While traveling, I always hear cute sayings (mostly cute if you're the one saying them), and figures of speech that don't translate neatly - both really enhance the spoken language. A simple and familiar one is "non fai mi fare una brutta figura" - don't embarrass me, or don't make me look bad. What's your favorite?

In Trentino dialect, it's common to say, 'sa fente, nente o stente?

(cosa facciamo, andiamo da qualche parte o stiamo qui?)

I love the sound of it and whenever I say it in a crowd of Trentini they all look at me with shocked expressions as if to say, "YOU SPEAK DIALECT?".... I quickly explain that it is one of the few things I know how to say... but love the compliment anyway

haha yeah i used to love to say things in dialect cuz everyone would get so excited that i knew some of it.

my favorites were "fore te capu!" which translated into american slang would be like sweet or freakin' awesome.
also Cc'e' 'Gge?! (pronounced c'e buei) which means what do you want?! also mena meh! which means hurry up! haha i actually thought it was italian and i went to rome and told some one that and they got all confused and i couldn't figure out why they couldn't understand. and finally A du sta' bbai? which means where are you going?

Not a regional saying, but an archtypical bit of Fiorintino accent which I enjoy, to go in a cafe and order "una hocha holla con la hannuccia" (a coke with a straw).
Make the "h" very nasal, since when you laugh the coke goes up your nose :-)

Hocha holla - that's so funny. My language teacher likes to say that, too!

also, an innkeeper in Florence once recited to me:

'Meglio avere in famiglia una morta
invece di un pisano alla porta" - A death in the family is better than a Pisan at your door

I guess this dates back to the regional rivalry between Florence and Pisa.

oh one that threw me off when i first heard it was in boca al lupo. someone told me that before my basketball game and i thought they were telling me that we were going to get killed because we were going into the wolf's mouth (i equated that with going into the lions den) i still don't really understand how it means good luck but i guess it isn't supposed to make sense, kinda like break a leg i guess.

There are several different "meglio un... che un... alla porta" one of them is: meglio un morto in casa che un marchigiano all'uscio (uscio also meaning door). Better a death in the family than a person from Le Marche at the door. This dates back to when people collecting taxes and debts for the Pope (that owned all Central Italy) where mostly from Le Marche!

Come si dice, colloquially, "That's a riot!"

quote:

'Meglio avere in famiglia una morta
invece di un pisano alla porta" - A death in the family is better than a Pisan at your door

Last winter I was walking to the train, to head to Pisa for dinner with friends. Bumped into another friend, who asked where I was going. I told him, then I said "Meglio in casa del un pisano che un morto alla porta". He broke up laughing.
(better in the house of a Pisan than a dead body at your door).

Bravo!

quote:

oh one that threw me off when i first heard it was in boca al lupo

I just finished reading (pats self on back ) "Il Nuovo Venuto", a giallo (Italian police novel) by Marco Vichi. The protagonist, Commissario Bordelli, uses that expression all the time. Along with some others that are rather too graphic for posting here. I just have to say that I learned the names for a lot of body parts and professions.

M

I'd love a few Sicilian expressions for our trip in Oct.

One of my favorite is "Se la mia mama la gh'aveva i roeudd l'era un tranvai" (If my mother had wheel she would have been a tram) to mean that something is impossible. Also, "stess culur ma bleö" (same color, just blue), which means "something compeltely different". Finally "se l'è minga süpa l'è pan bagnàa" (if it's not soup that's wet bread), which means "it's the same thing" (Milanese soup is always made with bread soaked in vegetables stock).

That's funny Alice, because there is an expression here "If I had wheels, I'd be a trolley car". Haven't heard it in a while, so maybe it's out of date.

M

quote:

"una hocha holla con la hannuccia"

My family says "Una hoha hola haldo haldo, hon una hanuhia horta horta", a warm coke with a short straw.

I wanna go back, back, back to Florence to try that one out!

hanuhia? hannucha you mean!

You know, the Pisans have invented a quite rude answer for that saying:

Che Dio t'accontenti
May God make fulfill your wish (not sure if it is the right transaltion).

Very common at the stadium!!!