Have you ever fallen in love with Italy… and then found yourself surrounded by real Italians? Because one thing is the Italy of postcards — sun, sea, pizza, coffee, dolce far niente — and another thing is the Italians in the flesh, the ones you meet at the supermarket, at the office, at the pharmacy, and at the pedestrian crossings. Especially at the pedestrian crossings, but we’ll get there. Today I’m telling you about 5 things that we Italians do and that I — 100% Italian, from head to toe — just can’t stand. And I’ll also teach you the colloquial vocabulary to understand them (and survive).
What’s Wrong With Italians? (According to an Italian)
I love Italy and I love Italians. This is not a critical article, it’s self-irony — which is one of the most Italian things there is: we know how to laugh at ourselves. At least until you speak badly of our cuisine. That’s where the friendship ends.
Why will it be useful for you to read to the end? Because learning a language doesn’t just mean learning grammar: it means understanding how those who speak that language reason. With this article you’ll learn a lot of colloquial vocabulary that Italians use every day and that you never find in books, some idiomatic expressions that will make you sound instantly more natural, some important differences in meaning (for example between essere in ritardo [being late to an appointment] and fare tardi [staying out late]: they’re not the same thing!), and above all you’ll understand how to behave in certain typically Italian situations, without embarrassing yourself.
1. Weather-Dependence
Italians don’t look at the weather out of the window. Italians consult the weather app. Twelve times a day. Even at midnight. Even to know what the weather will be like in eight days, a totally useless piece of information which, however, is communicated to the whole family with the grave expression of someone announcing news of war.
And here comes the sentence you’ll hear a million times: “Hanno detto che domani piove“ [They said tomorrow it’s going to rain]. Let’s stop for a moment, because there’s something very interesting. Who said it? We don’t know. We’ve never known. “Hanno detto” is a soggetto impersonale misterioso: a collective, invisible, highly authoritative entity. The same “hanno” as “hanno detto che aumenta la benzina” [they said gasoline is going up] and “hanno detto che quest’inverno sarà freddissimo” [they said this winter will be very cold].
The Military Weatherman: a Historical Curiosity
The first Italian television meteorologist, Edmondo Bernacca, was an officer in the Air Force. He came to TV in 1957 and became so popular that everyone called him “il colonnello Bernacca” [Colonel Bernacca] — a rank he actually held (later he even became a general). His successors also came from the Air Force. That’s why in Italy the meteorologist, in the collective imagination, is “il colonnello”: for us the weather has long been a military matter. And this explains a lot about the seriousness with which we treat it.
The Vocabulary of Meteorological Tragedy
The weather update is never neutral. It’s always an announced tragedy. Here are the expressions you’ll hear all the time and that really help you dive deeper into the weather in Italian:
- “Si mette a piovere proprio nel weekend!” [It starts raining right on the weekend!] → watch out for this super useful structure: mettersi a + infinito means to start something suddenly. Si è messo a piovere. Si è messa a urlare. Mi sono messo a ridere. Use it and you’ll sound immediately like a native
- “C’è un’afa insopportabile!” [There’s an unbearable mugginess!] → l’afa is that deadly combination of heat and humidity that makes you sweat even while standing still. Aggettivo: afoso
- “Che tempaccio!” [What terrible weather!] → and here learn the suffisso -accio, which in Italian is pejorative: tempo → tempaccio, giornata → giornataccia, ragazzo → ragazzaccio, parola → parolaccia (that is, a swear word!). It’s an extremely productive suffix: if you master it, you gain ten points of naturalness. To dive deeper, you can check out the guide on altered nouns in Italian
- “Fa un freddo cane!” [It’s freezing cold!] → fixed expression: very, very cold. Cousins: un caldo infernale, si gela, si muore dal caldo
And then the final sentence, the one that ends every discussion and that Italians have been repeating for at least fifty years: “Eh, non ci sono più le mezze stagioni!“ [Oh, there are no more mid-seasons!]. The “mezze stagioni” would be spring and autumn. According to Italians, they have disappeared. My grandfather already said it when he was young. It’s a phrase passed down from generation to generation, like a family recipe. No one knows exactly when they disappeared: we just know they’re gone.
