Italy: Expression of the day – ‘Fa caldo’

If you’re in Italy at the moment, you’ve probably heard this phrase (or some variation on it) a hundred times already today.

And if you’ve got enough energy left to speak, you may have uttered it a few times yourself.

“Mamma mia, fa caldo oggi! – Mamma mia, it’s hot today!” It’s curious that instead of using the verb essere (to be), Italians use fare (to do or make) for this phrase.

Fa caldo should always be said with a note of incredulity for maximum effect.

“I tend to exclaim ‘fa caldo!” automatically every time I open the car door on a hot day and get hit in the face

by a wall of hot air, as if I wasn’t fully expecting that to happen. And then I mutter it again as I slide into the hot seat and frantically push at the AC buttons. If the heat is particularly oppressive, it might even become “fa caldissimo!”

You could switch things up a bit, and say che caldo! or che caldo fa! Other useful Italian words for talking (complaining) about Italy’s current weather conditions include canicola and addosso.