Ways of saying Florence: or speak as a Florentine!

While we have already blogged about the hurdles of Italian pronunciation on a previous It’s Florence! post, today we want to give you an idea about some ways of saying that are peculiar of the city.

If you have even just a bit of Italian, with this post you will blend in much better, and, anyway, some of these Ways of Saying Florence… way! 😉

Ways of saying Florence: unlocked!

Icché

With its pretty rough “eekkeh” pronunciation, Icché is a word that is used a lot in Florence. It means “what”.

Vien Via!

Literally: “come away”. Another very popular Florentine way of saying, actually a meaningless interjection used in the meaning of “that’s enough”. A not so gentle invitation to not reply…

Ma che sei grullo?!

It means: “are you mad / insane?”. “Grullo” (pronunciation as in groolloh) etymology is uncertain, but it should originally mean goose: not the smartest animal in the farm… 😉

Uscio e bottega

Literally “door and shop”. This way of saying means that two different places are close each other, so it is easy to move between the two of them. The origin of “uscio e bottega” goes back to Middle Ages, when a shop was also the house of the owner: no commuting at all…

Essere alle porte co’ sassi

Literally “being at the gates with stones”. It means being late. Also this way of saying go back to Middle Ages: Florence had walls, of course, and at night the gates of the walls were closed. People who were late outside used to throw stones to the gates, to attract the guards attention and have them not closing the doors.