Viavai (masculine, plural: viavai) is the word Italians use to talk about the busy movement of many people or things, especially in and out of a place. In English, possible translations include coming(s) and going(s), bustle and to and fro.
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Viavai is made up of two words: via (the word for road or street) and vai (the second person singular of the verb andare ‘to go‘).
Nella piazza c’era un gran viavai di persone.
In the square there was a great coming and going of people.
Important: Viavai should always be written as one word, never as two separate words (via vai).
In mechanical terms, viavai denotes the reciprocating (up and down or back and forth) motion found in a wide range of mechanisms, including pistons and spools.
A less common synonym for viavai is andirivieni which is composed of the two verbs andare (to go) and venire (to come). Some other synonyms include:
- traffico = traffic, bustle, congestion
- passaggio = passage
- movimento = movement, bustle, activity
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
