Dolcetto o Scherzetto? Halloween, Italian Style

La Maestra Maldestra

 

Halloween (L’halloween, my Italian friends called it, pronounced lahl-oh-ween) is not a very Italian festa (holiday) at all, but that has not stopped gli italiani (the Italians) from jumping on the Jack-o-Lantern bandwagon in the last few years and celebrating in style. The famous phrase, “trick or treat?” has even been translated to “dolcetto o scherzetto?“ in Italian to help the holiday along.

Last year, I spent Halloween in Italy. If you’re a regular reader/follower/subscriber to this blog, you’ll know that during my time living in Siena, I hung out a lot at one particular little osteria and got to be good friends with all the staff there. As Halloween approached, they approached me and asked for ideas for the Festa dell’Halloween (Halloween party) they wanted to throw at the osteria.

I suggested that they order proper orange pumpkins from their fruit and veg supplier (there was nary an orange pumpkin to be found in Siena’s supermercati, just very un-festive yellow ones) and I buzzed around town looking for some goulish decorations to spruce the place up a bit. I helped get the Halloween posters printed so that the fantasma (ghost) came out just right, and spent time trying to get the wording right in both English and Italian for the ads we put up. “Gradita la prezenza in maschera“, for those of you who speak Italian, is how we translated “costumes welcome.“

On Halloween afternoon, the boys closed the place early to set up for the big festa. After they assured me that they could certainly carve two pumpkins (something they’d never done before) without loosing any fingers or blood in the process, I left them alone to put the finishing touches on the party preparations and worried about how the pumpkins would look when I got back. When I swung back by later, I was greeted by these two lovely “Giacomo-Lanterns“ (the Italian version of Jack-o-Lanterns, apparently) which drew crowds to the festa all night:

I like to think they were the only two carved pumpkins in all of Siena last year! The festa was a huge success (went on till 4 a.m., they tell me) and all night people could be seen taking pictures with our unique pumpkins. Please note the Italian touches of vino rosso (red wine) and castagne (chestnuts) alongside our Giacomo Lanterns!

Happy Halloween to all!

Word of the Day – “Compleanno”

La Maestra Maldestra

Oggi e’ il mio compleanno. Today is my birthday, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to teach you some birthday-related and well-wishing vocabulary.

I am extremely thankful for all the auguri  that have been sent across the pond by my Italian friends (and friends of other nationalities who happen to speak Italian), the wishes for a bon anniversaire (happy birthday) from my Francophone friends and the warm happy birthdays from my English-speaking friends and family.

While in English I would never congratulate someone on their birthday, in Italian it is very common to say auguri  which translates as, all the best, congratulations, or best wishes. You can also say buon compleanno, simply meaning happy birthday, or you can combine the two for the all-encompassing auguri di buon compleanno!  If you really hope that someone’s birthday is over the top, you can wish them the more grandiose buonissimo compleanno, so that they may have a very happy birthday, or you could wish them auguroni, which are even bigger best wishes.

If you’re the lucky birthday boy or girl, you’d be the festeggiato/a. Hopefully you’re having a festa (party)  complete with torta di compleanno (birthday cake), biglietti di compleanno (birthday cards) and regali (presents)!

Two years ago, I celebrated my birthday in Siena. A friend organized a birthday party for me at the Tea Room, a popular, well, tea room, that serves all sorts of drinks, cakes, teas and coffees. I rang in my birthday with a flaming (yes, actually on fire) Bellini drink. (They’re not usually served on fire, FYI) and then proceeded to indulge in some Prosecco. We also had a coconut cake drizzled in chocolate, complete, not with birthday candles (the Bellini took care of the “make a wish” part) but with miniature Italian flags.  All in all, a wonderful Italian compleanno!

Pouring Prosecco

Birthday Bellini

If all this talk of birthdays and well wishes has made you want to do something to help me celebrate my birthday, “like” Not Just Another “Dolce Vita’s” Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, or subscribe to the blog!

Grazie!