2. Elastic Punctuality
If an Italian tells you “Arrivo tra cinque minuti“ [I’ll be there in five minutes], you have about forty minutes of free life ahead of you. If they say “Sto uscendo“ [I’m heading out], they’re still in the shower. If they say “Sono in zona“ [I’m in the area], they’ve just started the car. And if they say “Ci vediamo verso le otto“ [See you around eight], the most important word in the sentence is verso. Fix it well: verso = “around”, “approximately”. It’s the little latch that keeps the door of lateness open. “Ci vediamo verso le otto” means: somewhere between 8:00 and 8:45 PM, depending on mood, traffic, and how many people I meet on the street.
Essere in Ritardo vs Fare Tardi: the Difference Everyone Gets Wrong
Watch out, extremely important difference that almost every foreigner gets wrong:
- Essere in ritardo = to arrive after the agreed time → “Scusa, sono in ritardo di dieci minuti” [Sorry, I’m ten minutes late]
- Fare tardi = to stay out until a very late hour, or to fall behind one’s plans → “Ieri sera abbiamo fatto tardi, siamo tornati alle tre” [Last night we stayed out late, we got back at three], “Non aspettarmi per cena, faccio tardi in ufficio” [Don’t wait for me for dinner, I’ll work late at the office]
They are not synonyms! If you say “Ieri sono stato in ritardo con gli amici” to mean that you stayed out late, your Italian interlocutor will look at you puzzled.
Other Time Expressions You’ll Need
- Essere puntuale → to arrive on the dot
- Arrivare in anticipo → to arrive early
- Essere in orario → to respect the scheduled time (trains, planes, formal appointments)
- Il quarto d’ora accademico → the 15 minutes of tolerated lateness born in Italian universities: if the lecture is at 10, it starts at 10:15. It’s officially authorized lateness. Only in Italy could we institutionalize lateness
The Unwritten Rules of Italian Lateness
Italian lateness has unwritten rules. At a dinner at friends’ place, arriving right on time is almost rude: the host is still setting the table and maybe in a bathrobe. A 10-15 minute delay is courtesy. But if you have a job interview, a medical appointment, or a train to catch, punctuality becomes sacred again. Yes, it’s complicated. Welcome to Italy.
3. The Cold War at the Pedestrian Crossings
Strisce pedonali are those white stripes on the ground where you cross the street. In colloquial Italian we also call them le zebre, and someone who walks is il pedone.
Now, I could play the victim and tell you that Italian drivers are terrible. But I’d be dishonest, because the truth is another: the Italian pedestrian is an accomplice.
What We Do, on Foot
- We cross outside the pedestrian crossing. The crossing is there, twenty meters away. But twenty meters are a lot, and we’re always in a rush to go do something that wasn’t urgent
- We cross while looking at our phone. We don’t look at the street: we look at the screen and trust the universe
- We use the magic little hand. We raise a hand towards the cars, as if to say “stop”, convinced that gesture generates an invisible force field. It doesn’t. But we firmly believe in the little hand
The problem isn’t the category “drivers” against the category “pedestrians”: it’s the same person in two different moments of the day. The same man who at 8 AM, in the car, doesn’t stop at the crossing, at 6 PM crosses outside the crossing cursing at whoever doesn’t stop. We are a people consistent in its inconsistency.
The Vocabulary of the Street
- Dare la precedenza → to give way to someone / avere la precedenza → to have the right of way
- Inchiodare → to brake suddenly, all at once (it comes from “chiodo” [nail]: it’s as if the car got nailed to the asphalt)
- Sfrecciare → to pass very fast, like an arrow
- Suonare il clacson → watch out: in Italian the horn si suona, not “si spinge”! “Mi ha suonato il clacson” [He honked at me]
- Attraversare (la strada) → to cross from one side to the other
Very Serious Practical Advice for Crossing in Italy
If you wait politely on the edge of the sidewalk, motionless and silent, you’ll never pass. You’ll stay there twenty minutes aging. In Italy you have to show intention: take a determined step towards the street, look the driver in the eye, and at that point he’ll understand that you’re crossing and will brake. It’s a negotiation, not a rule. That’s why in Italy the green light doesn’t mean “go”: it means negotiation open.
One place to learn Italian
Join the LearnAmo Academy4. The Queue: the Most Abstract Concept in Italy
Fare la fila means to stand one behind the other and wait your turn. In some countries the queue is a straight, orderly, almost poetic line. In Italy the queue is a capannello [little group, huddle]: a little group of people arranged in an apparently random way, in which no one seems to know who arrived first, but in reality everyone knows perfectly well.
