Peperoni, not Pepperoni

The first thing nearly every tourist wants once they have landed in Italy is pizza, shortly followed by gelato. So after waiting for the notoriously late opening hour of restaurants, American tourists will rush into the nearest pizzeria and gaze happily upon an Italian pizza menu.

Hopefully this menu won't have a word of English on it. Because let's face it, if you want genuine Italian pizza uninfluenced by the monotony of globalism, it shouldn't be in a glammed up tourist trap where every waiter speaks perfect British English.

It should be in a hole-in-the-wall where the pizza oven takes up more room than the seating area, and the menus are half in Italian and half in incomprehensible dialect.

This is by far the best way to eat pizza in Italy... with one drawback. How to figure out what you're getting on your pizza.

For the most part it's simple. Many of the ingredients are at least similar to their English equivalents, and those that aren't can easily be looked up in a pocket dictionary. If, as in my case, you are too lazy to look it up, the staff is usually more than willing to mime their hearts out until you get it.

Once, when I asked one waitress what "uova" was, she tried to explain something I had no hope of understanding at the time, before throwing up her hands in frustration and stomping off. Afraid I had insulted the poor woman, I looked around to see her returning from the kitchen with a triumphant smile, holding up a hard boiled egg.

Even with all this help, there is still one pitfall that many tourists fall into.

Peperoni.

It's innocent enough on the menu. Many Americans see this and happily toss aside their dictionaries, not even bothering to translate it. Who wouldn't recognize a pizza staple like pepperoni?

They sit in anticipation for the moment the meaty pizza will be placed in front of them, only to be stunned with dismay as the waiter places a roasted bell pepper pizza in front of them.

That's because the American failed to notice that "Peperoni" was spelled with only one "p", and no, it was not a typo.

Pepperoni are called "Salame Piccante" in Italy.

Peperoni, as you have probably guessed by now, are bell peppers.

This confusion works just as well in reverse.

When AmoreMio came to visit me at my college in Massachusetts, I invited him to try some American style pizza with me in the dining hall. The ingredients were all visible behind a glass window so you could instruct the chef on which toppings you'd like. After AmoreMio told me his order, I translated it to the chef:

"A white crust pizza with sauce, cheese, mushrooms and pepperoni".

With a startled look, AmoreMio immediately started shaking his head.

The Chef looked confusedly at him, while I again insisted that he did indeed want the pepperoni.

Clearly thinking I had gone mad, AmoreMio started shouting out himself

"No! No peperoni!"
"Trust me, you want the pepperoni!"
"No no, I don't like!"
"It's not actually pepper, it's a salami..."
The Chef's hand hovered uncertainly over the pepperoni as he looked at me for an explanation.
"Sorry, he's confused, he wants the pepperoni..." I repeated
"No, no I don't!" AmoreMio interrupted, still terrified I might be tricking him into eating vegetables... which he normally avoids at all costs.

So the moral of this story is: Unless you are 100% sure you know what it means, always double check the translation of food items.

And watch out for the peperoni.