vatican City, Pompeii, pasta, gelato, just to name a few! Little did I know that Italy is hiding a dark secret. And that is, many Italian people are racist towards Asian males.

Taking the train from Zurich to Milan

I encountered my first experience in Italy the moment our train crossed the border between Switzerland and Italy. As soon as we crossed the border, I noticed how the scenery sudden changed from clean Switzerland to run-down Italy.

It’s fine with me, I’ve travelled to many places around the world and run down places aren’t really that bad. However, as soon as we crossed the border, our train broke down forcing all the passengers to switch to an Italian train.

As soon as I got on the Italian train, I took a seat somewhere and glanced to the person in front of me. It was an Italian woman glaring at me. Suddenly, out of nowhere for no reason whatsoever, she starts shouting “NI HA NI HA NI HA” to me in a very condescending and mocking way. I was thinking…I mean if she’s going to be racist, she should at least do it right. It’s “Ni Hao” not “NI HA”. Stupid racist idiot.

I suppose my journey into Italy didn’t start as nice as I would have liked.

Racist Italian boy in Vatican City

While touring the Vatican Museum on my way to the Sistine Chapel, an Italian boy who looks to be between 10-12 years old starts mocking every Asian that he saw. He would purposely do a prayer bow to them and then go back to his friends and start laughing at the Asians.

I went up to him to tell him off and he goes back to his family and friends and hides behind them. When he saw I walked away, he went back to mocking Asians again.

I mean, you could argue he’s just a stupid kid, but he must have learned to mock Asians from someone…probably his family who ranted about how annoying all these Asian tourist are.

The most racist Italian of them all

The absolute worst racism I experienced was when I was taking the metro back to my accommodation after seeing the Roman Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, and Vatican City. As soon as I got on the train, an Italian man glares at me again and gives me a death stare. I didn’t do anything besides get on the metro so I don’t know why he was so aggressive towards me.

As soon as the metro stopped, he gets up, looks at me and STOMPS on my feet on purpose. He then gets out of the train and gives me a mocking stare and starts pointing at his private part to indicate I should “suck it”. I give him the middle finger and he continues to mock me outside the train. I love how big of a coward this Italian man was. He only attacks me when he knows he can get away safely. Pathetic idiot.

I really hate Italy at this point.

Why this might be happening

One reason why I think this might be happening is because of the surge of tourist from China. Lets be honest here, after seeing tour buses after tour buses full of people from China acting very obnoxious, there’s a lot of reason to dislike Asians.

However, when your country relies on tourism to make a living, I really don’t think this is a wise move.

Other instances of racism I’ve heard

My sister told me it’s not just Chinese people that are experiencing racism in Italy. She’s also reported that her Indian friend went to Italy and got spit on the face. I suppose I got out nicely if all I experienced was derogatory shouting, insults, and a foot stomp.

A wise word from two friendly Italian people

One Italian man I met in Bulgaria told me he left the country because it is going to hell. He said just outside his house, people were killing each other over a slice of pizza. Apparently, Italy heavily relies on tourism these days and unless you work for Fiat, there are no job opportunity outside tourism.

As a result many intelligent Italians are leaving the country in search of opportunity in other European countries.

One friendly Italian man I met in a hostel in Berlin told me the wisest of words. He told me: “Come to my country and take many pictures because it is beautiful. Then get out as fast as you can because people are not friendly”.

I couldn’t agree more.

Out of all the countries in Europe that I have visited, I put Italy as the worst one on the list. Many people love travelling to Italy but not me. I couldn’t wait to get out.

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