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HEALTH

Covid-19: The essential Italian you need to know for getting tested and vaccinated

By now it's likely you've learned some vocab related to Covid, viruses and vaccinations. But what if you start experiencing symptoms or are called up for your jab? Here are the phrases to help you navigate your medical care in Italian.

Published: 17 March 2021 14:22 CET
Updated: 13 May 2021 09:31 CEST
Covid-19: The essential Italian you need to know for getting tested and vaccinated
Photo by Marco Bertorello / AFP

Being in hospital for any reason is a stressful situation and even more so if you’re not totally sure what your doctor or nurse is saying to you.

It can be difficult to find English-speaking doctors in Italy, even in the bigger cities, so it’s good to be prepared and brush up on your language skills to make the whole experience a little smoother.

Covid-19 vaccination phrases:

When it’s your turn to get your vaccination, here’s the language you may need to use:

Il vaccino – the vaccine

Quale vaccino mi farete?/Quale vaccino avró? – Which vaccine will I get?

Potrei avere una reazione allergica? – Could I have an allergic reaction?

Quali sono gli effeti collaterali? – What are the side effects?

Quando avró la seconda dose? – When will I have my second dose?

Come mi contatterete? – How are you going to get in touch with me?

Posso scegliere su quale braccio fare il vaccino? – Can I choose which arm to get the vaccine on?

Essential vocabulary for symptoms:

If you think you may have caught Covid, here are some phrases that will allow you to express your symptoms and get checked out.

Sospetto/penso di avere il Covid – I suspect I have Covid

Devo andare in ospedale? – Do I have to go the hospital?

Devo andare/stare in isolamento mentre aspetto i risultati? – Do I have to self-isolate while I wait for the results?

Vorrei prendere un appuntamento – I would like to make an appointment

Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

Mi fa male qui – It hurts here

Ho la febbre – I have a fever

Mi gira la testa – I feel dizzy

Ho la tosse secca – I have a dry cough

Ho perso il gusto/l’olfatto – I’ve lost my sense of taste/smell

Ho difficoltà a respirare/Faccio fatica a respirare – I’m having difficulty breathing

Ho la nausea e ho vomitato – I am feeling nauseated and have vomited

Ho male allo stomaco/Ho male alla pancia – I’ve got stomach ache/I’ve got tummy ache (belly area)

Ho la diarrea – I’ve got diarrhoea 

Medical tests:

You may need to undergo some tests to check if you’re positive or negative for Covid. The following shows the vocabulary you’ll need to understand the various tests your doctor may mention.

La PCR – PCR test

Il test antigenico – antigen test

Analisi del sangue – Blood test

Analisi delle urine – Urine test

Raggi-X/Radiografia – X-ray

Quando arrivano i risultati? – When will the results come back?

Photo by Fred SCHEIBER / AFP

What the doctor might ask or tell you:

Sei venuto a contatto con persone positive al Covid? –  Have you come into contact with a person who’s tested positive for Covid?

Sei venuto a contatto con altre persone?  – Have you come into contact with other people?

Dove fa male? – Where does it hurt?

Da quando hai questi sintomi? – Since when have you had these symptoms?

È la prima volte che ti succede? – Is this the first time it’s happened?

Devi venire a stomaco vuoto/a digiuno – You need to come with an empty stomach/without eating

There are certain tests, particularly blood tests, for which you need to skip your meals that day. Your doctor may ask you to come digiuno, or ‘on an empty stomach’.

Hai allergie? – Do you have allergies?

Dobbiamo fare qualche test – We have to run some tests

Sei risultato positivo/negativo al Covid – You have tested positive/negative for Covid

Devi stare a casa per 14 giorni e non puoi entrare a contatto con le persone con cui vivi – You have to stay at home for 14 days and you can’t come into contact with the people you live with

Dobbiamo portarti in ospedale/Terapia Intensiva – We have to admit you to hospital/the ICU

Hopefully you won’t need some of these phrases, but knowing the language you may need is half the fight to keeping calm through these processes.

Member comments

  1. Could you provide more information on how someone who does not participate in ASL can get vaccinated? The conventional procedure — making the reservation — involves one’s tessera sanitaria, and one cannot finalize the online application without this information. Thank you.

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For members

LEARNING ITALIAN

The key Italian vocabulary you’ll need for a doctor’s visit

Seeing a doctor can be a challenging experience if you’re new to the Italian healthcare system, but possibly even more so if your 'dottore' doesn't have a good command of English.

