Watching Season 2 last night when they went to Italy and Tony couldn't communicate in Italian with the bosses they were meeting with at the dinner table.

Then Paulie complains about real Italian food they are eating and requests an order of Italian American Spaghetti instead.

What is up with this? I thought it was sort of pathetic but thats just my opinion.

Also in real life would the boss of the New Jersey family even be invited over to Italy for a business meeting with the Don? They must have thought Tony Soprano and his crew were a bunch of idiots.

Long story short: Italian-Americans have to be seen as a matrioska doll...there is no single example that defines them all.

There are some that speak Italian fluently despite being of 3rd generation, others were even born there, came here as kids and just speak few dialect words. Go figure.

Importance, as with everything else, is in the eye of the beholder.

Exactly. The language is often lost after the second generation, but not all the time. If it's important enough to the family, they'll find a way to keep the language alive in the house. But it's easier said than done.

As far as the episode, Chase did EXACTLY what he wanted to there. He portrayed those guys as cafoni who thought they were culturally Italian because they ate macaroni on Sundays and wore Genelli shirts. Then when they got around real Italian culture, they looked like buffoons.

Unfortunately, you do see a lot of that in Italian American neighborhoods. Guys think that because they memorize the words to a Jerry Vale song and drive in from the suburbs to shop at the Arthur Avenue market twice a year, they're as Italian as their grandparents were. It's actually kinda silly.

Whats ironic is that James Gandolfini speaks fluent Italian in real life.

As an Italian-Briton I myself can help answer this question in some detail. I was born and raised in the UK, however I am a third generation Italian. My mum was born in the UK however my gran came over when she was young as well. One thing that I always wonder is how did my family manage to keep all it's roots. Well for starters, My gran, mum and myself all live under the same roof. Thanks to that I can speak fluent Italian, even more so than my mum can which you'd think would be odd. However I think the main thing is keeping contacts with family in the old country, also friends of you can.

When Tony went to Italy, he and the guys all looked like tourists and didn't seem really Italian at all. The different between somebody like Tony and myself, is that I go there every year and I have friends over there that I've known since I was a child. To feel like a real Italian you have to integrate with it's society, it's not all about the wine, Pizza and mountains. Once you realize this, you think more like an Italian and trust me, most Italians don't think the way people make it out to be.

No he doesn't.