Becoming Italian Word by Word

The Italian Language in the Kitchen

il linguaggio culinario

the language of cooking

Just about every Italian I know seems a born cuoco/cuoca (cook, masculine or feminine) who can cucinare (cook) like a master chef. One reason may be that even il vocabolario gastronomico (the gastronomic vocabulary) is yummier in Italian. In English, for example, I would add sugar in order to sweeten a dish. An Italian would zuccherare so as to addolcire un piatto.

Here are some other tasty linguistic examples:

*to slice: affettare

*to brown: rosolare

 *to butter: imburrare

 *to flavor: insaporire

*to simmer: sobbollire, cuocere a fuoco lento

*to flour: infarinare

*to put in the oven: infornare

*to take out of the oven: sfornare

*to coat with breadcrumbs: impanare

*to mix: mischiare, mescolare

*to grate: grattugiare

*to stir-fry: saltare

*to brown, to fry on a low heat: soffriggere

*to whisk: frullare, montare, sbattere

*to crumble: sbriciolare

 *to rinse: sciacquare

*to sieve (flour, sugar, etc): setacciare, passare al setaccio

 *to sear, to blanch: scottare

 *to stew, braise, simmer: stufare

  *to poach (usually eggs): affogare (literally to drown)

Even cooking utensils (utensili) sound more intriguing in Italian. Rather than boring pots and pans, an Italian cuoco orchestrates a meal with a pentola (pot) , tegame (saucepan), padella (frying pan), coperchio (lid), colapasta (colander), mestolo (ladle), frullatore (electric mixer), and grattugia (grater).

A measuring cup takes on new stature as a caraffa dosatrice or misurino. A mere food processor sounds futuristic as a robot da cucina. Simply getting a grip on a mezzaluna (two-handed chopping knife in the shape of a half moon) is empowering. What vegetable wouldn't be proud to meet its fate in a passaverdure (food mill) or on a tagliere (chopping board)? And who could resist the call of the schiacciapatate (potato masher)?

Il linguaggio culinario doesn’t stay just in the kitchen. “Cosa bolle in pentola?” (What’s boiling in the pot, or cooking?) Italians ask when they want to know what's going on. Gotten yourself into a mess? You’ve made an omelette (fatto una frittata). Have a crush on someone? You’re cooked (cotto).

The expression I’m always happy to hear in an Italian kitchen: A tavola! / Tutti a tavola! (It’s ready! Let’s eat!)

Words and Expressions

cucina a gas -- gas cooker

cucina economica -- kitchen range

libro di cucina, ricettario -- cook book

cuocere al microonde -- to microwave

tostapane -– toaster

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language.

Click below for three tips for making an irresistible risotto:

How a Chocolate Kiss Is Like an Italian Mamma

Il Bacio Perugina e una mamma italiana

The Perugina “Kiss” and an Italian Mom

How is a world-famous chocolate made in Perugia like an Italian mother?

In a delightful essay published in a collection called Italianità, the author Alessandro Guerriero explains that Il Bacio Perugina is like una mamma italiana because:

*non cambia mai (it never changes).

*è un po’ troppo dolce (it’s a little too sweet), ma non priva (but not lacking) a certain tartness.

*come una mamma italiana d’altri tempi (like an old-style Italian mamma), it is ricca di sentenze (rich in sayings) che non servono assolutamente a nulla (that serve absolutely nothing) but make you smile. (Click here for some samples of frasi dei baci Perugina.

*come una mamma Italian d’altri tempi con gli abiti della festa (like an old-style Italian mom dressed in Sunday clothes), it is un po’ sognante (a little dreamy), un po’ futile (a little frivolous), un po’ fane’ (faded) but you become fond of these things because they make her stand out tra migliaia di altre mamme italiane (among millions of other Italian mothers).

*come una mamma italiana di altri tempi vestita con gli abiti della festa (like an old-style Italian mom  dressed in party clothes), it’s nice to encounter her ma non tutti giorni (but not every day).

