Tell the time in Italian, learn the days of the week and the months, and discover why every shop in Italy closes at lunchtime — the rule that catches every visitor out at least once.
Bentornati a Spoken, Episode 6! Last time we met the Italian family — la famiglia. Today we're going to do something every traveller needs from day one in Italy: tell the time, talk about the days of the week, and most importantly understand the most famous Italian rule of all — why everything closes at lunchtime. Pronti? Andiamo.
The most useful question is just three words. Che ore sono? — what time is it? Literally "what hours are they?" because in Italian you ask about the hours in the plural.
Che ore sono? — What time is it?
The answer is almost always sono le… — it is… plural. Sono le due — it's two o'clock. Sono le tre — it's three. Sono le quattro — it's four. You're using the numbers from Episode 3, just with sono le in front.
What about one o'clock? Is that "sono le una"?
Lovely question — and a beautiful exception. One o'clock is the only hour that's singular. È l'una — it is one. Just è, not sono. Same for midday and midnight: è mezzogiorno — it's midday. È mezzanotte — it's midnight. Three little singular exceptions, and the rest of the day takes sono le.
Italians use the 24-hour clock for almost everything written down — train timetables, opening hours, museum tickets, TV listings. So a sign saying 10:00–13:00 / 15:30–19:30 means open from 10am to 1pm, then again from 3:30pm to 7:30pm. In conversation people often switch back to 12-hour and add di mattina (in the morning), del pomeriggio (in the afternoon) or di sera (in the evening) — but anything official, expect to read it as 24-hour.
Now the half-hours and quarters. Sono le tre e mezza — it's half past three. E means "and", mezza means "half". Sono le tre e mezza — it's three and a half. Beautiful and simple. Sono le tre e un quarto — it's quarter past three. And Sono le tre meno un quarto — it's quarter to three. Meno means "minus" — the time minus a quarter.
e mezza — half past · e un quarto — quarter past · meno un quarto — quarter to
Now to the days of the week. Listen for the rhythm — five of them follow one beautiful pattern, then two break it. Lunedì — Monday. Martedì — Tuesday. Mercoledì — Wednesday. Giovedì — Thursday. Venerdì — Friday. Then: sabato — Saturday. Domenica — Sunday.
Notice how Monday to Friday all end in -dì with the accent on the very last syllable: lunedì (loo-neh-DEE), martedì, mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì. The little accent mark over the i tells you exactly where to put the stress. Then sabato breaks the pattern — SAH-bah-toh, stress on the first syllable — and domenica is doh-MEH-nee-cah, stress on the second. Five days obey the rule, the weekend rebels. Very Italian.
And how do I ask "what day is it today"?
Two phrases to know. Che giorno è oggi? — what day is it today? And the answer: Oggi è… — today is… Oggi è lunedì. Oggi è venerdì. Notice we don't capitalise days of the week in Italian — only at the start of a sentence.
And the months — quickly, because most of them sound just like English. Gennaio, febbraio, marzo, aprile, maggio, giugno, luglio, agosto, settembre, ottobre, novembre, dicembre. January through December. Don't worry about memorising them all today — you'll absorb them naturally over the next few episodes.
Sofia: Buongiorno! A che ora apre il museo?
Good morning! What time does the museum open?
Guard: Apre alle nove di mattina.
It opens at nine in the morning.
Sofia: E a che ora chiude?
And what time does it close?
Guard: Chiude alle diciotto e trenta. Ma è chiuso il lunedì.
It closes at six thirty in the evening. But it's closed on Mondays.
Sofia: Ah, oggi è martedì. Perfetto! Grazie mille.
Ah, today is Tuesday. Perfect! Thanks so much.
Now for something every visitor wishes they'd known on day one. In Italy, especially in smaller towns, almost every shop closes between roughly 13:00 and 15:30 for what's called la pausa pranzo — the lunch break. It's also called il riposo. Owners go home, eat properly with family, then reopen mid-afternoon. Many places are also closed all day on Sunday and Monday morning. So if a shop sign says chiuso, you now know exactly what it means — and the four phrases below will get you out of any trouble.
Bravissimi! You can now ask the time, tell the time, name every day of the week and survive the famous Italian lunchtime closures. Head to the What's Open? tab to test yourself with any day and time, then take the quiz. Ci vediamo nel prossimo episodio! see you in the next episode
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Pick any day and time. Find out how to say it in Italian — and whether shops would actually be open right now.
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