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Italically your [sing] new family. Good morning everyone and here we are again with the legendary Stefano. Stefano, how are you today? But that's fine. Hi Luca. Hi everyone. Today I'm particularly excited, as we say in Milan, precisely because today we're talking about the differences in mentality, but also, as we'll see, in speech, therefore in expressions, in ways of speaking, between two of the most important cities, naturally, in our country, namely Milan, my hometown, and Rome, your capital, hometown and capital, and we'll launch into this historical sociolinguistic analysis on the differences between the two cities from our personal point of view.
Obviously we are not historians but we can guarantee and propose you a lot of interesting personal things. Starting from the first, which is the mentality that Milanese and Roman minds lose, which is very different for cultural, historical reasons, etc. etc. Let's start with that before even talking about typical expressions. So Stefano, I would start from Milan, we go from the north towards the center and then towards the south. Exact. And let's talk about what's happening in Milan, because people are so, let's say, framed. Even framed. So, first of all, a little, little disclaimer, obviously some of what we're going to say today are stereotypes, right? These are generalizations,
but as we know, they are often quite true and verifiable things in real life, so we wouldn't be talking about them if we hadn't experienced it firsthand, and also second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. By the way, they say that stereotypes always have a grain of truth, so yeah, exactly. Exact. So, knowing that we generalize and sometimes joke a little, let's start by saying that in my hometown of Milan we tend to give importance to things like efficiency, work, productivity, [clears throat] results and this unfortunately also happens with a good dose of snobbery at times. Well, we have to admit what is the sentence that could summarize a bit the typical way of the Milanese who works hard and therefore also wants to see the
results of his work. And here the sentence is this: I work, I earn, I pay, I demand. Eh, tac, got it? And what about Rome instead? What is the Roman mentality like, Luca? So, apart from the fact that the concept of efficiency is unknown here, the other is always generalizing. Of course there are efficient Romans, but they are rare, but I would say that here the predominant concept is that of survival. That is, survival means that here we tend to survive in the urban jungle. So the Roman defends his spaces, but above all he defends his existential spaces, in the sense that here the concept is 'we have to get by.' If we have to get by, we have to get by somehow, right? And this concerns
both the relationship with oneself, but also the relationship with others. I'll give you an example, the Romans who unfortunately have to take the car to go to the other side, to the other end of Rome, eh, to go to work, swear, famously. In English there is this term, it's called road rage, that is, this contained anger that explodes every time someone gets behind the wheel [snorting] and which manifests itself especially in the morning, but not only in the morning, but also during rush hour, both in the morning and in the afternoon when you literally see, that is, if you go out and take a 45-minute walk, you will happen to see two or three cars, one making the horns gesture at the other cursing because someone has cut him off, has
cut the other off or the car stops 2 cm from the knees of the poor passerby who had the barbarous courage to cross at the pedestrian crossing and obviously there are curses from one side to the other because the pedestrian and the driver don't understand each other. In Rome, I don't know about Milan, but in Rome people drive very badly and this surprises a lot of people. If those of you who are listening have ever been to Rome, Milan, or other parts of Italy, the guide is, to say the least, complicated. In the North it's a little more civilized than in the South, but still very often our driving style is more, let's say, similar to Middle Eastern contexts in the South of the world, let's say, even, um, I
saw a famous video in Vietnam where a person was crossing the road between scooters than in the North, so from crossing the road to going to the office, to carrying out administrative procedures in Rome you have to resist and survive. And so this is, let's say, the mentality that permeates the Roman. In Rome they say you know when you'll leave, but you don't know when you'll arrive, right? You know when we're leaving, [snorting] okay? We know when, I left now, but we don't know when we'll arrive. I remember that once I left home with my sister who accompanied me, so without even taking public transport and we got stuck in traffic on the ring road because we had to go to Ciampino, which is a much smaller military airport than