*come tutte le mamme italiane è da prendere a piccole dosi (like all Italian moms she should be taken in small doses), altrimenti provoca “maldipancia” insormontabili (otherwise she provokes an insurmountable tummy ache).

Of course, there are many other types of kisses, including a mother's baci affettuosi (affectionate kisses). Friends might exchange a bacino or bacetto (little kiss), but you'd reserve a bacio sulla bocca (kiss on the mouth) or a baciozzo (slang) or bacione (hearty kiss or smooch) for a romantic partner. A date usually ends with a bacio della buonanotte (goodnight kiss). Lovers say goodbye with a bacio d’addio (parting kiss). But there's one type of kiss everyone want to avoid: il bacio della morte (the kiss of death).

Words and Expressions

mandare un bacio -- to throw a kiss

sbaciucchio -- continual kissing, smooching

sbacciucchiarsi -- to be always kissing one another,  to smooch, to canoodle (if anyone remember this word)

baciamano -- hand-kissing

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.

Click below for a tribute to an Italian mamma:

The Art of Making Caffè in the Italian Language

 

il caffè

coffee, café

In 1638 specialty shops in Venice began serving a stimulating black beverage called Kahavé made from Arabian “seeds.” Venetians flocked to these caffè to meet friends, gamble — and flirt. Soon so many illegitimate babies flooded orphanages that the state banned women from entering a caffè.

In other cities the caffè proved to be a hotbed of a different sort. In the late 1800s the young intellectuals who created Futurism operated out of Florence’s Giubbe Rosse (named for the waiters’ red jackets). In Rome Vezio’s caffè, lined with portraits of Lenin and his cronies, served as unofficial headquarters of the Communist Party. For decades  Federico Fellini, who lived around the corner, considered the Canova caffè in the Piazza del Popolo an extension of his home.

The machines used to make coffee have a different history. In 1901 Luigi Bezzera, a Milan businessman, wanted to cut the time his employees spent brewing coffee. And so he invented a macchina espresso (fast machine), which produced an individual cup of coffee in mere seconds. After going broke trying to market his newfangled coffee maker, Bezzera sold the patent in 1905 for the equivalent of $8 to Desiderio Pavoni, who set up kiosks selling “la Pavoni-Caffè Espresso” across the country. The Italian coffee “bar” was born.

About thirty years later an engineer named Alfonso Bialetti was watching his wife do laundry. As boiling soapy water percolated upward through the primitive washing machine, Bialetti wondered. What if the same process pushed boiling water through ground coffee? His aluminum stovetop espresso machine, known as the Moka, made its way into almost every Italian kitchen. Its mascot — l’omino coi baffi (the little mustachioed man), a caricature of Bialetti — remains a national icon.

Every morning in Italy I begin my day the same way millions of Italians do: making coffee in a caffettiera (coffee pot). “Tanti italiani” (so many Italians), writes Maddalena Padovani in an essay in a charming book called Italianità, "associano fisicamente e affettivamente il momento del risveglio al rito quotidiano, intimo e tutto casalingo, della preparazione del caffè" (associate, physically and emotionally, the moment of awakening with the daily ritual, intimate and completely domestic, of preparing coffee).

The steps are always the same: pouring water into the bottom half of the coffeepot (la caldaia), inserting the flavorful grounds (polvere odorosa) into the filter, screwing on the top (l’avvitamento), turning on the flame (l’accensione) and waiting for the characteristic gurgling (l’attesa del caratteristico borboglio).

Then come the little pleasures of the intense smell (il profumo intenso), the tinkling of the spoon that mixes the sugar in the cup (il tintinnio del cucchiaino che mescola lo zucchero nella tazza), the tasting in slow sips (la degustazione a sorsi lenti), accompanied by reading of the newspaper (accompagnata dalla lettura del giornale). Aaaah! Can there be a better way to start a day (cominciare il giorno)?

