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After many years here in Italy, you'd think we'd understand all the signs we see. But alas that is not the case. Here are eight more signs we were either stumped by totally, didn't understand or in one case liked the words used.
ATTENZIONE! PASSAGGIO PEDONALE A SENSO ALTERNATO
“Caution! Alternating (one-way) pedestrian walkway.”
It’s on a street blocked for traffic but allowing pedestrians to pass. The pedestrian area is narrow, and the idea is that you might have to (should?) wait if you see pedestrians coming the other way. We put the “one-way” in parentheses because it is implied but not in the original phrase.
P.P. | P.C.
“Private property | driveway”
Italians love acronyms. It took way too long to figure out that P.C. means passo carraio or more often written out fully as carrabile, which means “driveway”. Carraio is an adjective meaning “for cars”.
This "sign" was spotted outside a residential building where someone felt the need to distinguish between these two categories. Maybe it's a right of way spat? At first, we thought P.C. meant common property as in proprietà comunale in parallel with P.P. for proprietà privata.
SERVIZIO DI FORATURA DELLE ORECCHIE
“Ear-piercing.”
Foratura = the act of making a hole or puncture
Foro = hole, puncture, from the verb forare
Buco = hole, keyhole
“Caution! Alternating (one-way) pedestrian walkway.”
It’s on a street blocked for traffic but allowing pedestrians to pass. The pedestrian area is narrow, and the idea is that you might have to (should?) wait if you see pedestrians coming the other way. We put the “one-way” in parentheses because it is implied but not in the original phrase.
AREA A SFALCIO RIDOTTO
“Reduced mowing area.”
We saw this sign on the base of the Bergamo walls along via delle Tre Armi. The sign talks about the benefits of reduced mowing in parks or public spaces. In areas where the grass is intentionally kept longer there are environmental benefits such as increased biodiversity, better absorption of water in the ground, and reduced energy to keep the grass short.
sfalcio is a swath or line of mowed crops (or grass in this case). a sfalcio refers to the action take on the grass, mowing.
E’ ADIBITA ESCLUSIVAMENTE ALL’ABBEVERAMENTO DEL BESTIAME
“It (the pool) is used exclusively for livestock watering.”
The word that caught my eye was ADIBITA because I never saw it before. Adibire means to “assign or designate”. From there, we went down a rabbit hole:
Abbeverare = to provide water for
Abbeveratoio = watering trough
Abbeveraggio = watering livestock, used in legal sense
Abbeveramento = the act of watering livestock (or is it livestock watering?)
We saw this sign on A Hike from Botta di Sedrina to Canto Alto. We wished we had just walked on by.
GLI ANFIBI
“The amphibians.”
Singular is anfibio and plural drops the letter O. Here’s a case where the Italian word for something is shorter than the English word. We also saw this sign on A Hike from Botta di Sedrina to Canto Alto.
PESCA PRENDI E MOLLA
“Catch and release.”
We had a Sunday lunch recently in the province of Parma at Trattoria Laghi Verdi, sitting as you might have guessed from the name on “green lakes” (more like ponds). These lakes look to have been artificially created and perfect for catfish, or in Italian pesce gatto, the specialty of the trattoria. We saw this sign on the edge of one of the lakes.
Prendi comes from the verb prendere and molla from the verb mollare. What we can’t decide is if this is an informal command (prendi/molla) or a crystallized phrase that doesn’t have anything to do with imperatives. Four simple words but endless questions.
“Reduced mowing area.”
We saw this sign on the base of the Bergamo walls along via delle Tre Armi. The sign talks about the benefits of reduced mowing in parks or public spaces. In areas where the grass is intentionally kept longer there are environmental benefits such as increased biodiversity, better absorption of water in the ground, and reduced energy to keep the grass short.
sfalcio is a swath or line of mowed crops (or grass in this case). a sfalcio refers to the action take on the grass, mowing.
E’ ADIBITA ESCLUSIVAMENTE ALL’ABBEVERAMENTO DEL BESTIAME
“It (the pool) is used exclusively for livestock watering.”
The word that caught my eye was ADIBITA because I never saw it before. Adibire means to “assign or designate”. From there, we went down a rabbit hole:
Abbeverare = to provide water for
Abbeveratoio = watering trough
Abbeveraggio = watering livestock, used in legal sense
Abbeveramento = the act of watering livestock (or is it livestock watering?)
We saw this sign on A Hike from Botta di Sedrina to Canto Alto. We wished we had just walked on by.
GLI ANFIBI
“The amphibians.”
Singular is anfibio and plural drops the letter O. Here’s a case where the Italian word for something is shorter than the English word. We also saw this sign on A Hike from Botta di Sedrina to Canto Alto.
PESCA PRENDI E MOLLA
“Catch and release.”
We had a Sunday lunch recently in the province of Parma at Trattoria Laghi Verdi, sitting as you might have guessed from the name on “green lakes” (more like ponds). These lakes look to have been artificially created and perfect for catfish, or in Italian pesce gatto, the specialty of the trattoria. We saw this sign on the edge of one of the lakes.
Prendi comes from the verb prendere and molla from the verb mollare. What we can’t decide is if this is an informal command (prendi/molla) or a crystallized phrase that doesn’t have anything to do with imperatives. Four simple words but endless questions.
P.P. | P.C.
“Private property | driveway”
Italians love acronyms. It took way too long to figure out that P.C. means passo carraio or more often written out fully as carrabile, which means “driveway”. Carraio is an adjective meaning “for cars”.
This "sign" was spotted outside a residential building where someone felt the need to distinguish between these two categories. Maybe it's a right of way spat? At first, we thought P.C. meant common property as in proprietà comunale in parallel with P.P. for proprietà privata.
SERVIZIO DI FORATURA DELLE ORECCHIE
“Ear-piercing.”
Foratura = the act of making a hole or puncture
Foro = hole, puncture, from the verb forare
Buco = hole, keyhole
CHE SI SCIOGLIE IN BOCCA
“That melts in your mouth”
PORCOBRADO is a brand of pork. The name plays with the idea of wild or untamed brado and pork porco. This sign was seen in a supermarket where you could buy a sandwich made with this pork. We were intrigued by the phrase “CHE SI SCIOGLIE IN BOCCA” and thinking about how it should be pronounced with one of those deep resonant radio voices. Sciogliere is the verb to melt.
“That melts in your mouth”
PORCOBRADO is a brand of pork. The name plays with the idea of wild or untamed brado and pork porco. This sign was seen in a supermarket where you could buy a sandwich made with this pork. We were intrigued by the phrase “CHE SI SCIOGLIE IN BOCCA” and thinking about how it should be pronounced with one of those deep resonant radio voices. Sciogliere is the verb to melt.
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