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.