I now understand why some Italians refer to caffè Americano (also called caffè lungo) as “acqua tinta” (colored water).

Words and Expressions

chicchi di caffè –- coffee beans

caffè nero –- black coffee

caffè tostato –- roasted coffee

caffè macinato or in polvere –- ground coffee

caffè corretto –- with a drop of anise liquor or grappa

caffè doppio –- double shot espresso

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.

And here's some music to accompany your morning caffè:

Little Easter in the Italian Language

 
Pasquetta

 After the grand religious rituals and elaborate feasts of Easter Sunday, Italians celebrate il lunedi dell’Angelo (Angel’s Monday) with a picnic in the countryside beyond the walls of their cities.  This national holiday is called Pasquetta, or little Easter.

Like so many words with diminutive suffixes, it implies something more personal and appealing.  “Pasqua di rinascita, Pasquetta di festa,” Italians say.  “Easter for rebirth; Pasquetta for party.” The simple picnic dishes feature endless variations on eggs, including frittatine (small omelettes) and tortini (small torte or pies).

I’ve come to think of endings such as –ino, -ello, and –etto as the linguistic equivalent of the heaps of sugar Italians add to a thimbleful of espresso to sweeten its taste.  A bambina (baby girl), like the little angel above, inevitably elicits cries of "Carina!" "Bellina!" "Tesorina!" "Bambolina!"  (Cute! Pretty! Little darling! Baby doll!) Almost everything to do with piccolini (little ones)  merits a diminutive, right down to culetto for a sweet little baby bottom. 

Many diminutives simply signify size or shape.  In contrast to an albero (tree), an alberino is a shrub; an alberello, a sapling; and an alberetto, a dwarf tree. Trousers are calzoni; calzoncini, shorts.    The Italian physicist Enrico Fermi coined the term neutrino  (little neutral one) for a particle even smaller than a neutron.  In music, prestissimo means a little faster than presto;  andantino, not as slow as andante. 

Thanks to diminutives, a sign outside a rustic osteria (a tavern serving simple food) can summarize its entire menu in three variations:

    Pranzo (lunch): 15 euro
    Pranzetto (lighter lunch): 10 euro
    Pranzettino (bite to eat): 5 euro.

Diminutives also can add a clever twist to common words. An especially endearing form of amore is amorino.  Doctors refer to the patient information insert that accompanies a prescription medication as a bugiardino (little liar).  A horse has a coda (tail), but Italian men and women may sport a codina (pony tail). Vento (wind) melts into venticello (a nice little wind), but gentler still is a brezzolina (soft little breeze). 

But not every little thing is a good one.  My Italian friends warn me to beware of people asking for a little anything, whether it’s a tiny little moment of your time (attimino), a peck of a kiss (bacino), or a bit of help (aiutino).  Usually they’re after much more.

Words and Expressions

Figlioli piccini dolore di testa, fanciulli grandini dolore di cuore -- young children, headache; older kids, heartache 

stellina di mogliettina  -- little star of a little wife (literally), a wonderful wife

capellini  (from capelli for hair) -- fine or thin hair (or spaghetti)

casetta (from casa for house) -- little house, cottage

negozietto (from negozio for shop) -- small shop

Dianne Hales is the author of La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language. 

Happy as Easter in the Italian Language

Buona Pasqua, Buona Pasqua Ebraica 

Happy Easter, Happy Passover

Wanting to send holiday best wishes, I looked up at the Italian word for Passover. "Pasqua degli Ebrei" or "Pasqua Ebraica" (Easter of the Hebrewsj was the dictionary definition."Really?" I asked my Facebook friends, who explained that "paschal" blood had marked the doors of Hebrew families exiled  in Egypt. According to my Italian etymological dictionary, the word Pasqua, which dates back to 1342, translates as "la festa che commemora la liberazione dalla schiavitù d'Egito" (the feast that commemorates the liberation from Egyptian slavery).  

