Short cuts to Learning Italian - A little help from The Godfather

You should exercise a bit of caution on sources when setting out to learn something new.  It would not do for instance to use gangster movies as your sole source for Italian language and culture. But it is also fair to say that information you collect from multiple places tends to reinforce itself, so a few snippets of Italian that I recall from the book and movie The Godfather seem fair game.  Sure, Mario Puzo made a lot of stuff up, but I assume that being raised in a family of immigrants the man could speak Italian.

A few words and their possible utility.

Capo.  In the book it was a title given to a lieutenant in the crime family.  It means head and comes from the Latin caput.  In Rome we will be staying a few hundred yards from the Pons Fabricus, known locally as the Ponte quatto capi.  The bridge of the four heads is so called for the ancient depictions of Janus who ups his game a bit, not looking just forward and back but to either side as well.

At one point in the movie the term sfortunato is used.  It means "an unlucky guy".  I actually have learned the word sfortuna, which means "bad luck".  My better half was once accosted by a pesky street hustler in Paris with a "found" gold ring.   They always want to give it to you and expect a donation for their generosity.  I plan on widening my eyes, pointing a slightly shaking finger at the cheap trinket and saying "Sfortuna. Male, molto male!"

If in doubt about what to order in a Ristorante one can always just say "cosa consiglia?".  This means "what is your advice?".  It combines the cosa from Cosa Nostra with the fictional title of Advisor, or Consigliere held by Tom Hagen in the Corleone Family.

The fish...you're absolutely sure on that?

And finally the peculiar phrase "pezzonovante" turns up twice in The Godfather.  It is used  to indicate a "big shot" of some sort.  Literally it translates to "a 90 piece" and indicates a gun of very large calibre.  Calling a weapon a "piece" sure sounds like cheesy Hollywood gangster talk but in fact is a very old construction.  Long ago a shotgun would have been called a fowling piece, and we still to some extent use the phrase "artillery piece".  For me it is less helpful to know how to say the word for ninety - I am not planning on buying anything that pricey when over there - but the other half of the phrase could come in handy.  "Una pezzo pizza, per favore."