Word of the Day – “Scambio di lingua”

La Maestra Maldestra

 

I always knew Italian men were forward. I don’t think there’s a girl or woman alive in the Western world who hasn’t heard this rumour, or who doesn’t share at least an inkling of this feeling about the self proclaimed “Latin Lovers” of the Italian peninsula. But sometimes, I wonder if these guys don’t get a bad reputation by pure linguistic misunderstanding.

Case and point:

A group of us are out at a bar having a drink, socializing and generally just enjoying each others’ company. A few friends of friends saunter up to our table, and in true Italian style more chairs and another table are conjured out of thin air. These friends of friends are invited to sit down, share our wine, and spend the rest of the evening with us. Beautiful. In my opinion, it’s always great to meet new people, so I welcome the opportunity to start talking to Giovanni, one of the guys who found himself a chair beside me.

The group is having a great time, laughing, consuming wine and nibblies with gusto, generally being loud and Italian (not to givetooo much credit to stereotypes here). As the evening draws to a close and we’re all saying our “buonanottes” and “arrivedercis“, Giovanni makes his way back over to where I’m standing talking with our mutual friend, Antonio. The exchange that leaves me utterly horrified goes something like this:

“Ciao, Sarah. It was a pleasure to meet you tonight. I had a great time talking to you. You speak Italian wonderfully.” (I’m not writing this to toot my own horn. This is actually how the conversation went).

“Ciao, Giovanni. It was a pleasure for me too. And don’t feel so shy about speaking English, you don’t make as many mistakes as you think you do!” I smile. He had been pleasant to talk to, and of course he had tried out his English on me, the madrelingua (native speaker). We lean in for the customary Italian double kiss, and things are still normal.

Once we’ve both received a peck on each cheek, Giovanni backs away, makes deep eye contact and digs out his English again, “So, can I give you my number and maybe one night we could, how do you say, get together to do an exchange of tongues?”

PARDON ME!?!

He smiles, and I recoil.

He’s serious, and I’m incazzata (I’ll leave the translation out for that one. You can imagine why).

I had had a nice conversation with this guy for probably a good 45 minutes that night, and he hadn’t come across as the least bit sleazy or forward. Now that we’re leaving and maybe he’s got a bit more liquid courage in him, he thinks he can boldly talk to me like that?! I don’t think so! And I was especially taken aback by the fact that he said this to me without a second thought about Antonio who was standing right there, witnessing this exchange. This Giovanni guy was shameless and I was flabbergasted.

I could feel my face contort into a look that was 1 part disgust, 1 part horrified and 1 part offended. Seeing this, poor Giovanni, who was already a good head shorter than me, started to shrink back into his designer duds, looking confused and embarrassed.

“Sarah, what did I say? Did I make a mistake? Did I offend you?” He looks nervously between Antonio and I.

I’m angry. “What the heck, Giovanni!? You think you can just boldly proposition me like that in front of everyone?! We had a nice conversation tonight, and basta. Enough! I’m not going to exchange tongues with you, or engage in any other sort of…that type of behaviour! Never!” Hmmfph.

And suddenly, beside me Antonio cracks up and starts howling with laughter. Now it’s both Giovanni’s and my turn to be confused as we watch him gasping as he tries to speak.

“No…No!!!” He shakes his head and continues to laugh ridiculously. Now I’m a little incazzata with him too, since he thinks this is so funny and thinks it’s ok for his friend to talk to me like this. He continues, “Sarah…Giovanni…Misunderstanding…Wasn’t coming…on to you…Just wants to….practice his English!”

“Practice his English?” I say, incredulously. Yeah right! What, was this some kind of conspiracy that most Italian men, including my friend Antonio, were in on? Preying on Italian-speaking foreign girls?

“Sì sì!” Giovanni nods furiously. “Just to practice my English, and for you to practice your Italian, not to….”

“Sarah,” Antonio puts his arm around me, partially for his own support and partially to comfort me, I guess. “In Italian we say ‘fare uno scambio di linga’. To do a language exchange. But you know that lingua also means tongue, and Giovanni just translated it wrong! He wasn’t hitting on you.”

Oh jeez.

Needless to say, all was forgiven and forgotten after this little “lost in translation” moment. I just wonder how many other foreign girls have been offered a “scambio di lingua” and have also taken it the wrong way!