Somewhere in time  Pasqua became synonymous with the Christian celebration of Easter.  "Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi"   ("Christmas with your family, Easter with whomever you want"), Italians say. An invitation to  Easter dinner with friends in Italy is a special treat indeed. After forty days of fasting during Quaresima (Lent), Italians celebrate with foods that form a mouth-watering vocabulary of their own.

Throughout Italy the traditional main dish is agnellino al forno  (roasted baby lamb) or capretto (baby goat). Rome’s Easter specialty is abbacchio, a suckling lamb no more than a month or so old.  Because it has ingested only its mother’s milk, its meat is especially tender.  The name comes from the Latin baculum, the cudgel used to kill lambs.  Until a few decades ago, shepherds would lead their flocks into Rome every Spring so people could select victims for the annual slaughter. The word abbacchiato became slang for someone beaten down, physically or mentally.

“Pasta matta”  (crazy dough) encases torta Pasqualina (Easter cake), a traditional savory pie from Piedmont and Liguria. Its distinctive feature is that whole eggs are baked inside.  

Italy’s traditional Easter dessert is Colomba cake, a sweet, eggy, yeasted bread topped with sugared and sliced almonds. Commercial bakers shape this confection into a colomba (dove), the symbol of peace and renewal, but home bakers usually do an oval approximation.

I’ve tried (without success) to explain the popular American Easter symbols of bunny rabbits and hard-boiled eggs to Italian friends.  In Italy uova di Pasqua (Easter eggs) come only in chocolate (or flowers, as in the photo from a florist in Rome above).  Festive displays decorate coffee bars, pastry shops, supermarkets, and chocolate shops in the weeks before Easter, with some mammoth eggs weighing in at nearly 18 pounds.

Although most commercial eggs contain a child’s toy or trinket, Easter eggs aren’t just for the kids (bimbi) in Italy. In the 15th century nobles encased works of art and other extravagances in enormous chocolate eggs. 

The very best modern eggs are still handmade by a cioccolataio, an  artisan  of chocolate, who will insert a surprise supplied by the purchaser. Inside a customized egg a lucky recipient may find jewelry, a watch, car keys—or an engagement ring. This in itself may explain why  “felice come una Pasqua” also translates into being “happy as can be.”

Words and Expressions

vigilia di Pasqua -- Easter eve

il coniglietto -- bunny rabbit

l'agnello pasquale -- the Easter lamb

colomba di Pasqua -- Easter cake

Dianne Hales is author of La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language. 

 

 

April fool--or fish--in the Italian language

il pesce d'aprile

April fool 

According to legend, a raven on Noah’s ark set off on April 1 to search for a sign that the flood waters had receded, but it never returned. Others trace the madcap holiday back to the year 1564, when Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar that changed the beginning of the new year from April 1 to January 1. Some people who didn’t believe or wouldn’t accept the change kept celebrating New Year’s Day on the first of April. Others tried to show how silly these original April fools were  by sending them on pointless errands or tricking them into thinking something false was true.

Somehow the fool came to take the form of a fish in Italy.  Children try to tape a paper cutout of a little fish  (pesciolino) to the back of a schoolmate. “Have you seen it?” they chant. “Who?” the unwitting child asks.  “Il pesce d'aprile!”

In a country of pescatori (fishermen), and marinai  (sailors ), il pesce swims through daily life—and language.  In Italian you’re sano come un pesce  (healthy as a fish rather than an ox).  A big shot is un pesce grosso (big fish).  But be wary: I pesci grossi mangiano i piccini. The big fish eat the small fry. 

You don’t need a pole and bait to go fishing in Italian. Buttarsi a pesce (literally throw yourself like a fish) means to dive into an activity headfirst or with enthusiasm. Non sapere che pesci pigliare (not know which fish to pick) refers to being at a loss and not knowing which way to turn. Rather than the early bird catching the worm, in Italian chi dorme non piglia pesci (he who sleeps doesn’t catch the fish.) 

But in Italy, as everywhere,  “L’ospite è come il pesce; dopo tre giorni puzza.”  (Guests are like fish, after three days they stink.)

