Roam Italy

Let’s jump right in with a quick lesson in Italian.

First, hold out your right fist. (C’mon, nobody is looking. Put it out there.) Okay, now that your fist is in front of you, stick out your thumb. Bring your thumb to your face, while the rest of your fingers are still clenched, gently drag your thumb across your face from the top middle of your cheek to your chin and then drop your hand, passing your chin. If you were to perform this action in Italy while gazing at someone that would inform her that you approve. Maybe she did or said something you thought was considerate or impressive.

Next, hold out both of your hands in front of you as if you were about to clap. Make sure that your fingers are straight, and join both hands so the fingers match evenly. Depending on your religion, your hands might look like you are praying. Now bring your hands to the middle of your chest. Keep the bottom part of your hands near your chest, but bob the tips of your hands up and down at a medium pace. If done properly, you have just asked someone to reconsider. For the avid fans of Italian soccer, you probably know this sight well. When a player has just been issued a yellow card for a questionable infraction, the members of his team will plead foremost with this gesture.

All right, here is a quick one. Take your left hand, palm facing you, curl your fingers like a “C” and quickly scrape, then flick the bottom of your chin away from your body with the tips of your four fingers. Wait a second! This one you might not want to perform if you are out in public. Sorry, but you may have just cursed someone out. I would not recommend using this expression while on vacation unless you are experiencing road rage and need to get your point across quickly.

Finally, here is my favorite expression. Hold out your right hand as if you were about to snap your fingers. The tips of the three fingers on the right should be touching and the other two should be relaxed. Now bob your hand a little bit while flicking your fingertips outward. The faster you do it the more agitated you are claiming to be. Of all the actions, this is the one I witnessed the most. Girls do it when their older brothers annoy them, and boys do it to their sisters when they want to torment them even more. Adults who are arguing and trying to get their point across without raising their voices often use this movement.

If you have mastered these four popular Italian gestures you are pretty much considered fluent in most social situations. In that case, bravo! You have learned the most important parts of the Italian language, better known as la bella lingua.

Some say that communication is 93 percent nonverbal. In Italy, this may be a conservative estimate. After the fall of the Roman Empire, a wide variety of regional dialects became engrained within local cultures. Misunderstandings and communication breakdowns were commonplace. To overcome these problems, Italians began to augment their verbal messages by making ample use of body language. While Tuscany’s economic, political, and cultural dominance caused its version of Italian to become the national standard, regional dialects continued to be widely used in everyday life. Today, as I watch my Italian friends speak excitedly using their whole bodies, I see a physical expression of unreserved passion and love for social interaction that is an essential component of the Italian national character.

At a quiet gelataria along the sparkling Amalfi Coast, while enjoying the remarkable ambiance and a sensational strawberry ice cream, an acquaintance made a curious observation about me. “I could tell you are not from Italy. You don’t speak much with your hands.”