Fiumicino and eh I risked missing the flight to Liverpool that would have taken me to meet Richard in 2010, in April 2010 for the first time, I remember it. I was swearing myself, but I wasn't driving because my sister was driving, I was swearing and saying to myself, "What are we doing? What's happening?" Then I become very Roman when, let's say, I enter into red alert contexts, as they say, red alert, we don't want to do it. Then I did it, as they say, we did it, but we almost got out 3 hours early, so in Rome you can never be too careful. Have you already used it in telling this episode? You've already, um, you've already used some expressions, so I'm bringing this up because I'd be interested in exploring
with you which expressions in Milanese dialect and Roman dialect best express this difference in mentality between our two cities. I'll start with Milan and I would say that one of the most important verbs for a true Milanese is to invoice. To invoice, that is, to invoice, is practically the verb that expresses the transformation of the work you have done into a concrete result, that is, into money, right? Let's go back to what I said before, I work, I earn, I pay, I demand. So if I work, then I also have to invoice, that is, write the invoice in order to then have the
money I need to enjoy life essentially. Other typical expressions are come on, let's close, come on, come on, let's close. Close in the sense of obviously closing the deal, right? So and you have to get to the bottom of this quickly in order to be productive, right? And then probably my favorite, my favorite expression is not even a word, Luca, it's a sound, okay? What do we Milanese do when something is completed, when we manage to finish a job, when we solve a problem, what do we say? let's just say tac, tac, if you want tac it can be the sound of a door closing, eh, I don't know, something that clicks and is completed, exactly. Um, and the important thing is that you look for the goal, you reach the goal and then you can enjoy your
free time, right? and go and have fun practically like that, you see how impressive it is how the mental approach, the mentality, eh, connects with the language, right? Why do you express, right? The first point that we discussed before is precisely the efficiency mentality and therefore everything is oriented towards efficiency, towards the end, right? I finished this thing here, I invoiced, I pay, I demand that stuff there. Beautiful. Well, tying in with what you just said and talking and considering, guys, what I just said about survival, a couple of typical Roman things, there are so many, but one word, the magic word in Rome is always come on, right? for example daje, daje, which means, for example,
let's say, it's a sort of encouragement, but it depends on the intonation. For example, if you, Stefano, come to me and say "Ah, I took the C3 exam", C3 doesn't exist, Giorgiano's C2 exam, come on, come on, it's a way of saying encouragement, right? Come on, come on. But eh it can also mean come on and come on which means it's a different tone, if you listen. No, come on. Daje means encouragement, but if you say it, then it depends on certain contexts. For example, the bus driver, come on, you move, you move. Classic, Teoi muove means you want to move because one of the classics in Rome is the people who park their cars on the sides of the intersection and then the bus driver can't maneuver the bus to
take it where he wants to take it and so there is the driver who smadonna, that is, eh form of the verb smadonnare which means to swear that curses at the driver who in the meantime has gone to get a cappuccino or coffee at the bar. So oh, come on, devimove, always talking about the eh let's say the concept of survival. Come on, hurry up or hurry up, you can also say hurry up, more in Roman dialect, right? This is one. And then the other one is the opposite of the Milanese, he is the one of piela comoda, that is, taking it easy. Pia pa e literally means the verb in Roman dialect means to take, right? But why are you hanging around me? It means are you kidding me or is this something, let's take
this thing and take it easy, in the sense that we have these expressions like "Sta bono, sta bono that we'll do everything soon", right? Be good, don't worry, we'll do everything soon. Well, so you could say to a Milanese who says "Come on guys, let's close, he's good, come on guys, let's invoice." No, no, that's good, we don't invoice at all. Exactly, exactly the opposite. And then, um, let's say classic, right? Okay, we'll see later. So it's not even laziness, it's a historical fatalism, let's say, because Rome has been standing for a long time, for more than 2000 years and therefore the urgency of turnover by 6:00 is like an insult to eternity, let's say, for us. So let's take it easy and okay, maybe later, but let's have a coffee
first. Let's have a coffee first. So there's really no rush in Rome. There's no rush. There's obviously a rush when you're stuck in traffic for obvious reasons, but in reality we live much more slowly. Rome is a big village, isn't it? Where in the morning you see Romans drinking coffee peacefully, but we have a comfortable room, after we go to the park, after we go to the park, right? And then there are a couple of other expressions that have to do with self-defense, because in Rome you have to defend your own space, right? For example, Nunta Collà, you can say he's someone who placed himself, for example, behind, another thing I remember when my father was driving and obviously he cursed half the world. Stay close. A colà