 
Words and Expressions

*trattare a pesci in faccia — to mistreat, to humiliate, to mortify

*un pesce fuor d'acqua — a fish out of water

*un pesce lesso — a boiled fish (boring person)

*prendere un granchio -- to take a crab (make a blunder, overshoot the mark)

*pescivendolo -- fishmonger

*pescheria -- fish shop

Dianne Hales is the author of La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.

 

Cooking under the Tuscan Sun

Il ricettario de “Il sole della Toscana”

The Tuscan Sun Cookbook 

Some people win you over with "hello"; some books, with an irresistible cover or title.  Frances Mayes had me with one spell-binding sentence about the choreography of the kitchen (la coreografia della cucina). The moment I read it, I wondered how it would sound in Italian. With the help of my invaluable colleague Valentina Medda, here is the translation: 

*I peel (io che sbuccio)

*you scrape (tu che gratti)

*wine spills (vino che si rovescia)

*bag splits (borsa che si rompe)

*beans simmer (fagioli che cuociono a fuoco lento)

*sink slurps (lavello che inghiotte l’acqua avidamente)

*petals fall (petali che cadono)

*flour drifts (farina che scivola)

*crust splits (crosta che si spacca)

*aromas spread (aromi che si diffondono)

*lights flicker (luci che sfarfallano)

*chocolate melts (cioccolato che si scioglie)

*glass shatters (vetro che va in frantumi)

*sauce thickens (salsa che si addensa)

*finger bleeds (dito che sanguina)

*cheese ripens (formaggio che matura)

*crumbs fall (briciole che cadono)

*sweat drips (sudore che cola)

*spoon bangs (cucchiaio che sbatte)

*meat glistens (carne che brilla)

*oil spatters (olio che schizza)

*wine breathes (vino che respira)

*garlic smashes (aglio che si schiaccia)

*lettuces float (lattughe che galleggiano)

*silver shines (argento che brilla)

*apron snags (grembiule che si impiglia)

*you sneeze (tu che starnutisci)

*I sing 'oh, my love, my darling' (io che canto ‘oh, amore mio, tesoro mio’)

*and dough rises (e pasta che lievita ) in soft moons the size of my cupped hand (in morbide lune, delle dimensioni della mia mano a coppa),

*as planet earth tilts us toward dinner (mentre il pianeta Terra ci inclina verso la cena).

The Tuscan Sun Cookbook: Recipes from our Italian Kitchen, by Frances and Edward Mayes, celebrates the soul- and appetite-satisfying essence of la cucina povera (the poor kitchen) of rural Tuscany. If you could  capture the sweet and savory joys of Italian food and friendship in a book, this sumptuous volume would be it. It delights the eye, tickles the taste buds and warms the soul. 

More of a buona forchetta (hearty eater) than a cook, I found the words as mouth-watering as the dishes, including such savory ones as:

*scottadito: finger-burners, small grilled lamb chops you eat with your fingers

*stagionata/o: seasoned, used for cheeses aged about a year until hard and flaky; semi-stagionata/o, aged for three or four months

*sformato: unformed, sort of a quiche without a crust (or form)

*pomarola: tomato sauce. Cans of Italian tomatoes are pelati.

*pasta asciutta / pastasciutta: dry pasta that comes in dozens of tongue-pleasing forms, such as mezze maniche (short sleeves), radiatori (radiators), strozzapreti (priest stranglers), stellette (little stars), orecchiette (little ears), penne (pens), vermicelli (little worms), linguine (little tongues), farfalle (butterflies) and cavatappi (corkscrews).

Another essential lesson: The abbreviations “q.b.” or “q.s.” in Italian recipes stand for quanto basta and quantum sufficit (whatever’s enough) -- something Tuscans always seem to know.

Click here for a sample recipe and below for a virtual visit to the Mayes’ kitchen:

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.

