The Southern Italian man

The mature Southern Italian man is often seen around lunchtime in a bar or on a piazza, chatting with grand gestures or playing cards, whereas women are nowhere to be seen. At this time of day, men dominate the public space, while women are mostly to be found in their homes – with the exception of the working population. This was the case here in Magliano Vetere, in the remote hinterland of the Cilento, when I stopped at the bar on the central piazza after a hike to the rock churches, and it’s the same in many other villages.

Do traditional roles still apply in the south of Italy, or are new role models penetrating Southern Italian society through the younger generations? Or is the image deceptive because many young people are leaving the small villages to move to the cities for work, leaving only the older generation behind?