means you're hanging too close to the car, it didn't bother him much or for example he made this gesture at the window which is for example joining the thumb with the rest of the fingers to say that I didn't understand at first. So in the rearview mirror he was letting the person behind him know you were too close, and therefore either non tacollà which can be said to be a person who is accorlà, te sta a colà literally means you are sticking to the car, but accorlarsi in Roman dialect also means, let's say, to be heavy. For example, I say, "Oh, Stefano, you're on my case, he 's on my case, he's nice, but during the conference he was on my case, it means he was always on my back, he
never left your side." he didn't let you breathe, did he? So there's also an expression that has to do with defense, defense mechanisms against stress, against personal space invaded by others. Well, there's a Look, if I have to tell you what happens in Rome, even when you're on the bus, for example, there are very often elderly gentlemen who start pushing in the back because they're afraid that the driver will open and close too quickly. Yes, yes, yes. and that is a huge contrast to what happens in a country that is, in my opinion, a little more civilized like Poland, where no one would ever dream of pushing at the back and thinking that they do n't have enough time for the doors
because everything happens in a completely calm manner, everyone gets off, then when it's finished the calm conductor takes over and off we go again. The problem with Rome is that since the buses don't run, when a bus arrives it's full of people and getting out becomes a chore. In Rome you know when you leave, but not when you arrive, when you get on the bus, but not when you get off. If you go out. Well, this one about the bus makes me think of one of the moments of shock I had when talking to friends from Rome or Naples in particular, but from the South in general, when I hear these friends of mine telling me, 'I'm going to get off now to see if
the bus is coming,' this is something that is absolutely incomprehensible to me. Yes, yes, because in Milan, I mean, it's not perfect, nothing is perfect in Milan, okay? However, it can be said that the subway runs every 5 minutes, sometimes even less, during rush hour even less than 5 minutes between one subway and the next. And the buses work pretty well too, they run every 8-10 minutes, but this self-positioning there really didn't make any sense to me. Then I asked for an explanation and indeed in some Italian cities it's a big question mark whether the bus passes or not. Of course, living where I live now, that is, in Brussels, where everything works perfectly, especially public transport, obviously this contrast is even stronger, but
unfortunately, in Rome in particular, I can't speak for other cities in Italy because I don't know the situation, but in Rome, unfortunately, there is an unfortunate coincidence between public transport that doesn't work, but also the taxi lobby and therefore there are few taxis that preserve, let's say, protect their space in a very, let's say, energetic way and so if the buses are missing and usually the buses are missing due to strikes - the usual Black Friday of strikes, they say - even there, finding a taxi is a heroic, titanic undertaking, and so you call a taxi, obviously there are a whole series of complicated situations and I happened to have to go, for example, to a recording studio in Prati. Pratiica is a neighborhood near my neighborhood, thank God, but the
connections are not good and eh usually I take the scooter, or rather the scooter eh but the scooter is also expensive and if it rains obviously eh the famous Murfi law, it rains, there's a strike, eh there's a hell of a traffic, everyone's pissed off and so it's a mess. Oh well, we survived anyway. But Rome is such a beautiful city that you can walk around it, even if it takes an hour, an hour and a half, guys, go around Rome on foot, it's wonderful. A little less in Milan. Milan is a little less beautiful, but it jumped on me, but it's okay anyway. In the meantime, my microphone has jumped so I'm putting it back here. And finally, as Stefano said, Rome is a beautiful city. Now, we don't want
you to think that Rome sucks, but of course not. It's an incredible, wonderful city, I appreciate its qualities more and more. However, there are also negative aspects that must be considered and which reflect the way Romans and Milanese speak. Everything is beautiful and ugly at the same time, depending on how you look at it, but life is beautiful anyway. Well, in conclusion, in conclusion I would say come on In conclusion, come on. Well, let's say that's all and that's it. Come on, come on, come on, and turnover, and thank you so much for listening to us. Thanks Stefano, always a pleasure,
and see you in the next episode where we'll talk about other aspects of Italian, Italian culture, and much more. Great, have a good day everyone. Bye. HI.
