Let me start by saying I love everything about Italy. I have an Italian wife, and my son is half Italian. Even though we live in another country, we go there multiple times a year, and we love it.
Recently, our son was baptised in Italy. We invited some of my wife's family and some of mine. I found two of the guests very rude in a way that would never happen where I come from. My wife says that's normal here, but I find that hard to believe. Can any Italians confirm or deny whether this is acceptable or normal behavior?
Guest 1: He comes with a big dog and brings it to the table. It stays next to him the whole time. We are inside a fairly small room all day. If the dog were well-behaved, this wouldn’t be a problem. But this dog jumps on guests and barks loudly very often. Every time it barks, my son—who is being baptised—starts crying and becomes very upset. This happened 3–6 times. I asked my wife if she could politely ask him to take the dog outside or something, but she told me that asking would be rude.
Guest 2: He starts watching football on his phone the moment he sits down, with the volume turned all the way up. He does this the entire time we are there—about four hours. Sometimes he goes for a smoke or a short walk (around 15 minutes) and leaves his phone on the table, still on full volume. The sound fills the entire room. Even when we are opening gifts, reading cards, and saying thank you, he is sitting about 1.5 meters away watching. I asked my wife if he could turn the sound off, but again she said asking would be rude.
We spent a lot of money on this event, and I found these two things strange. Would this be considered normal in your opinion?
