If you regularly wake up as the sun’s rays are peeking over the horizon, you might identify as an early bird – or in Italian, a mattiniero.

La mattina or il mattino (this is a rare example of when both the feminine and masculine forms are valid) is Italian for morning, so a mattiniero/a is someone who’s up with the morning – who rises with the dawn, we might say in English.

It can be used as a noun in its own right, though you’ll often see it used as an adjective; most commonly attached to the noun tipo/a (‘type’ / ‘guy’/ ‘girl’), to mean ‘morning person’.

Vedo che non sono l’unica mattiniera nell’appartamento.
I see I’m not the only early bird in the apartment.

Non sono mai stato un tipo mattiniero.
I’ve never been a morning person.

– Dov’è Giulia?
– È andata a letto, domani deve fare il turno mattiniero al lavoro.
– Where’s Giulia?
– She’s gone to bed, she has to pull an early shift at work tomorrow.

As in most countries, being an early riser is generally viewed as a positive quality in Italy.

While in English we say “the early bird catches the worm”, in Italian you’d say “il mattino ha l’oro in bocca” – literally, ‘the morning has gold in its mouth’; i.e., early risers have the opportunity to make their fortune.

That’s also the title of a 2008 film starring Elio Germano as a rising radio show host whose gambling habit slowly consumes his life.

What’s the opposite of a mattiniero/a, you might wonder?

The Treccani dictionary offers up dormiglione (sleepyhead, from the Italian verb dormire, to sleep); pigrone, from the adjective pigro (lazy); or poltrone (couch potato) – none of which are particularly flattering.

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