Published: 17 April 2024 12:16 CEST
The key Italian vocabulary you’ll need for a doctor’s visit

Seeing a doctor is usually seen as a fairly uncomplicated task but everything gets a little harder when you’re in a new country, and Italy is really no exception as its healthcare system can be fairly tricky to navigate at first.

Additionally, not all Italian doctors are competent and confident English speakers, which means that their vocabulary may not be enough to cover the full extent of medical terms and procedures involved in an ordinary visit and they may naturally switch to talking to you in their native tongue when asking questions or providing information. 

As such, having some handy vocabulary under your belt can be a big help when trying to bridge any language gaps during your first appointments.

Making an appointment

In order to get an appointment (visita) with a public general practitioner (medico di base), you must be registered with the Italian national healthcare system (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, or SSN) and hold an Italian health card (tessera sanitaria).

READ ALSO: Italian healthcare: Should you switch from public to private insurance?

Further, while in some countries you may call the local clinic (ambulatorio) and book an appointment with any doctor on duty, that is not how things usually work in Italy.

In order to see an Italian GP, you must be under the care of that particular doctor. Info on how to register with one of the professionals operating in the area covered by your local health authority (Azienda Sanitaria Locale, ASL) can be found here.

Doctor speaking on the phone

A doctor speaks on the phone while inside his office. Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP

Once you’ve registered with a GP, you can go ahead and book your first appointment. You can generally do so via phone, email or, in some cases, online.

When booking by email or phone, you may be given an overview of the doctor’s office hours (orari di apertura) and asked what day (giorno) and time (ora) you’d like to schedule the appointment (fissare la visita). Should you need to reschedule the appointment later on, you could ask: Sarebbe possibile spostare la visita?

Remember: if you’re in need of an urgent appointment, you can ask to see a doctor from Italy’s Guardia Medica, a medical care centre that operates outside of GPs’ normal working hours and on weekends, or visit your local hospital’s ER (pronto soccorso).

Seeing your doctor

Though they provide patients with a set appointment time, Italian clinics tend to run a little late, so you may have to wait for your turn in the waiting room (sala d’attesa).

Also, new patients are usually handed a form (modulo) to fill out with general information about themselves and their overall health (stato di salute) just before their first appointment. 

Once you’re in their office (ufficio), your doctor (dottore for a man and dottoressa for a woman) will enquire about the reasons behind your visit. 

If you’re there for a routine checkup, you could say that you’re visiting for a simple controllo. But if you’re there for any type of health problem, you’ll likely be asked what your symptoms (sintomi) are. 

You may have fairly common symptoms – for instance, a cough (tosse), a sore throat (mal di gola), fever (febbre) or headache (mal di testa).

READ ALSO: Coughs, colds and flu: What to say and do if you fall sick in Italy

But if you don’t really know what you have or don’t exactly know how to describe it in Italian, don’t worry: you can just indicate where the pain is coming from by saying mi fa male followed by the part of your body that’s aching (stomach, or stomaco, abdomen, or addome, chest, or petto, etc.).

Doctor speaking with patient inside his office

A doctor speaks with one of his patients inside his office. Photo by PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP

At this point, your doctor may ask you further questions on the type of pain you’re feeling – for instance, whether you have a throbbing (pulsante) or stabbing (lancinante) pain – and ask you to lie down (stendersi) or sit (sedersi) on their table (lettino) to perform a physical examination. 

Among other things, the doctor might measure your heart rate (battito cardiaco) and blood pressure (pressione sanguigna), look in your throat or ears with a torch, or listen to your heart or lungs with a stethoscope (stetoscopio).

Further tests and medicines

Depending on the outcome of the physical examination, your doctor may refer you to a specialist for further diagnostic exams and tests (esami diagnostici), including blood tests (esami del sangue), an MRI scan (risonanza magnetica), an ultrasound (ecografia) or an ECG (elettrocardiogramma). 

But if the source and nature of your health problem is already clear to your doctor, you’ll likely be given a prescription (ricetta) for the purchase of medicines (medicine) as well as some instructions to follow to achieve full recovery (completa guarigione).

READ ALSO: Why are medicines so expensive in Italy?

Medicines may come in the form of powder (in polvere), tablets (pastiglie or compresse), drops (gocce) or syrup (sciroppo).

Remember: Italian doctors tend to have fairly bad handwriting (locals often jokingly refer to it as ‘hieroglyphs’), so make sure you know exactly what you need to get at the pharmacy (farmacia) as well as how many times a day (volte) you need to take each medicine. 

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