Following the First Italian Foodie

Pellegrino Artusi

The First Italian Foodie

A Guest Blog by Mama Margaret Cowan

The picturesque medieval Italian town of Forlimpopoli in northern Italy has become a mecca for food lovers from all over the world. Carrying their well-worn copies of Italy’s most famous cookbook, Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and The Art of Eating Well, first published in 1891, they immerse themselves in all things Artusi.

The Jamie Oliver of his time, Artusi created a cookbook that has become an international icon -– the first cookbook written in Italian, with each tasty, easy-to- make recipe reflecting his love of good food, and a testament to his belief in the role of food in the art of living well. He is credited with establishing a national cuisine and even with unifying the country.

Some 120 years later my colleagues and I at Mama Margaret & Friends Cooking Adventures in Italy  are offering a specially designed immersion into the world of Pellegrino Artusi. From June 17-22, we will visit Casa Artusi, a former convent where participants will learn to cook Artusi-style dishes in the state-of-the-art cooking school, visit the Artusi museum to learn about his unusual life, and dine in the elegant restaurant where one reviewer said he ate “some of the best food available to mankind.”

At the festival, Festa Artusiana, in Forlimpopoli’s piazza and streets, they’ll taste local foods and wines. In Bologna’s colorful food market (above), they’ll stroll with a mother and shop for ingredients for their Artusi cooking class in her home. With the fun-loving father, they will see how parmesan cheese is made from start to finish. At traditional balsamic vinegar cellars near Modena, they’ll sample twenty-five-year-old traditional balsamic vinegar, which feels like liquid velvet in your throat.

It’s always a family affair with Mama Margaret & Friends -- lots of real Italian experiences with local people off the tourist track while learning the art of eating well. It worked for Pellegrino Artusi, who lived to be 91. Click here for more information.  

Words and Expressions

cucina casalinga –- home (literally housewife) cooking

alta cucina -- haute cuisine

alla maniera dell’Artusi -- in the manner of Artusi

essere /diventare un mago in cucina -- to be / become a magician (whiz) in the kitchen

avere un palato fine -- to have a refined palate

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language.

Celebrating Carnevale in the Italian Language

Carnevale
Carnival

Thanks to my Catholic childhood, I could easily follow the Sunday mass in the tiny stone church of the Borgo Monte Vibiano Vecchio in Umbria.  Then the white-haired priest began to preach in ever more impassioned tones about the evils of “i peccati della carne,” which I translated literally into “the sins of the meat.”  

Had the Church reinstated its Friday ban on meat?  Had the dreaded mucca pazza (mad cow) returned?  I glanced at the dozen or so townspeople in attendance. Most were averting their eyes and looking embarrassed—or guilty. An Italian friend later explained why:  “carne” also means flesh, and a sermon on the sins of the flesh could discomfit almost anyone.

For centuries the pre-Lent festivities of carnevale sumptuously celebrated “carne” in every sense. However, the name comes specifically from the Latin for meat (carnem) and “take away or remove” (levare).  A church decree dating back to 653 declared that anyone who ate meat during the forty days of Lent (Quaresima in Italian) could not receive communion on Easter. Charlemagne reportedly sentenced Lenten meat-eaters  to death. 

The prospect of  long months without meat or merriment inspired Italians to gorge themselves  throughout -- and often long before -- la settimana grassa (the fat week) before Ash Wednesday. It also inspired a luscious vocabulary for the culinary treats of this festive time, such as the delicate fried pastries we might call fritters.  In Piedmont, they’re bugie (little lies); in Tuscany, cenci (rags); in Milan, chiacchiere (gossips); in Emilia-Romagna, lattughe (lettuce leaves).  Cooks elsewhere may call them nastri delle suore (nuns’ ribbons), galani or sfrappe and add ingredients such as raisins and anise.

The sin-drenched Venetian Republic was famous for indulgences of carne in its more sensual sense. During Carnevale, which lasted for months,  party-goers of all classes hid their identities behind elaborate maschere (masks).

