Culture chic

I haven't been to Europe for two years. Each time I return I'm struck by how culture (in the broad sense) here is the same and is different than back home. Italy is prosperous, wired (DSL, CNN and Fox, which my friends here call "Al Jazeerah", cell phones), tired (lots of non-Italian nice cars), definitely first world. But many, many little things are different. A sampling:

Many retailers close for three hours midday. There seem to be many more "non-chain" retailers in any case.

People walk a lot more. This will be good for me, right? As long as I have enough gelati to keep my strength up?

This medium-sized town has a Velodrome - indoor bike racing arena.

Shopping involves putting on a disposable glove before touching produce, wrapping, weighing and labelling each produce item, not just dry beans and such, bagging everything yourself, paying for new bags (bring your own from last time).

Thorough recycling, especially of plastics.

Different unwritten rules about greeting people on the street, averting eyes, etc.
Dogs welcome in all restaurants. As guests, silly.

Different road signs. A sign with a red diagonal bar through the town's name means "leaving."