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Italy’s Amazing Summer Fruits

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sculpture above done by Ross when she attended liceo artistico

Summer has arrived, and with it everyone’s favorite fruits – along with the desire to mangiare leggero (“eat light”) in the heat. At this time of year it’s not unusual to see mounds of cherries served as dessert, antipasto, or snack at parties and dinners. Juicy, sweet, bursting with flavor, all these need is a place to discard the pits and stems:

An Italian saying related to cherries (and applied to other things) is: una tira l’altra (“one pulls another”), as in: “I ate so many because they just kept coming out of the bowl, one after the other, their stems entangled…”

Have you ever seen more perfect plums? They come in many varieties and colors (blue, red, yellow, pink, purple), and all taste as good as they look:

If you’re visiting Italy in summer, here’s a restaurant tip: instead of dessert, order frutta di stagione (seasonal fruit). You may be asked what you want specifically, so here’s a little vocabulary:

  • pesche [PESS-kay] peaches
  • prugne [PROON-yay] plums
  • albicocche [al-bi-KOK-kay] apricots
  • ciliegie [chili-AY-JAY] cherries
  • pesche noci [PESS-kay NO-chee] nectarines
  • fichi [FEE-key] figs – these are often served as an antipasto, with prosciutto crudo – don’t miss it!
  • lamponi [lam-PONE-ee] raspberries
  • mirtilli [meer-TEEL-lee] blueberries

NB: Berries are known collectively as frutti di bosco (“forest fruits”). If you get a chance to eat fresh-picked wild blueberries (very occasionally available at restaurants and fruitsellers) do NOT pass it up. If you hike, keep your eyes peeled: you can find wild raspberries and blackberries free for the picking.

Peaches, plums, apricots, and cherries may be served floating in, or alongside, a large bowl of cold water. Dip the fruit in and swish it around to clean it, then eat! Many Italians peel their peaches with a knife before eating (often they are so ripe that the peel will slip away from the flesh with very little assistance), but you’re not obliged to – you’ll find that the skin is much thinner than you’re used to on American peaches.

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Italian language, Italian songs

Learn Italian in Song: Com’é Profondo il Mare

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Lucio Dalla, 1978

Com’é Profondo il Mare

How Deep is the Sea
Siamo noi, siamo in tanti We are us, we are many
Ci nascondiamo di notte we hide ourselves at night
Per paura degli automobilisti for fear of the automobilists
Dei linotipisti Of the linotypists
Siamo gatti neri We are black cats
Siamo pessimisti we are pessimists
Siamo i cattivi pensieri we are the bad thoughts
Non abbiamo da mangiare We don’t have anything to eat
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Babbo, che eri un gran cacciatore Dad, you who were a great hunter
Di quaglie e di fagiani of quail and pheasant
Caccia via queste mosche Chase away these flies
Che non mi fanno dormire that don’t let me sleep
Che mi fanno arrabbiare that make me angry
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
E’ inutile It’s useless
Non c’è più lavoro There’s no more work
Non c’è più decoro there’s no more decorum
Dio o chi per lui God, or someone in his place,
Sta cercando di dividerci is trying to divide us
Di farci del male to hurt us
Di farci annegare to drown us
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Con la forza di un ricatto With the force of a ransom
L’uomo diventò qualcuno Man became someone
Resuscitò anche i morti He raised even the dead
Spalancò prigioni Opened wide prisons
Bloccò sei treni Blocked six trains
Con relativi vagoni with their respective cars
Innalzò per un attimo il povero He lifted the poor man for a moment
Ad un ruolo difficile da mantenere to a role difficult to maintain
Poi lo lasciò cadere Then let him fall
A piangere e a urlare to cry and scream
Solo in mezzo al mare alone in the midst of the sea
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea.
Poi da solo l’urlo Then, by itself, the scream
Diventò un tamburo became a drum
E il povero come un lampo and the poor man like a lightning bolt
Nel cielo scuro In a dark sky
Cominciò una guerra began a war
Per conquistare to conquer
Quello scherzo di terra that joke of earth
Che il suo grande cuore which his great heart
Doveva coltivare should have cultivated
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Ma la terra But the earth
Gli fu portata via was taken away from him
Compresa quella rimasta addosso including that which was still on him
Fu scaraventato he was flung
In un palazzo,in un fosso into a palace, into a pit
Non ricordo bene I don’t remember well
Poi una storia di catene Then a story of chains
Bastonate beatings
E chirurgia sperimentale and experimental surgery
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Intanto un mistico In the meanwhile a mystic
Forse un’aviatore perhaps an aviator
Inventò la commozione Invented sympathy
E rimise d’accordo tutti And got everyone to agree again
I belli con i brutti The beautiful with the ugly
Con qualche danno per i brutti At some cost to the ugly
Che si videro consegnare Who saw themselves given
Un pezzo di specchio a piece of mirror
Così da potersi guardare so they could look at themselves
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the sea
Frattanto i pesci In the meantime the fish
Dai quali discendiamo tutti from whom we are all descended
Assistettero curiosi looked on, curious,
Al dramma collettivo at the collective drama
Di questo mondo of this world
Che a loro indubbiamente Which to them undoubtedly
Doveva sembrar cattivo must have seemed wicked
E cominciarono a pensare And they began to think
Nel loro grande mare In their great sea
Com’è profondo il mare how deep is the sea
Nel loro grande mare In their great sea
Com’è profondo il mare how deep is the sea
E’ chiaro It’s clear
Che il pensiero dà fastidio that thought causes irritation
Anche se chi pensa Even if the one who thinks
E’ muto come un pesce is mute as a fish
Anzi è un pesce In fact, is a fish
E come pesce è difficile da bloccare And as a fish, is difficult to stop
Perchè lo protegge il mare because the sea protects him
Com’è profondo il mare How deep is the see
Certo Certainly
Chi comanda he who is in charge
Non è disposto a fare distinzioni poetiche is not disposed to make poetic distinctions
Il pensiero come l’oceano Thought, like the ocean
Non lo puoi bloccare you cannot block
Non lo puoi bloccare you cannot block
Così stanno bruciando il mare So they are burning the sea
Così stanno uccidendo il mare so they are killing the sea
Così stanno umiliando il mare so they are humiliating the sea
Così stanno piegando il mare so they are bending the sea [to their will].
if you find this useful and want more, let me know!

