10 unnecessary ridiculous facts about Italy

First things first: the Italian consumes an average of 25 kilograms of pasta per year. And in Italy, they know more than 140 types of pasta. Wow. In our Italy special week, they certainly cannot be missed: funny facts about bella Italia.

1. ‘Una mattina, mi son svegliato, o bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao.’ Did you know that the popular La Casa song is actually not a fun cheerful song at all? It is a battle hymn that was released when Italy was liberated from the German occupiers.

2. You would expect that when you want to build the tallest bell tower in the world, you take the underground into account. They did not do that when building the Leaning Tower of Pisa, eh. Because it was built on a shallow, relatively heavy foundation, the construction was doomed to fail.

3. Fun fact: the most famous Italian dessert tiramisu literally means: ‘lift me up’, which means: ‘make me happy’. Lift me up to the seventh heaven.

4. Do you want to live long and healthy? Then you need to be in Sardinia. Here live the most centenarians in the world.

5. Number 13 is a lucky number in Italy. The expression ‘fare tredici‘ (‘to do thirteen’) means: to win the jackpot. The unlucky number according to Italians is number 17.

6. Chocolate was hard to come by during World War I. The Italian Pietro Ferrero therefore added hazelnuts to the chocolate paste to make more. The product was a great success, and Nutella is now sold all over the world.

7. In 2017, no less than 1.4 million (!) euros in coins were fished out of the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Once, the money was used to pay for the maintenance of the fountain, nowadays the proceeds go to local charities.

8. More than 1 in 3 Italian men aged 30 to 34 still live with their parents. Yikes...

9. The worst crime you could ever commit in Italy is refusing a homemade meal from an Italian grandmother. It’s a kind of unwritten rule. So, if you ever get invited to an Italian table, the answer to the question ‘Are you full?’ is always ‘No’.

10. The heaviest truffle ever weighed almost 1.5 kilograms and was found in Tuscany by a dog named Rocco. It was sold during an auction for 330,000 dollars. Holy moly.

P.S..: Speaking of truffles: this is how you make the tastiest pasta with truffle oil in your own casa. Happy Sunday!