Italian Language Quotes

“L'italiano sembra già dentro di me e, al tempo stesso, del tutto esterno. Non sembra una lingua straniera, benché io sappia che lo è. Sembra, per quanto possa apparire strano, familiare. Riconosco qualche cosa, nonostante non capisca quasi nulla. Cosa riconosco? È bella, certo, ma non c'entra la bellezza. Sembra una lingua con cui devo avere una relazione. Sembra una persona che incontro un giorno per caso, con cui sento subito un legame, un affetto. Come se la conoscessi da anni, anche se c'è ancora tutto da scoprire. So che sarei insoddisfatta, incompleta, se non la imparassi.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words

“Dopo aver trascorso un anno a Roma torno per un mese in America. Lì, subito, sento la mancanza dell'italiano. Non poterlo parlare e ascoltare ogni giorno mi angoscia. Quando vado nei ristoranti, nei negozi, in spiaggia, m'infastidisco: come mai la gente non parla italiano? Provo un sentimento di nostalgia struggente.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri

“Non capisci una fava."
Celina lifted her chin to him. "Tu sei una fava," she shot back. He was the one who didn't know anything.”
― Jan Moran, The Chocolatier

“In another culture, Giuliano Marcolini might have been described as fat: Italians, however, graced with a language from which euphemism springs with endless sympathy, would describe him as 'robusto'.”
― Donna Leon, Suffer the Little Children

“The giuggiole, or jujube fruit, resembles an olive and tastes, at first, like a woody apple. After withering off the vine, it takes on a sweeter flavor, closer to a honeyed fig. Among the medieval elite, the fruit was so popular that it gave birth to an idiom: "andare in brodo di giuggiole"--- "To go in jujube broth"--- defined in one of the earliest Italian phrase books as living in a state of bliss. Every fall, the handful of families that still cultivate the fruit in the village gather in medieval garb to celebrate the jujube and feast on the fine liquors, jams, and blissful sweet broth they create from it.
Italy is full of places like Arquà Petrarca. Microclimates and artisanal techniques become the basis for obscure local specialties celebrated in elaborate festivals from Trapani to Trieste. In Mezzago, outside Milan, its rare pink asparagus, turned red by soil rich in iron and limited sunlight. Sicily has its Avola almonds and peculiar blood-red oranges, which gain their deep color on the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna. Calabria has 'nduja sausage and the Diamante citron, central to the Jewish feast of Sukkot.”
― Mark Bittman, The Best American Food Writing 2023: Eye-Opening Essays on Culture, Inequality, and Justice

“REGISTRO DEGLI INCANTESIMI MARINI

REGISTER OF INCANTATIONS PRACTICED BY THE STREGHE, OR SEA WITCHES, OF AMALFI

incantesimo di riflusso An incantation to urge water away (ebb). Attrezzo:a belemnite fossil.
incantesimo di flusso An incantation to draw water forth (flow). Attrezzo: a mother-of-pearl shell.
incantesimo divinatorio An incantation to discern the location of items in the water. Attrezzo: a strand of six sea-derived hagstones.
incantesimo raffreddare An incantation to lower the temperature of the water via a cold-water column. Attrezzo: a dried Chondrichthyes eggsack, or "mermaid's purse."
incantesimo dell'elemento An incantation to alter the composition of the water. Attrezzo: a fossilized sawfish snout, or "mermaid's comb."
incantesimo vorticeAn incantation to conjure a maelstrom or whirlpool. No attrezzo required.
vortice centuriaria An incantation to conjure a powerful maelstrom or whirlpool enduring for one hundred years. No attrezzo required, but the strega must remove her protective cimaruta necklace to perform this incantation.”
― Sarah Penner, The Amalfi Curse