Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

For members

ITALIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Italian expression of the day: ‘Fare il ponte’

Are you 'doing the bridge' in Italy this week?

Published: 18 April 2019 19:22 CEST
Updated: 24 April 2023 11:58 CEST

Italian expression of the day: 'Fare il ponte'

Photo: DepositPhotos

Italy’s public holidays often fall in the middle of the week – and this gives rise to the popular Italian practice of ‘doing the bridge’.

Many people fare il ponte or ‘do the bridge’ to create a long weekend when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday, as it does this year with Liberation Day (la Festa della Resistenza) on April 24th.

READ ALSO: Calendar: How to make the most of Italy’s public holidays in 2023

While some countries, for instance the UK, shifts the date of its public holidays to ensure they’re always on a Monday, Italy lets them fall whichever day of the week they come.

That’s a bummer when they fall on a weekend, but a bonus whenever they’re on a weekday.

What to do if your Republic Day or Ferragosto ends up on a Tuesday or Thursday? Of course you’re not going to work one day and be off the next – that’s just silly.

The civilised thing to do instead, naturally, is ‘make a bridge’ between your day off and the weekend, by taking that troublesome Monday or Friday off.

Grazie al ponte, avremo quattro giorni di vacanza.
Thanks to the long weekend, we’ll have four days off.

Abbiamo fatto un ponte di tre giorni.
We took three days off.

Avete progetti per il ponte?
Any plans for the long weekend?

If the holiday happens to fall on a Wednesday, even better – just do the pontone (big bridge), and take two days off – or the whole week.

Italy’s Labour Day (Festa dei Lavoratori) this year is on a Monday, so even though that doesn’t necessarily make for an ideal bridge, you could take the Friday or Tuesday off and have a four-day mini break for the price of one day’s holiday. Not too shabby.

Do you have a favourite Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.

Member comments

Anonymous - 2 June 2021 at 12:37 CEST

I think the Local content is excellent. But the subscription software/system is very clunky. Could do better.
Anonymous - 8 January 2022 at 10:46 CET

Same in Spain, it’s “el puente” and there are lots of them.

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Italian word of the day: Metà vs mezzo

It’s often the case in Italy that you’ll find several words that mean something very similar, and it’s not always easy to know which one is appropriate. Our new mini series looks at some of the most common word pairs, and sorts out which should be used and when.

Why do I need to know the difference between metà and mezzo?

Because you’ll need to use both of them in daily conversation if you live in Italy, but the difference in meaning isn’t always clear.

What’s the difference?

When you want to talk about ‘half’ of something in Italian, it may seem as though you have two choices.

Depending on what you’re talking about, you could reach for either metà or mezzo (or mezza, which we’ll come to later) but many language learners say they’re not always sure which one to use in certain situations.

Put simply, the difference between metà and mezzo is much the same as the difference between ‘half’ and ‘middle’ in English.

Metà: a half, as in one of two equal parts of something.

Mezzo: the middle, as in equally distant from two points.

For example:

Ha mangiato metà torta

He ate half of the cake

Facciamo a metà

Let’s split it (in half)

E’ sdraiato in mezzo alla strada

He’s lying in the middle of the street

Non penso che ti dovrebbe mettere in mezzo

I don’t think she should be putting you in the middle of this

READ ALSO: Come stai vs come va

But is anything in Italian ever really that simple?

There are some specific situations where the two words seem to be used interchangeably, or where it’s not clear why one is typically used and not the other.

Confusion arises particularly around telling the time in Italian, as you could say:

Sono le undici e mezzo

It’s half past eleven

Il mio treno arriva alle 5.40: vediamoci dieci minuti prima, alla mezza.

My train arrives at 5.40: let’s meet ten minutes before, at half past.

Why in this case aren’t we using metà for ‘half’? And why is it sometimes mezza rather than mezzo?

The English ‘half past’ doesn’t translate literally into Italian. Mezzo is used here instead, since we’re talking about the ‘middle of’ the hour, the point equally distant between two hours.

This might take some getting used to for English native speakers, but it is pretty logical.

As for why it’s mezza in the second example, this isn’t because it needs to agree with the gender of the noun in the sentence.

In fact, dictionaries tell us it’s always more correct to use mezzo regardless (although many Italians themselves find this rule confusing.)

But, in this case, as the language guardians at Italy’s Accademia della Crusca explain, mezza may (if you prefer) be used instead of mezzo when we already know the time, or at least the hour, being talked about.

So if you had earlier told someone an event would start at 8pm, but it’s now been delayed by half an hour, you could then say:

Comincerà alle otto e mezza

But if you’re inviting someone for the first time, you’d probably stick to:

Alle otto e mezzo

This can be a lot to remember when you’re in the middle of a conversation, but with practice you’ll soon get a feel for which word sounds right in which context.

Do you have an Italian word you’d like us to feature? If so, please email us with your suggestion.

Make sure you don’t miss any of our Italian words and expressions of the day: download our new app (available on Apple and Android) and then selecting the Italian Word of the Day in your Notification options via the User button.

Url copied to clipboard!