Italians On the Phone

I absolutely love listening to Italians on the phone; it's an experience in itself.

To begin with, they don't answer the phone with "Ciao!" as you might expect. Instead they say, "Pronto!" which literally translated means "Ready!" (Which to me seems to mean, "Hello/Get to the point." No dilly-dallying niceties here....) Of course after that, I can't really understand anything they say, but what follows seems to be a constant, non-stop, outpouring of words - and from what I can tell - on both sides of the conversation (as I have yet to see an Italian with a phone to his or her ear, quietly listening except for the occasional "uh huh")*.

Then with no apparent warning (this is my favorite part), one party (seems to) cut off the other party with a rapid firing of "ciao-ciao-ciao-ciao..." until it all runs together and your ear only picks up the "ch" sound. Sometimes they even hang up before they've finished the chorus of ciaos.

I love it! It makes me smile every time I come across it. I really wish I could utilize the "rapid ciao" while I'm here, but of course I have no phone, I know no real amount of Italian, and I have no one to call in Italy :( But that doesn't stop me from wanting to greet random people with rapid, excessive ciaos though. I mean, I know it technically means good-bye in that instance...but it would be such a fun greeting! I'm sure it would only secure confused stares though - so I don't do it.

*Occasionally there is excessive gesturing, but it's not a hard and fast rule.