nice to meet you

Small talk is an American art. Or at least it's a practice widely spread and crucial to survival in the American academic environment (and I suspect in any other professional context).
Not that Italians don't do any small talk. We chit-chat a lot, about the weather, your work and similar amenities. But it seems to me that is is not as formalized and full of reciprocal make-believe. When I talk to my peers in Italy, I actually have the illusion that we are genuinely communicating, that we are interested in each other, or else we do not talk at all. We do not need to pretend. We do not look for polite questions. When we talk, if we like each other, we do not feel the need to stop talking after the supposedly decent amount of time has passed. Sometimes you talk to perfect strangers all night, and not always with a secondary purpose in mind. It may even happen to become friends, just like that. In the US that would be unthinkable. Even if you meet someone you like, you talk ten minutes, and then you depart. I guess it's a way of not being invasive. On the other end of the spectrum, even if you really find someone obnoxious you still talk to them a few minutes. It's impossible for me to tell whether people actually enjoyed talking to me or they were looking forward to being on the other side of the room. In both cases they will assure me that they loved talking to me.