The Magic Question: “Chi è l’Ultimo?”
There’s a magic question you absolutely must learn, because you’ll need it at the bakery, the butcher, the post office, and the pharmacy: “Chi è l’ultimo?“ [Who’s last?] or “È lei l’ultima?“ [Are you the last one?] — and then “Sono dopo di lei“ [I’m after you].
You arrive, ask who’s last, memorize that person, and from that moment you watch them like a bodyguard. The Italian queue doesn’t exist in space: it exists in collective memory. If you don’t ask this question, you’re not in the queue. You’re just a person who happens to be there by chance, and everyone will bypass you with a clear conscience.
The Furbetto and His Classic Phrases
And then there’s him: il furbetto [the sly one]. The furbetto is the one who salta la fila [cuts the queue], that is, goes ahead of everyone. And he never does it in silence: he does it by announcing it, with one of these phrases that by now are classics of Italian literature:
- “Eh ma io devo solo chiedere un’informazione!” [But I just need to ask for some information!] (the information lasts 25 minutes)
- “Faccio un attimo, ho la macchina in doppia fila!” [It’ll be just a moment, my car is double-parked!]
- “Scusate, ma io ero già passato prima!” [Sorry, but I had already been through before!] (false, always)
Key Vocabulary of the Queue
- Fare la fila / mettersi in fila / aspettare il proprio turno
- Saltare la fila → to cut ahead without waiting
- Fare il furbo → to get an advantage in an unfair way. The diminutive furbetto in Italian sounds almost affectionate, and this is already a whole cultural program
- Intrufolarsi → to slip in among others on the sly
- La doppia fila → to park next to an already parked car, blocking it. Illegal, extremely common, and considered a valid excuse for anything
Usage note: you can say both fare la fila and fare la coda: they are both correct and interchangeable. “Coda” literally means the tail of an animal — the queue is long like a tail. And if it’s very long: “C’è una coda chilometrica!” [There’s a kilometer-long queue!].
5. The English Invasion
Let’s be clear: languages change, contaminate each other, borrow words. It’s normal and it has always happened. We say bar, sport, tram (from English) and garage, chic, boutique (from French) and no one is scandalized anymore: those words are ours to all effects by now.
What I can’t stand is when we use an English word even though a perfect one already exists in Italian. And the reason, if you think about it, is almost funny: it’s because in Italian it would sound too simple. And we mistrust what is simple: if something is understood immediately, it doesn’t seem important enough. To dive deeper, you can check out the guide on Italian alternatives to anglicisms.
A Typical Sentence from an Italian Office
Let me have you hear a sentence that in an Italian office is completely normal: “Ci facciamo un allineamento veloce sul target? Mi serve un feedback entro la deadline, poi ti forwardo le slide e chiudiamo ASAP“.
Translation: “Ci aggiorniamo un attimo sull’obiettivo? Mi serve un tuo parere entro la scadenza, poi ti inoltro le diapositive e chiudiamo il prima possibile” [Let’s have a quick catch-up on the goal? I need your opinion by the deadline, then I’ll forward you the slides and we’ll close as soon as possible]. Exactly the same content. One is Italian, the other is a resume disguised as a sentence.
And notice something very funny from a linguistic point of view: Italians conjugate English verbs as if they were Italian. Forwardare → io forwardo, tu forwardi. And then schedulare, briffare, quotare, killare, splittare. We take the English root and glue on the Italian ending. On one hand it’s an abuse; on the other it’s proof that our grammar is alive and eats everything it finds.
False Anglicisms: Words That Look English but Aren’t
There are words that look English and that we use like English words… but that in English don’t exist or mean something else. Learn them, because they’ll save you a lot of confusion. To dive deeper, you can check out the guide on Italian false friends.
| In Italian we say | In English you actually say |
|---|---|
| smart working | remote work / working from home |
| footing | jogging |
| il pile (jacket) | fleece |
| il box (for the car) | garage |
| il mister (coach) | coach |
| il golf (garment) | sweater |
| il beauty | vanity case / toiletry bag |
| il phon (or fon) | hair dryer |
Two little gems for you: “footing” isn’t even English, it came to us from French; and “phon” comes actually from the German Föhn, the name of a warm wind (that’s why it’s also written simply fon). So yes: we complain about English while speaking an English that the English don’t understand. Zero coherence, very Italian.
