In a recent piece I used the term ‘social capital’ to refer to a certain aspect of Italian culture that I think visitors to Italy notice and appreciate, if perhaps only subconsciously.

As I mentioned before, people may go to Italy, or any other place for that matter, with the intention of seeing some famous site or another or eating this or that dish, but what really remains with them are the less tangible things that they experience while they are busy attending to their more formal itinerary. It is this collection of small and subtle experiences that I refer to as social capital.