GRAND VOYAGE ITALY
  • Piazza
    • Older Posts
  • Travel
    • Our Family's Voyage
  • Cucina
  • Culture
  • History
  • Style
  • Photos
  • Videos
    • Music Videos
  • About
    • Survey
    • Links
  • Shop 🛒
  • Piazza
    • Older Posts
  • Travel
    • Our Family's Voyage
  • Cucina
  • Culture
  • History
  • Style
  • Photos
  • Videos
    • Music Videos
  • About
    • Survey
    • Links
  • Shop 🛒
We're All About Italy

Culture

Killer Italian Shoes that Can Actually Maim a Flirt?

4/30/2025

Comments

 
Picture
I understand this was a long time ago, but really, stabbing someone for flirting? If the tipo actually puts his hands on the woman, perhaps. Puncture him all you want.

In reality, I've witnessed pappagalli (parrots or wolves) flirting with pretty ladies walking by in Rome and other Italian cities, and have found their comments are actually complimentary in nature, and because of their culture, can actually be fairly poetic...
  • "Sei così bella che mi fai dimenticare il mio nome". (You’re so beautiful, you make me forget my own name.)
  • "Complimenti alla mamma" (Compliments to your mother).
  • "Nel cielo manca un angelo?" (Is heaven missing an angel?)
  • "Dove sei stata/o tutta la mia vita?" (Where have you been all my life?).
  • "Hai una mappa? Continuo a perdermi nei tuoi occhi."  (Do you have a map? Because I keep getting lost in your eyes!)
  • "Come sei carina/o!" (How cute you are!)
  • "Questo vestito ti sta belissimo." (You look beautiful in this dress.)
  • "Il tuo sorriso è contagioso!" (Your smile is contagious.)
  • "Mi puoi incidere il tuo numero di telefono sul cuore?" (Can you engrave your telephone number on my heart?)
  • "Mi fai sciogliere come il gelato al sole." (You make me melt like ice cream in the sun.)

Flirting is part of life in Italy and it even has a poetic name: fare la civetta, which literally
means "to make like an owl", or as we might say, making googly eyes at a girl. 

When in Italy, young ladies have to keep this in mind: More so than American men, Italian single men--even into their Fifties--actually have a great respect for women. Many single Italian men are actually Mama's boys and traditionally live with their Mamma until they get married! 

No stabbing. Go easy on them. Va bene?

--Jerry Finzi

You might also be interested in:

Fare la Civetta: Flirting in Italy
Expressions of Love in Italian: Finding Love in Italy
Benefits of Kissing Like an Italian
Juliette's House in Verona: Phony! Fake! Falso!
Love Locks in Verona

Picture
Comments

A List of Italian Holidays

8/29/2019

Comments

 
Picture
Most Italians take a two week vacation (called Ferragosto on August 15th) either before or after August 15th. Most large industries are closed during August and many museums and restaurants might also be closed. Many people take the entire month to rest and relax before returning to work and school on September 4th.

The other period of time when holidays might affect normal business hours is the period between Christmas, New Year's Day and the Epiphany on January 6. Since Italy is a Catholic country, many national holidays coincide with religious holidays.
  • New Year’s Day: January 1
  • Epiphany: January 6
  • Easter Monday
  • Liberation Day: April 25
  • Labor Day: May 1
  • Republic Day: June 2
  • Assumption Day/Ferragosto - August 15
  • All Saints’ Day: November 1
  • Immaculate Conception: December 8
  • Christmas Day: 25 December
  • St. Stephen’s Day: 26 December

In addition, all Italian cities celebrate the patron saint as a legal holiday. All businesses are closed on...
  • St. John’s Day (June 24) in Florence and Genoa
  • St. Peter’s Day (June 29) in Rome
  • St. Rosalia’s Day (July 15) in Palermo
  • St. Gennaro’s Day (September 19) in Naples
  • St. Ambrogio’s Day (December 7) in Milan
You might also be interested in...
Idi di Marzo: The Ides of March, Ancient Roman New Year's Day
Out with the Old on New Year's Eve in Italy
May Day: Italy's Labor Day, la Festa dei Lavoratori
La Festa delle Donne - Celebrating Women in Italy!
Tradition of Ash Wednesday
How Italians Celebrate Easter


Comments

Oldest Woman in Europe is an Italian - Of Course!

