lo shopping lowcost
le celebrities – this one makes the English word plural
le top model – but this one doesn’t bother; it relies on the plural “the” (le)
il fashion system
jeans news
Showroom Italia
moda e design
lo spending review
il fashion hub
urban chic
Many of these were in advertisements but by no means all of them. And many of them are related to the fashion industry, where English appears to be “cool” in all languages. I bet the French are a bit miffed about that!
Sometimes you come across a whole sentence, like this one: Berlino revoluziona il concept del concept store – Berlin revolutionises the concept of the concept store.
Now, I know that English has borrowed words right, left and centre from other languages but I can’t say I’ve noticed recent imports. I shall have to keep an eye out for them from now on. Watch this space!
Another source of amusement – and often exasperation – is mistranslation.
Sometimes it’s just a spelling mistake, like the “dinning room” that we saw in the Castle of Donnafugata.
Menus are a great source of wonderful English; I recently saw “pesce spada”, swordfish, translated as “cutlass fish”, giving it a nice piratical air.
When we climbed up “la rocca”, the huge hill behind the cathedral in Cefalù, we saw some delightful warning notices, telling us “Not to exceed” for “Non oltrapassare “ ( “do not go beyond this point”, I suppose,would be better) 
and “Do not lean” for “Non sporgersi” instead of “Do not lean over/ Do not lean out”.
Information leaflets in museums and stately homes are also quite wonderful. The one we picked up in the Palazzo dei Normani in Palermo regularly used “realised” for “carried out” or simple “done” or “made”. Painted ceilings and mosaics were frequently “realised” in the past.
The same leaflet gave us lots of information about the “Sala d’Ercole” without actually mentioning the “Ercole” is the Italian for Hercules, the Greek hero who, incidentally, did not carry out tasks but “fatigues” according to this translation.
Sometimes the mistake is just odd word order, such as “In the dome dominates the image of ....” or a missing word, as in “do not miss the bookshop on ground floor”. But at other times you find completely strange and meaningless stuff: “... the construction of the Cappella Palatina, the highest example of architectonic plan showing the encounter between different cultures and religions”. What on earth is “architectonic plan”?
This particular leaflet ends with this comment on the paintings and furnishings in the Appartamenti Reali: “you are recommended not to touch them and not to seat on the pieces of furniture in order to preserve them”. Oh, so it’s only a recommendation? Not to be taken too seriously then?
Of course, it’s not just English that gets mangled. In this notice inviting us to “go upstairs” in a bell tower, the Spanish and French were just as bad as the English. I can’t comment on the German but it’s almost certainly got mistakes in it.
How hard must it be to find a native speaker to read through the translation before you publish it? Ah but then, I suppose it’s a case of jobs-for-the-boys. Somebody’s brother, cousin, auntie knows a bit of English or French or whatever and needs some work. Let them do it!
I really shouldn’t criticise too much though. After all, they do put information out in foreign languages. In London last week we went to the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition at Tate Britain. All the information notices next to the paintings were in English. Yes, you can get an audio-guide in foreign languages but not everyone wants to do that.
Similarly, on trains and on the metro announcements are all in English. When we travel around Galicia by train, announcements come in Castilian Spanish, Galician and ... yes, you’ve guessed it ... English!
And then today I went past a restaurant just around the corner from our house where they were advertising special events: “Friday Night’s at Fresca”. Is there a word missing? Or is it just another rogue apostrophe?
Oh, please, don’t get me started on apostrophes!
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