In Sicily, the face of the New Bride, representing a growing number of Sicily's young wives, has dark brown eyes and honey colored hair. Or dark hair with blue eyes. Typically Sicilian, she is named Anna, Valentina or Nicoletta and she's around twenty-eight years old. She has a university education and a subdued European elegance. She's stylish in a sophisticated, Italian way, boasting a slender figure that seems made for a tiny black Valentino miniskirt.
She speaks flawless Italian with a slight Russian accent. Wait a second! No, that last observation was not an error. In stark contrast, hardly any of the relatively few foreign men who marry Italian women decide to live in Italy, choosing instead to return to their home countries with their new Italian wives --a trend dating from the time of the infamous "G.
That phenomenon deprived many Sicilian men of the opportunity to marry some of the most attractive local women. This time it's the Italian men who are reaping the harvest of desirable foreign spouses, and it has made some Italian women angry as can be. Today, nearly all of the immigrants to Italy who wed Italians and remain here are women from eastern Europe, and many are remarkably well-educated compared to their Italian sisters, and certainly compared to the typical English nanny in Sicily.
One cannot generalise but certain trends can be identified. Many young Romanian women, for example, work in Italy as housekeepers, while a significant number of Czech women work in entertainment-related fields. A growing number of Italian men seem to find these foreign women more attractive or appealing than local girls, and in many cases social factors appear to be as important as aesthetic ones.
Italy, after all, has its fair share of beautiful women. It takes two to tango, and the trend is partially explained by the willingness of well-educated, attractive eastern European women to seek better lives in "The West.
