American tourists -- oddly -- those of Italian origin revealed the greatest ignorance of Rome.

British, French and German visitors tended to be best informed, and Australians and Asians knew a great deal about their own countries, but not much about Rome.

Does this give you a clue that a "Crash Project" to educate Italian Americans is Badly needed. Perhaps constructing an Italian American Internet PORTAL - A Cultural Center on the Web? :)

Oh, you're so Smart?  Do you know where the Sixteen Chapels are????

The Australian Times
Richard Owen
November 10, 2004

ROME.  DID Moses pose for Michelangelo; was the Colosseum built as a ruin; and just where is the grave of Christ? If you are thinking of coming to Rome, the city's chief tour guide has a suggestion: you might bone up on the answers before you arrive.

That way you will avoid wasting your time -- and that of your tour guide -- by asking "outlandish or embarrassing questions".

Marco Colzi, head of the tour guides' trades union who has himself been accompanying groups around Rome for years, said guides tried to be patient when asked ignorant or peculiar questions. "After all, it is our job to be helpful."

But patience tends to stretch to its limits when visitors ask whether Moses posed for the recently restored sculpture of him by Michelangelo in the church of St Peter in Chains.

Visitors often asked where Jesus was buried and reacted "sceptically" when told that although St Peter and St Paul lived and died in Rome, Christ's Resurrection took place in Jerusalem, Mr Colzi said. "They look incredulous when we tell them that Jesus never came to Rome at all," he said.

Mr Colzi, who was launching a campaign to "raise the level of knowledge" about Rome, said British, French and German visitors tended to be best informed, "although for some reason the Spanish have a lower level of knowledge".

He claimed Australians and Asians knew a great deal about their own countries, but not much about Rome. Among American tourists it was -- oddly -- those of Italian origin who revealed the greatest ignorance, he told Rome newspaper Il Messaggero.

One guide with 30 years' experience said many visitors relied on supposed facts gleaned from Hollywood films. He said the Sistine Chapel, named after Pope Sixtus IV, for whom it was built at the end of the 15th century, was frequently referred to as the "Sixteen Chapel", especially by Americans. "They ask me where the other 15 are," he said.

At the Pantheon, custodians have been forced to put up a notice reading "The hole in the roof is always open, and when it rains, the floor gets wet".

The campaign follows a drive by the tour guides to protect their profession from "impostors". Last month an unauthorised Italian woman was fined E172 ($293) for pointing out to tourists the historic beauty of the Trevi Fountain.

The Australian: Dim tourists taken to task [November 10, 2004]
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
common/story_page/
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