3/11/2019

Comments

 
Picture
Nonna Peppa with one of her great-great granddaughters

Maria Giuseppa Robucci, better known as Nonna Peppa in Italy, is currently the oldest living person in Europe. Nonna Peppa has yet another birthday coming up... on March 20th she will turn 116!

This centenarian lives today in Apricena, Puglia with her daughter Filomena and her family. She was born in 1903 in nearby Poggio Imperiale where she married farmer Nicola Nargiso and bore five children, nine grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. She managed a local bar along with her husband for many years, is very religious and claims to have known Saint Padre Pio personally. For the last few years she holds the title of honorary mayor of Poggio Imperiale, making her the oldest mayor in Italy.

Her secret to longevity?  Nonna Peppa doesn't drink or smoke.

--GVI
Picture
Comments

La Festa delle Donne - Celebrating Women in Italy!

3/8/2019

Comments

 
Picture
Feminists, Rita Montagnana and Teresa Mattei

Today, March 8th, is International Women's Day and in Italy it's the time when mimosas are blossoming with their golden color. All across Italy women are presented lovingly with a bouquet of mimosa flowers to say "Thank you"... thank you for being Mama, that you for being my sister, thank you for being a great daughter, thank you for being a fantastic co-worker, or thank you for being a wonderful wife. March 8th is called La Festa delle Donne in Italy.

While in Italy the day has become almost like Mother's Day here in the States, the observance started in 1909 by the Socialist Party of America, and was held in New York City after a sweat shop factory burned to the ground, killing 145 workers--mostly young women who were underpaid and had to work in unsafe conditions. This event and the observance was the de facto birth of the modern Women's Movement. Sadly, in Italy and around the world, women are still struggling to achieve equal pay for equal work, among many other issues.
Picture
1946 Poster calling for the emancipation of women
The tradition of a gift of mimosas dates back to 1946 when the feminists, Rita Montagnana and Teresa Mattei, came up with the idea of women offering the bouquets as a symbol of mutual respect, sisterhood and support. Mimosa was one of the few flowers in bloom on the date. The Mimosa also represents strength and endurance, being a tough plant that can survive adverse conditions in Italy.
Picture
Torta di Mimosa
Oddly, being originally a Socialist observance, it seems that in Italy, the Festa delle Donne has been commercialized... another day where bouquets of Mimosa tied with yellow ribbons are sold in supermarkets, bars and tobacconists all over Italy. It's become expected that fathers, sons and husbands also give the flowers to the women in their lives. The commercialization of La Festa delle Donne has made it more like Mothers Day and might be losing some of its original meaning based on solidarity of women's issues. Even chocolate companies offer their dolci in yellow packaging. In some parts of Italy the Festa is celebrated on the closest Sunday to March 8th, and special events are held, such as a procession of mimosa decorated gondolas in Venice and a regatta for female rowers. .

--GVI
Picture
Picture
The commercialization of the Women's Movement in Italy
Picture
From Grand Voyage Italy to all Women... Auguri!
Support each other and keep up the fight for equality!

You might also be interested in...

A Tribute to my Italian Mother

Scolapasta: The "Dripping Pasta" My Mother Left Me
Anisette: My Mother's Cold Remedy
Tradition: Coins on the Windowsill on New Year's Eve


Comments

Italian Paintings: Embracing Nonna

7/1/2018

Comments

 
Picture
"Momento di Tenerezza", painting by Italian artist Gaetano Bellei (1857-1922).
Comments

Fare la Civetta: Flirting in Italy

8/23/2017

Comments

 
Picture
Watch just about any old movie filmed in Italy and more than likely they'll be flirting... especially the stereotype of an incorrigible flirt coming on to a woman. An old gent pursing his lips to his fingers letting a young girl know how tasty she looks, or a young regazzo following for a few steps on the street accosting a young lady with a flurry of metaphorical compliments, or it could be a supposed innocent young boy blurting out blatantly how great a woman's legs are.
Picture
Flirting is part of life in la Bel Paese. In fact, there is a special metaphor for it...
fare la civetta, which literally means "to make like an owl", or simply una civetta (an owl) meaning "flirt". The expression was first penned in 1494 when poet Poliziano used the word civettare to describe how a woman might attract a man, by cooing like an owl to attract her prey, and then silently pouncing on them with their sharp talons as their prey approaches.

