Let’s talk about curse words… Tuscany is famously known for its love of colorful language. Swearing is pretty common—adults swear in conversation, around kids without a thought, and yes, even young kids have potty mouths that would make your jaw drop. I hear curse words flying around at the park all the time! It was a huge culture shock for me at first.

Now, as a parent of two teenagers, it was inevitable they’d pick up some of these words. The funny part? I didn’t even know what the curse words were! My eight-year-old would come to me and say, “Mom, Stel just said a bad word!” Slowly but surely, I’ve been aware of what these words are, though it’s been quite the process.

On the flip side, most Italians don’t recognize English curse words. One time, I was in a little shop getting something printed. There was an elderly man in front of me, a priest behind me, and blasting through the shop’s speakers was some very explicit rap music. Everyone was happily smiling and bobbing their heads along to the beat, blissfully unaware of the lyrics. If they only knew, they’d be absolutely mortified! Or would they?

Different kinds of bad words…..

Let’s talk about le parolacce—those mild Italian swear words that pop up all the time, like cazzo, stronzo, minchia, merda, and porca miseria, just to name a few. It gets way worse, but I’ll spare you the rest! When I talked to my kids about this blog post, my son, who moved to Italy when he was 8, actually thought some of these were just normal words, like just now! 5 years later—he’d heard them so often he had no idea they were curse words!

Then there’s bestemmia—blasphemous words that show deep disrespect toward God or anything sacred. These are a whole different category, and the list is long (and best left unwritten). These are taboo to say and are heard less often, usually only among friends.

The takeaway

the gang

Words only have the power we give them.

Of course, I’ve told my kids not to swear and encouraged them to use more descriptive creative words instead. Do they follow that advice when they’re out with their friends? Probably not. But hey, we’re all learning.