Milano, Ancona, Livorno, Pisa, Empoli, Napoli, Siena, Ancona.

Sounds like an Italian itinerary, right? Maybe two nights in Milano, home of Leonardo Da Vinci‘s Last Supper. Then over to the Adriatic town of Anconafor a couple of beach days. And isn’t Livorno the Ligurian coastal town built by the De Medici family to rival Pisa? So, let’s just drop down into Pisa so we can make a comparison between the two towns. Isn’t that what we’re doing? Touring Italy? No, we are not. The list of cities in the first paragraph is an example of the way Italians spell.

Unlike English spelling, rather than use A for apple, B for ball, C for cat—or the more mature (and military versions) you know, the Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Italians use the names of cities, mostly their cities with a couple of necessary additions. And EVERYBODY knows these cities represent the letter. They don’t say M, as in Milano. No, they simply say, Milano. It’s sort of a long shorthand.

I can’t remember the first time I heard this Italian style of spelling. And by the way, they don’t really refer to it as spelling. Instead, they might ask, “Come si scrive—how is it written, or how does one write it?” So now that you understand the technique, you can quickly decipher Milano, Ancona, Livorno, Pisa, Empoli, Napoli, Siena,Ancona as Malpensa, Milan‘s primary airport.

Sometimes, depending on where you are in Italy, favoritism creeps into the shorthand. For example, in Tuscany, you might use Firenze, Florence to represent F. Other parts of Italy use Forlì or Ferrara. And P might be represented by Padova, Padua rather than Pisa. You get the idea. It can be a fun exercise—or it can be confusing. Last week I asked where the local UPS store is located. The answer quickly became another spelling puzzle: via di Pisa, Roma, Ancona, Torino, Otranto (Prato).

There’s even a website that challenges you to guess the correct city names.

Still, I wonder exactly how an entire nation accepts and learns such a curious and intricate technique. I picture leaning over a cooing infant in a crib. The mother begins reciting the cities-alphabet. The father chimes in. It’s a spelling, geography, and a loyalty lesson all rolled into one. The baby smiles, her mind indelibly imprinted with visions of the beautiful Italian cities. She may never visit those cities, but she will forever know about them and the alphabetical letters they represent. Over time, she will continue to learn more and more about these magical place. Italians seems to have a depth of geographical knowledge that’s actually quite impressive.

So the next time you hear someone listing some Italian cities, ask yourself whether they might be planning a vacation or simply spelling. There’s no way to know for Siena, Udine, Roma, Empoli.

(Graphic images are from the Internet~Thanks.)

Posted on May 29, 2011

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