Some women have a firmly fixed idea that all foreigner are fast. There also women who think that their charms, perhaps unnoticed at home, will be appreciated more readily in a foreign country, so they smile too much and flirt with their eyes and behave in a very surprising way.
Neither of these attitudes is founded on fact. It is true that Latin men probably like looking at women more than Anglo-Saxon. This is mostly because women in their countries are more heavily chaperoned and do not have jobs as much as in northern countries. But in Italy and France it is a compliment if a man looks you up and down. It is not an invitation to goodness know what. Nor is it an insult.
So behave normally, more or less as you would do at home. You can size up a man in any country. Read if you want, answer his smile but do not over do it. Answer if you are spoken to, but be firm if you do not want to exchange address or see him at your destination. (The best thing is to pretend not to understand fully or to have lots of friends waiting for you and a full program in sight.)
If you are being followed and it really becomes a nuisance, do what you would do at home, go to a policeman and ask for his help.
If you are in a hotel and meet with someone who asks you out, and you like him/her, by all means go out with him/her. But always be a little more circumspect and careful than you might be at home. Remember that before you go out, behave accordingly.
The best rule is to be friendly and courteous and to behave, on the whole, as you would at home. It is always wise to take extra pre-cautions abroad because you are in a strange place and among strange people with customs and social habits which may be unknown to you. On the other hand, do not behave as if you were in purdah, never allowing your self to sit alone at a café table. In countries where tourism is an industry, visitors can do what they like with impunity. It is how you do it that matters, and that is up to you and your natural courtesy and common sense
Neither of these attitudes is founded on fact. It is true that Latin men probably like looking at women more than Anglo-Saxon. This is mostly because women in their countries are more heavily chaperoned and do not have jobs as much as in northern countries. But in Italy and France it is a compliment if a man looks you up and down. It is not an invitation to goodness know what. Nor is it an insult.
So behave normally, more or less as you would do at home. You can size up a man in any country. Read if you want, answer his smile but do not over do it. Answer if you are spoken to, but be firm if you do not want to exchange address or see him at your destination. (The best thing is to pretend not to understand fully or to have lots of friends waiting for you and a full program in sight.)
If you are being followed and it really becomes a nuisance, do what you would do at home, go to a policeman and ask for his help.
If you are in a hotel and meet with someone who asks you out, and you like him/her, by all means go out with him/her. But always be a little more circumspect and careful than you might be at home. Remember that before you go out, behave accordingly.
The best rule is to be friendly and courteous and to behave, on the whole, as you would at home. It is always wise to take extra pre-cautions abroad because you are in a strange place and among strange people with customs and social habits which may be unknown to you. On the other hand, do not behave as if you were in purdah, never allowing your self to sit alone at a café table. In countries where tourism is an industry, visitors can do what they like with impunity. It is how you do it that matters, and that is up to you and your natural courtesy and common sense
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