2023-06-24 08:44:18
School’s officially out in Italy, and the countdown is on till everyone else can put on their Out of Office or hang up their work gear and head to the beach.
Or perhaps you’ve decided to take your holiday a little early this year to beat the crowds, and are already sipping on a spritz by a quiet poolside, congratulating yourself on your timing.
Either way, if you’re spending the summer in Italy, there’s some indispensable vocabulary you’ll want to make sure you add to your repertoire. Let’s get started.
It’s hot!
One of the first things you’ll want to do when it starts to get hot in Italy is comment on the situation – as a conversation starter, or simply in the course of muttering to yourself – and for that you’ll need the phrase it’s hot.
It means ‘it’s hot’, but as fa is from faremeaning ‘to make’, it literally translates as ‘it (the weather) makes hot’.
READ ALSO: Fried eggs and sweaty underpants: 10 phrases for complaining about the heat like an Italian
If you find yourself getting confused by how much heat sounds like ‘cold’, just think of a boiling cauldronron – the words have the same root.
Afa
The reason why Italian summers feel so hot isn’t just because of the high temperatures, but the off-the-charts humidity.
There’s a word for that stifling, oppressive, muggy heat: afa. There’s not really a direct translation in English, perhaps because this kind of weather doesn’t exist in most of the places where anglophones tend to live.
If you’re around in Italy during a heatwave, you’ll want the word heatwave. It comes from Latin, referring to the ‘dog days of summer’ (cani = dogs), the hottest period of the year.
Holiday
Head to any Italian city in August and you’ll see hand-scrawled closed for holiday – ‘closed for the holidays’ – signs pasted onto shuttered shopfronts and cafes everywhere.
Most of Italy’s urban centres effectively shut down for the warmest month of the year so their inhabitants can go to the mountains or sea and escape the suffocating heat.
READ ALSO: Ferragosto: Why the long August holidays are untouchable for Italians
The height of the holiday is August 15th, or Mid-August – a summer festival that dates all the way back to Roman times. If it falls mid-week, expect the few Italians still at work to make the bridge – ‘make the bridge’ – by making a long weekend of it.
Beach
Once you’ve put up your (physical or email) closed for holiday sign, it’s time to hightail it out of the city and in all likelihood head straight down to the beachthe beach.
More than half of Italy’s coastline is privatisedso you’ll need to decide whether you want to fork out for an Beach umbrella (beach umbrella) and cot (sunbed) at a beach club, or find a stretch of sand (sand) where you can set down your towel for free.
READ ALSO: REVEALED: The Italian beaches you might want to avoid this summer
Guitgia beach on the island of Lampedusa. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP)
Once you’re installed in your accommodation and have found your spot on the beach, you can enjoy some sea – enjoy a little bit of sea, as Italians say. Just be prepared to share the beach with most of the rest of Italy if you go during August.
Summer catchphrase
Turn on the car radio on your drive down to the beach – or simply enter a cafe – and you can expect to hear the same song playing over and over until you find yourself involuntarily singing it, even when you don’t know what all the words mean.
READ ALSO: What to expect when travelling to Italy in summer 2023
Every country has its summer hit, and Italy is no exception – only here, it’s known as the summer catchphrase.
A catchphrase loosely translates as something like an earworm, but literally means a ‘big torment’, which pretty much tells you everything you need to know. Here’s hoping the ‘big torment’ of this year’s summer is something worth listening to – because we all will be, again and again.
Get a tan
Aside from the health benefits of soaking up a bit of sun, a key objective of many of those heading to the beach in Italy is to get a tan – to get a tan or tan oneself.
You are tanned! – you’re tanned! – is one of the highest compliments you can pay an Italian (Very tannedwhich translates as something like ‘Super-tanned girl’, is a famous Edoardo Vianello song released in 1963, and was presumably the summer catchphrase of that year).
Of course, you’ll want to make sure your tan doesn’t turn into a sunburn – a sunburn – so you’ll need to slap on plenty of sunscreen (sun screen) before stretching out under the sun.
Dive
When the sun’s rays get too hot to handle, it’s time to dive – ‘take a dip’ in the ocean (or lake, or swimming pool).
If getting into the water isn’t your thing, you might prefer to take a boat trip – go on a boat trip, which is a popular activity particularly in areas surrounded by small islands, as you can spend the day (or week) island-hopping.
READ ALSO: Nine unmistakable signs that summer has arrived in Italy
Just make sure to take your antiemetic drugsor anti-sickness pills, if you suffer from seasickness (seasickness).
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