Metterci una pietra sopra is an Italian expression meaning to definitively put an unpleasant matter or argument, or to put a painful memory to rest. The imagery is pretty clear – by placing a stone on top of something, it becomes impossible to see and easy to forget. In many ways, it is similar to …
If, in English, you want to say that somebody’s house, a shop or a restaurant is very close to where you live, you can rely on the very useful expression “a stone’s throw away” or “within a stone’s throw.” In Italian, there is a very similar expression that replaces stones with muskets. Let’s discover it …
Bando alle ciance is a wonderfully evocative, albeit somewhat old-fashioned Italian expression meaning either “enough chatter” or “stop the small talk”. As you can imagine, it is used to cut short unnecessary talking, nonsense, or gossip, so as to shift focus immediately to the main topic. bando alle ciance enough chatter / stop the small …
Whenever someone asks me how to say “to tease” or “to take the mickey” in Italian, my first instinct is to teach them the expression prendere in giro, simply because it is the most commonly used translation. Those who wish to amplify their vocabulary, however, may be interested in a similar expression which replaces giro …
When we want to describe something that ends in an exciting, impressive, successful or spectacular manner, we can use the following expressions in English: In Italian, every single one of these expressions can be encapsulated by chiudere in bellezza, which literally translates as “to close in beauty”. An alternative expression is finire in bellezza, which …
In Italian, if you want to say that something is easy to do, you might say è facile / semplice (it’s easy), è molto facile / semplice (it’s very easy), or è facilissimo / semplicissimo (it’s very easy). All these expressions are just fine, but if you want to go for something a bit more …