Historical Curiosity: the Birth of the Tramezzino
In the twenties and thirties, during fascism, in Italy there was a real campaign to eliminate foreign words from the language. Many substitutions failed miserably; others instead won, and we use them every day without knowing it. The most famous example is tramezzino, the word that took the place of the English sandwich. The sandwich was born at Caffè Mulassano in Turin around 1925-26, and the creation of the name is traditionally attributed to the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio: tramezzino is the diminutive of tramezzo, meaning “what is in the middle” — a snack to eat between one meal and another. So, the next time you order a tramezzino at the bar, remember that you’re pronouncing a word (reportedly) invented by a poet just to avoid saying “sandwich”.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the Difference between “Essere in Ritardo” and “Fare Tardi”?
They are two expressions that seem similar but mean completely different things. Essere in ritardo means to arrive after the agreed time for an appointment: “Scusa, sono in ritardo di dieci minuti” [Sorry, I’m ten minutes late], “Il treno è in ritardo” [The train is late]. Fare tardi, on the other hand, means to stay out until a very late hour, or to fall behind on your personal plans: “Ieri sera abbiamo fatto tardi, siamo tornati alle tre” [Last night we stayed out late, we got back at three], “Faccio tardi in ufficio, non aspettarmi per cena” [I’ll be working late at the office, don’t wait for me for dinner]. The difference is crucial: if you say “Ieri sono stato in ritardo con gli amici” to mean you stayed out late, your Italian interlocutor will look at you puzzled because that sentence suggests you were late to an appointment with them.
What Does “Verso” Mean with a Time?
Verso before a time means “around”, “approximately”. It’s one of the most Italian words in absolute and you’ll hear it constantly: “Ci vediamo verso le otto” [See you around eight], “Arrivo verso mezzogiorno” [I’ll arrive around noon], “Torno verso sera” [I’ll be back around evening]. The tolerance margin depends on context: in an informal situation, “verso le otto” can mean anything between 8:00 and 8:45 PM; in a formal situation the margin is much smaller (5-10 minutes maximum). Useful synonyms: intorno alle otto, sulle otto (very colloquial, typical of the North). If you want to be precise, instead, say “alle otto in punto” = exactly at 8:00.
How Does the Queue Really Work in Italy?
In Italy the queue is often not an orderly straight line, but a capannello: a little group of people arranged casually in which everyone knows perfectly well who arrived first, even if it doesn’t look like it. To avoid being bypassed, you absolutely must ask the magic question as soon as you arrive: “Chi è l’ultimo?” or “È lei l’ultima?”. The person who answers you is your “guardian”: memorize them, and from that moment you’re officially the next after them. If someone arrives after you and asks the same question, you’ll answer “Sono io”, and you’ll become their “guardian”. If you don’t ask this question, you’re not in the queue: you’re just a person who happens to be there by chance, and everyone will bypass you with a clear conscience.
What Are Italian False Anglicisms?
They are words that in Italian look English — because they have an English form or sound English — but that don’t exist in English or have a completely different meaning. If you use them talking to a native English speaker, they won’t understand. Some classic examples: smart working (in English you say remote work or working from home), footing (in English it’s jogging, and “footing” arrived in Italian from French), il mister for the football coach (in English it’s coach), il golf as a garment (in English it’s sweater), il box for the car (in English it’s garage), il phon for the hair dryer (in English it’s hair dryer, and the word actually comes from the German Föhn). Learning them is extremely useful: on one hand they save you confusion if you speak English, on the other they help you truly understand spoken Italian.
How Is the Suffisso “-Accio” Used in Italian?
The suffix -accio (feminine -accia) is one of the most productive pejorative suffixes in Italian: it attaches to a noun to give it a negative nuance, of contempt, annoyance, or simply negative intensification. Examples: tempo → tempaccio [terrible weather], giornata → giornataccia [awful day], ragazzo → ragazzaccio [boy with questionable behavior], parola → parolaccia [swear word], libro → libraccio [terrible book], coltello → coltellaccio [big threatening knife]. Watch out however: not all nouns accept the suffix naturally, and sometimes the altered word has a lexicalized meaning different from the simple pejorative (for example parolaccia isn’t “an ugly word” in general, but precisely a swear word). Mastering altered words earns you immediate naturalness points in speech.
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