If there’s one thing that Italians have a lot of it’s proverbs…one pops up in pretty much every conversation I have with my parents or any other relative in my family. We all have our favorites and here are a few of mine:
When my mother makes a salad she’ll say (in Calabrese of course):“na ensalata vuo bella oliata,de sale na pizzicata e de nu pazzu riminata” which basically means:a good salad needs plenty of oil,a pinch of salt and tossed by a mad man.
Photo Credit:Amanda Woodward on Flickr
My father on the other hand loves to say (again in Calabrese):“puru i pulici tenuna tussa” in proper Italian it would be “anche i pulci hanno la tosse”–which literally translates to:Even the fleas have a cough. The basic meaning:Everyone has something to say.
Another one of my favorites Calabrese proverbs is:“u lupu perde lu pilu non lu vizzu” which translates to “a wolf loses its fur not its habits”
Have any favorite Italian proverbs? I would love to hear them!
My grandfather’s favorite saying was (said with heavy Italian accent),“A mother is a mother and a father is a father”. He brought this up anytime there was a disagreement between a mom and dad. Not sure what it meant,but for him it was the final word!
When I was a little girl (back in the dark ages) my mother used to curl my hair with a curling iron. It hurt like hell,and she’d always say:“Per bellire,bisogna soffrire,”meaning “To be beautiful you have to suffer.”Can you believe it,I just bought a book of Tuscan sayings that I picked up at a garage sale,of all places.
I love these nostalgic Italian posts! I’m half-Italian,second generation at that,so Italian wasn’t spoken in my house but I do remember my father saying (often) to my sister and I ‘faccia bella,faccia bruta’and I think it was in response to our childhood whining.
I love these proverbs. mainly what I received from Grandma were superstitions…lots of lots of superstitious sayings.
Yes,these are great. Like to hear more!
Italian is littered with proverbs,many of which are buried in local dialects. A guy from Naples I know often comes up with proverbs in his dialect,which he then translates into Italian for me! Can’t remember any,alas.
Good post!
Cheers,
Alex
can someone translate this:“Scherza coi fanti e lascia stare i santi”
Ciao Gildo, “Scherza coi fanti e lascia stare i santi” is an old Italian Proverb my mother still says which means –play with servants but respect saints
This is my Pops favorite –“A tutto c’è rimedio,fuorchè alla morte.”this means there is a cure for everything except death
in his perspective it is a nice way to say stop whining
my mom has a saying i would like to know how to spell correctly “taglia mi morse,morse ma iettami nella mia sangue”translation,you can chop me up into little pieces,but throw me back into my own blood!
I Like this one “Tutti i gusti sono giusti”,which means everybody should respect the other choices.