Linguistic faux pas to avoid in Italy

Traveling overseas has many traps for the unwary. One is making unintended cultural and language faux pas. Let me illustrate.

Faux Pas #1 – Vecchio, anziano and antico. They all mean old so which one do you use and when? Up until now I’ve been using vecchio to describe old Lecce. While technically correct it turns out to be a bit of an insult. You see vecchio doesn’t just mean old, it means old, run down and crappy and can be used for people as well. I should have used antico which means antique or historically old while anziani is used to simply mean old and nothing more.

Faux Pas #2 – Finocchio. Finocchio means fennel. It is also a slang pejorative for gay or homosexual. Our closest equivalent is the “p” word. So describing a young fennel bulb as cool, aromatic, firm in the mouth and delicious when drizzled with olive oil, could either endear you to the cook or get you a completely different result altogether depending on your inclinations and the company you keep.

Faux Pas #3 – Piselli or Pisello.  What is it with Italians, food and sexual euphemisms? Piselli is plural and is the Italian word for peas. Pisello is singular and should mean one pea but no. It's actually slang for small penis. So Silvio Berlusconi ha piselli means Silvio Berlusconi has peas, while Silvio Berlusconi ha un pisello means Silvio Berlusconi has a small...You get the picture or maybe you would rather not!.