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Italian songs

Learn Italian in Song: Come Mai

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Come Mai

How On Earth?
Le notti non finiscono The nights don’t end
all’alba nella via at dawn in the street
le porto a casa insieme a me I bring them home with me
ne faccio melodia And make melodies of them
e poi mi trovo a scrivere And then I find myself writing
chilometri di lettere Kilometers of letters
sperando di vederti ancora qui. Hoping to see you here again.
Inutile parlarne sai It’s useless to talk about it, you know
non capiresti mai You’d never understand
seguirti fino all’alba e poi Follow you until dawn and then
vedere dove vai See where you go
mi sento un po’ bambino ma I feel a bit like a child, but
lo so con te non finirà I know that with you it won’t end
il sogno di sentirsi dentro un film. this dream of feeling oneself inside a film.
(ritornello) (refrain)
E poi all’improvviso And then suddenly
sei arrivata tu you arrived
non so chi l’ha deciso I don’t know who decided it
m’hai preso sempre più You took me ever more
una quotidiana guerra A daily war
con la razionalità With rationality
ma va bene purchè serva But it’s okay as long as it serves
per farmi uscire. to get me out.
Come mai, ma chi sarai How on earth, but who are you
per fare questo a me to do this to me?
notti intere ad aspettarti Whole nights waiting for you,
ad aspettare te waiting for you
dimmi come mai, ma chi sarai Tell me how on earth, but who are you
per farmi stare qui to make me stay here
qui seduto in una stanza Here seated in a room
pregando per un sì. Praying for a yes.
Gli amici se sapessero My friends if they knew
che sono proprio io that it was really me
pensare che credevano To think that they believed
che fossi quasi un dio that I was almost a god
perchè non mi fermavo mai Because I never stopped,
nessuna storia inutile no useless love stories
uccidersi d’amore Kill oneself for love?
ma per chi? But for who?
(ritornello) (refrain)
if you find this useful and want more, let me know!

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Italian language

Italian SMS-Speak

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“Texting” – sending text messages via cellphone – has been popular in Italy far longer than in the US, in part because it’s cheaper than calling. When I can’t reach someone by email, I use SMS for non-urgent communications – it’s less intrusive than a call, and I have a phobia of disturbing people.

Italian kids in particular text a lot, though many have now moved on to instant messaging on their computers. They’ve developed a shorthand which is useful for both; I give some examples here (and will expand on them as I run into new ones, particularly with illustrations).

The graffito on the side of the building pictured above reads: Cecy TV1MDB… Fabio.

TVB – ti voglio bene – “I love you” – predates cellphones; I remember my daughter and her middle school friends scribbling it on each others’ school diaries and backpacks. (The advertising applications for TVBLOB are instantly apparent.)

The graffito above is another variant: 1 is (obviously) uno, the number one, but it’s also the article “a” or “an”. So this reads: Ti voglio un mondo di bene – “I desire for you a world of good,” or “I love you a lot.”