In reality, Italian women do flirt more like an owl than men do. They are more subtle and less obvious than the screeching of regazze hawks. A young regazza will start to walk away from her prey, but then turn her head back slightly with a half smile and side glance, and then keep walking away.... Hooked.


Hair dangling over the eyes is another technique. Lowering her head and letting a few wisps of hair hide her admiring glance at a young man, but then flipping them back into place shows a guy she sees something she likes... Hooked.

Subtle and blatant at the same time, una giovane bellezza (a young beauty) may be sitting at a gelateria touching a spoonful of gelato to her lips, glance over at her targeted regazzo and slyly lick her lips, putting her spoon right back to the work of enjoying her confection... Hooked.
Picture
Sexy wink... definitely a flirt
Amazingly--but very Italian--there are many distinct variations in the way this word is used:
  • civetteria - anyone using tricky means to attract not only a mate, but any admirers.
  • civettare - to flirt, to woo.
  • civettino - an immature, precocious boy who boldly compliments an older woman.
  • civettina - an immature, innocent girl, using her coquettish charms to tease.
  • civettone - a crude jerk using foul language or hand motions while flirting.
  • civettuola - a woman who acts crudely, just like a civettone--a hussy.

The context matters, too. For instance, if someone says "Non andrai da nessuna parte con Adelina. È una vera civetta." (You won't get anywhere with Adelina. She's a real tease.") Most men stay clear of a tease once they become away of their game.

Curiously, there is even the giacca civetta (owl jacket). This is the second jacket a man leaves over the back his chair at work so the boss and co-workers think he is somewhere in the building... when in reality he is out of the office wearing his other jacket (metaphorically or otherwise) while fare la civetta.

Even more interesting, I recently discovered the expression Italians use for "bait and switch" when a company advertises one cheap product (the owl cooing) just to trick you into buying their more expensive one (the talons)... Produtto civetta!
Perhaps Italian men have gotten a bad reputation, mostly from stories of them pinching girls behinds or following aggressively down the street. In fact, Italian men are Mama's boys, very romantic and won't marry until they find l'angelo perfetto (the perfect angel), or one as worthy as Mama. Their flirting can also be very direct, but often in poetic praises:
"Hai degli occhi bellissimi." (You have beautiful eyes.)
"
Mi piace il modo in cui ridi" (I like the way you laugh).
"
Il tuo sorriso è davvero fantastico!" (Your smile is really awesome!)
"Ho visto che mi stavi guardando e ho pensato di venire qui a fare due chiacchiere."
(I saw you were looking at me and I thought I could come over and chat).
"Complimenti alla mamma." (My compliments to your mother).
"Nel cielo manca un angelo?" (Is heaven missing an angel?)
"Ti sei fatta male cadendo dal cielo?" (Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?)

In English these pick-up likes might sound corny... in Italian, just try to resist...

--Jerry Finzi
Picture
I've got you... You're MINE!
Comments

Under Construction... 

1/1/2017

Comments

 
Picture
Beginning in January, 2017, Grand Voyage Italy is undergoing a reconstruction: adding new pages, categories and moving older posts to more appropriate pages. If you can't find what you are looking for in this new Lifestyle page, use the Search Box to help find what you need. Grazie! 
Comments
    Picture

    On AMAZON:
    Culture and Traditions

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Architecture
    Arts & Crafts
    Cuisine
    Culture
    Daily Life
    Entertainment
    Expats
    Famiglia
    Fashion
    Festivals
    Genealogy
    HEALTH
    History
    Holidays
    Humor
    Immigration
    La Donna
    Language
    L'Uomo
    Nature
    Religion
    Romance
    Shopping
    Slow Italy
    Traditions
    Travel

    Archives

    March 2025
    April 2024
    January 2024
    October 2022
    June 2021
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    August 2016

    RSS Feed

    Books on AMAZON:
    Raised Italian American

    Picture
Copyright 2014 - 2024 by GrandVoyageItaly.com
Picture
  • Piazza
    • Older Posts
  • Travel
    • Our Family's Voyage
  • Cucina
  • Culture
  • History
  • Style
  • Photos
  • Videos
    • Music Videos
  • About
    • Survey
    • Links
  • Shop 🛒