If you are interested in gestural differences between countries and cultures, you may want to read: Conversation Patterns in Icelandic and Italian People: Similarities and Differences in Rhythm and Accommodation. by: Alessia AGLIATI, Antonietta VESCOVO, Luigi ANOLLI. (pdf) It is a chapter in a book in a series. Are these two people Italian or Icelandic? (source). Agliati et al. (2005) analysed Icelandic and Italian styles of interaction in conversations. In particular they studied temporal management of conversation and gestures. In short, big cultural differences were found for both aspects. As some would expect: Italians often used wider and more open gestures than Icelanders. Conversely, Icelandic participants normally used closed and smaller gestures. Italian participants were also fidgeting more. Then there were some specific gestures used only by Italians (bag-hand) or Icelanders participants (pianist). Italians and Icelanders also handle things like turntaking and interrupting eachother differently.