Cecy, BTW, pronounced CHAY-chee, is a nickname for Cecilia [cheh-CHEE-lee-ah].

+ is of course the mathematical plus sign, pronounced piu’ [PYOO]. But piu’ also means “more”. So the ugly sentiment expressed above is “more cops dead.”

At the bottom right is the VV symbol meaning “hurray for!” – figa (cunt). (A rather pleasanter sentiment.)

Other Abbreviations

(For which I don’t yet have photos.)

6 – sei means “six” or “you are”.

cmq – comunque – anyway

k – The letter k is pronounced kappa in Italian (the name is Greek because k is not actually part of the Italian alphabet). But Italian kids, knowing that in English it’s pronounced [kay], use it as shorthand for -che, a common Italian syllable.

x – This is not the letter x, but the multiplication symbol, called per in Italian. The word per is also a preposition meaning “for”, and, again, a frequently-used syllable in Italian.

So: xk = perché – “why?” – a savings of four letters when entering text!

what are some more Italian SMS abbreviations I’m missing?

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Italian culture

Old-Fashioned Italian Baby Names

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Above: a monument to Varenna’s WWI dead. If your last name was Pensa (“think”), why would you name your child Innocente? Monuments like this also give clues to names which were once common but have now fallen out of popularity: Gaspare [GAHS-pah-ray], Eliseo [ell-lee-ZAY-oh], Oreste [oh-RES-tay], Sigismundo [sih-jiss-MOON-doh] and Corrado [cor-RAH-doh] are very rare today.

War memorial in Lecco: more names which are now rare (and might be considered funny):

  • Ermenegildo [air-may-nay-JEEL-doh]
  • Eufrasio [ey-you-FRAZ-ee-oh]
  • Mansueto [mahn-SWAY-toh] (“gentle”)
  • Fortunato [for-too-NAH-toh] (“lucky,” but this may also be the name of a saint)
  • Onorato [on-oh-RAH-toh] (“honored”)
  • Severino [seh-veh-REEN-oh] (a saint)
  • Domizio [doh-MEET-zee-oh] (Roman name)
  • Calimero [cah-lee-MARE-oh]
  • Arnaldo [are-NAHL-doh]

Wilma [VILL-mah] and Giuseppina [jews-ep-PEEN-ah] would be considered old-fashioned. Carolina [car-oh-LEAN-ah] is still current (my daughter has been at school with at least one Carolina).

  • Ines [ee-NESS]
  • Gioconda [joe-COND-ah] – In Italy, an alternate name for the Mona Lisa is La Gioconda. Note that this one was the widow of a Mr. Orfeo [or-FAY-oh] (Orpheus).
  • Adalgisa [ah-DAHL-jizz-ah] – Very old-fashioned.

  • Egidia [eh-GEE-dee-uh]
  • Rosetta [Rose-ETT-uh]
  • Cherubina [care-oo-BEAN-uh] – “Little Cherub” – Huh?!?
  • Chiarina [kya-REE-nah] – unusual, but cute. A diminutive of Chiara [KYA-rah], meaning clear, transparent, or light.

  • Achille = Achilles
  • Valentino – well, you all know that one
  • Ermanno – no less than two of them! = Herman
  • Carmelo – very current in southern Italy

  • Gottardo [go-TAR-doh] – a saint with an important Alpine mountain pass and two major highway tunnels named after him.
  • Cesare [CHAY-za-ray] – Caesar. You knew that, right?
  • Oreste [o-RESS-tay] – the Greek Orestes

  • Edoardo Enrico – It’s unusual for an Italian to use a middle name in any context. My husband, for example, has several which may be on his baptismal certificate, but do not exist on his birth certificate or any other legal document, and which are never used. Beyond that, Edoardo [eh-doh-AR-do] and Enrico are both names that are not unusual, but not overly common, either.
  • Piera – [pee-AIR-a or PYAIR-ah] Female version of Piero, of course.
  • Candida [CAHN-did-ah] – Carries the connotation “white” or “pure.”
  • Armanda [ar-MAHN-dah]
  • Quinto [KWEEN-toh] – “Fifth”.
    In some families it seems to have been the practice, dating back to Classical Rome, to give your children numbers rather than names: Primo, Secundo, etc. Or, having grown tired of trying to find names after the first few, the parents seem to take this easy way out.
  • Pierluigi – Pier is often used as a sort of adjunct to other (male) names: Piergiorgio, Pierluigi, even Piermaria (still a male name by virtue of the Pier on the front).

Anything you can add on the lore and history of old-fashioned Italian names will be welcome!

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