Italy – perfect for a summer holiday

I just had the fortune to spend about a week in northern Italy. In Italy it is easy to find just about what ever you want, ranging from mountains to city to beach. This makes Italy a perfect country for a summer holiday of any length, really. My friend Isabelle and I had a good mix of beach time (2h), hiking (2 days), driving (not more than a few hours at a time), sightseeing (always a bar at sight), shopping (Milan has it all) and good food (always).
A lot of time were spent people watching, mostly together with a glass of prosecco and some snacks at a nice bar. It is fascinating to see how many of the customers that seem to know the personnel and the little time they stay compared to Sweden. They enter, chat with the bartender (who always seem to know what they want), have their drinks possibly with some snacks that are always served complimentary here at bars in the afternoon and then they leave. This takes usually less than half an hour. Not like in Sweden where you stay for hours, if not the entire night, if you’re lucky enough to find a spot in a nice bar. Here there are many small, nice bars and people move around a lot more. Maybe it’s due to the climate, maybe the mentality. Either way, I love it.
Also they seem to have a lot more fun working in the bars here, they interact a lot more with the guests which is a lot easier when it is a smaller, not overly crowded place.