First Year Italian prepared me for False Friends. Romanzo may sound like romance, but is actually a novel. One who is annoiato is bored, not annoyed, just as something noioso is boring, not noisy. And i parenti don’t mean parents, but relatives. I knew that I would recognize some of these little word tricks during my time in , but also stumble into others along the way.

“I won’t tell Laura’s boss about her wicked nature because I was educato bene,” my Language Partner declared over his Sex on the Beach cocktail while lamenting his breakup with his ex-ragazza. I knew that for years he had been studying art history, but how had staring at Renaissance paintings educated him about love? I wondered. A page through my Italian dictionary revealed that educato bene means well-raised, or well-bred. 

A few weeks ago my host sister accompanied me to a much-needed hair appointment with the family parrucchiere (hairdresser). After a wet hour of shampooing, conditioning, cutting, styling, and blow-drying, my hair had never looked better. “Adesso i tuoi cappelli sono molti morbidi,” Greta said as we walked back, running her hands through my product-dense locks. Is she saying my hair looks morbid? I was shocked. But no, she was giving me a compliment— morbido is soft. 

This past weekend my friends and I sampled the endless free food at Florence ’s annual Artigianato festival— pasta, cheese, cannoli, limoncello, olive oil, bread, and chocolate— and I salivated over organic broccoli paste spread on crackers. “Vorresti assaggiare il sugo con i peperoni?” the vendor asked me. “No, grazie,” I replied simply, “Sono una vegetariana.” His look of such puzzled confusion made me realize that peperoni are not the circular pieces of meat sprinkled over typical American pizzas, but hot peppers. 

Yes, after nearly four months in Florence I am still making these funny mistakes. Other false cognates that have sent me to wordreference.com are sensibile (sensitive), confetti (sugar-coated almonds distributed at weddings), and finalmente (eventually)— but decoding their hidden meanings is just part of the excitement of living in a foreign place.