Italian Expressions

A list of some verbal and non-verbal expressions in Italian that I find fun and I would like to share :D

Phrases

• In bocca al lupo = Literally - Into the mouth of a wolf. Really - Break a leg. The response to this is "Crepi!" (Die!)
• Piove a catinelle = Literally - It's raining buckets. Really - It's raining cats and dogs.
• Non vedo l'ora = Literally - I don't see the hour. Really - I can't wait.
• Mi prendi in giro? = Literally - Are you taking me for a spin? Really - Are you making fun of me?
• Che cazzo = WTF
• Boh - perhaps my favorite expression :) It's used to express "I don't know" or "Whatever"
• Ai-yah! = Ouch!
• Ciccia = Literally - Flesh. Really - a term of endearment. Graziella says this to us all the time.

Gestures (sorry if these are hard to picture...)

• Tracing a line down your cheek, usually accompanied by frowning and looking down = Sono triste (I'm sad)
• Pulling your lower eyelid down with your index finger = Ti guardo (I'm watching you)
• Holding your hand palm up, in front of you so it's next to your stomach and moving it in circles that go away from you = Che noioso (How annoying). Graziella also uses this when talking about Vivaldo, haha.
• Making an L with your hand and shaking it back and forth = C'è da fare o no? (Yes or no?)

I have found that Italians are more animated in general and they do talk with their hands. The stereotypical image of an Italian shaking his hand with his fingers together while saying "Mamma Mia!" is somewhat true. They do the greeting kisses too, which can be awkward for me (when I forget which cheek is first). Italians can be more touchy too. One time while in the Gucci store (no I did not buy anything) an older salesman said something funny so we were laughing. Then he put his hand on my cheek, like I was his granddaughter...

Caitlin
    

Verona

We finally made our way to Verona when dad and Pat came to visit!! Going back to Verona brought back a lot of memories...

After we got off the train and were walking to the hotel, we recognized this place because we used to get our books for school here.

Olio di Oliva

November was the start of olive oil season, and here there was an abundance of Olio Nuovo (New Oil) in Tuscany. This Olio Nuovo is pretty different from what I'm used too. When the olive oil is new, it has a green color before it turns golden-yellow and the after-taste is pretty spicy.

I thought I would share with you some interesting facts about olive oil that I learned in my cooking class.

London

Two weekends ago (I know, I'm getting behind again...) Kristen and I left for London Thursday afternoon! It took a while to get there...we had to catch a train at 4 for Pisa, catch our plane at 6:50, get to Stansted at 8:10, take an hour bus ride to downtown, meet our friend Jacob so he could take us on the tube to his place. I don't think we got there until around 11 (oh and remember that England is an hour behind Italy...)

London was sooo cool though! One of my favorite places we visited this fall (if not most favorite). We packed a ton of stuff into 3 days:

Football!

A couple weekends ago our friend Jacob came to visit. He is studying in London this year and we are actually going to visit him this weekend :)

One of the things we did when he was here was go to a football game! It was ACF Fiorentina (or Viola as they are commonly called because their color is purple) vs. Chievo Verona. Yes we planned to go to this particular game, but we had to root for Florence. We sat behind the goal with the rest of the crazy fans, it was pretty fun:

The stadium