hallo,how are u doing?i'm from italy,i can say i'm a barefoot beginner,it's very difficult here in italy to go barefoot,you can meet some of them only near the sea during the summer,few italians, more foreigners. Can you tell me if there are countries where it is easier to go barefoot?can you tell me something about australia/new zealand?are there schools where boys and girls go barefoot?in italy I read something like that,thank you very much for your answers.
I hear that being barefoot is more socially acceptable in Germany if that's any help to you. And yes, I have seen people in Australia/New Zealand go barefoot very regularly, and it seems that it's a common thing over there.
thank you barefoot tom,did you hear something similar for switzerland too?I read you come from manchester,do u have problems to walk barefoot there?thank you so much.
I don't know about Switzerland as I've never heard about being barefoot there, but yes here in Manchester people stare and point and make all sorts of nasty comments.
Hi elioss, I live in Switzerland and I am often barefoot in summer. This isn't a problem at all and you don't get any stares or rude comments. At least not in the german speaking part of Switzerland. It might look different in the french or italian speaking part. Especially in the rural region of Appenzell you often see barefoot people and not just children. Even barefoot hikers. Frank
goods and evils of barefooting in Italy: - it is fairly rare that someone denies access to a public place like stores, supermarkets, movie theatres etc to barefoot people. i've never seen a NSNSNS sign around except in some major *church* . some club and most gyms do no allow barefoot persons in. - one will get a lot of weird looks and comments from random people, most of them not very pleasant. -one never has a chance to meet another barefooter except: in seaside places, but all the barefooters are foreigners; during demonstrations or festivals, but with a ratio of 1:10000 :-( for instance, in a small mountain village where they yearly hold a kérmesse of street performers, psychedelic culture etc, i stopped and took a spooky 'psychologic help' for 1 € (yep, you also can find such things there) and man, EVERY GOD DAMNED FOLK PASSING BY TOOK A LONG DEEP LOOK AT MY FEET, dig ? it was like i turned to be the main attraction there and that's no fun. as far as i remember there was only another barefooter around.
That could depend of which region you visit : I spent two weeks in Italy and never wore shoes. It was at Lake Garda, went to restaurants, a big amusement park, boarded the train to Venice, spent the whole day there, went shopping and up the cablecar into the mountains and not one time did anyone say anything about the lack of shoes. I was however the only one, but that didn"t stop me, I had a great time. I have had the same experience in Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia: never had any problem.
I think they may be more accepting from tourists than from locals. Tourists are *supposed* to be different (and sometimes a bit weird), but especially those who live from tourism will put up with oddities or even think it's fun and interesting... but tourists are good for the economy and you know they'll be gone in a few days/weeks, too. Now have someone with an alternate lifestyle move in next door, and these same nice folks that seem so openminded may be upset... it's the old 'I love (fill in the blank with any race, culture, religion, whatever you can think of), but not on my doorstep' thing.
Why in your oppinion are barefooting less common in Italy? Try to find as much aspects as possible. You got a good climate for barefooting(for being in Europe).
italy is the country of fashion,people are so crazy for fashion,they don't think to be barefoot,it could be a scandal!!
So if a fashion designer would say barefoot are in fashion, people would start going barefoot? And there are different kinds of fashion: beach fashion, summer fashion, oriental fashion a lot of fashions mix well with barefoot.
yeah,maybe if they said barefoot is fashion, people would follow this new trend,italians love to follow everything they read or they watch on tv,it's a particular country.
in answer to the first post, yeah Oz and New Zealand are generally very BFF (barefoot friendly).In the case of Australia barefeet were hardly ever an issue,be it in the bush or in the big cities although the airlines insisted on passengers having footwear, even if it was only a pair of what they call thongs(flip-flops to the rest of us!)Given that it's the world's most litigious country after the US, I guess that's not bad going, after all the NSNSNS policies practised by so many shops are to a large extent based on fear of litigition over exposed bare feet being more vulnerable to injury. As for New Zealand, people go barefoot even in winter, especially in the North Island which isn't as susceptible to the biting southerly winds from the Antarctic. Rotorua in particular is popular with barefooters (provided you're not put off by its pungent aroma) as the thermal activity with its hot springs and geysers mean the ground is warm all year round. If however you want to see a parallel universe, go to Fiji where footwear is almost seen as deviant in some places.
The Pacific in general is the most barefoot-friendly place on earth. Much of Micronesia (especially Yap), like Fiji, views bare feet as the norm. It's only natural...