Artisans known as mascherari gained fame for their exquisite creations, which came in three varieties.  The bauta covered the entire face but had no mouth opening and a lot of gilding.  The oval-shaped moretta was worn by women, often along with a veil. The full-face white larva (from the Latin for mask or ghost) was made of fine wax cloth.  For a dazzling display  of Venice’s Carnevale finery, click on this video:

 

Words and Expressions:

fare le frittelle –- literally, to make the fritters; to celebrate Carnival  
carnevalone –- the four extra days of Carnevale celebrated in places like Milan
carnevalata –- Carnival revelry
A Carnevale ogni scherzo vale –- Anything goes at Carnival time.
L’amore di Carnevale muore in Quaresima –- a love that starts during Carnival dies in Lent.

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language. 

Celebrating a New Year in Italy--and Italian

 

Buon Anno! 

Happy New Year!

New Year’s Eve as we know it was an invention of the ancient Romans. In 153 B.C. they moved the start of the new year from the Spring equinox to January 1 and dedicated the first month of the year to Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings, who looks back toward the old year and ahead toward the new one. 

For six days, Romans celebrated by hanging lights, preparing lavish banquets, and decorating their houses with boughs of greenery, including holly and mistletoe (considered magical plants because they bore fruit in the dead of winter). The Romans gave each other glass jars filled with dates and dried figs in honey so the new year would be sweet and full of good fortune. These offerings, called strenne from the Sabine goddess of prosperity, Strenia, were the predecessors of the presents we now exchange at Christmas. 

Italians refer to New Year’s Eve by its liturgical name, la Festa di San Silvestro, the feast of St. Sylvester, a fourth-century pope. Traditionally families and friends share a huge dinner called il cenone (literally the big supper). Lentils, symbols of prosperity because they resemble coins, are almost always on the menu, often served with pork, another symbol of the richness of life. 

Tuscans eat lentils with cotechino, a big pork sausage cut like coins. Italians in Bologna and Modena eat them with zampone, or pig’s trotter.  In Piedmont, rice symbolizes money, so a cenone is sure to include risotto. Raisins, another symbol for coins, appear in desserts throughout the peninsula. 

In a relatively recent tradition, couples give each gifts of red underwear—a color that wards off the malocchio (Evil Eye) and a symbol of love, prosperity, and fertility. Traditionally Italians wear these special undies only once and throw them away after New Year’s eve.

That’s not all that Italians toss out. In order to make room for the new, they once literally threw old brooms, dishes, even furniture out the window. Regulations now prohibit this dangerous dumping, but the practice continues in some parts of Naples and the South. 

After the evening feast, most Italian cities throw a big party under the stars with music, dancing, and fireworks. Italy’s equivalent of Times Square in New York is the Piazza del Popolo in Rome. Huge crowds gather for an outdoor concert and a magnificent midnight fireworks display. The favored drink is spumante or prosecco, Italian sparkling wine, for a toast (brindisi) when the clock strikes twelve.

Whether public or private, il Veglione di Capodanno (the New Year’s party) typically lasts all night. As they head home at the dawn of Capodanno (New Year’s Day), weary revelers watch the first sunrise—and look out for the first person they see in the newborn year. According to ancient traditions, an old man or a hunchbacked person carries good luck, while a child or a priest brings bad luck in the upcoming year. 

Words and Expressions 

Il conto alla rovescia -- the countdown to midnight (meno 10, meno 9, meno 8, meno 7 ...) 

I botti di capodanno -- New year’s firecrackers and fireworks 

“Anno nuovo, vita nuova” -- new Year, new life (let’s make a fresh start)  

i buoni propositi per l’anno nuovo -- New Year resolutions, such as smettere di fumare (to stop smoking), mettersi a dieta (to go on a diet), and iscriversi in palestra (to join a gym). 

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.

Click below for new year's greetings in tutte le lingue (all the languages) of the world, accompanied by John Lennon's immortal "Imagine":