E Pericoloso Sporgersi is actually the first Italian phrase I ever learned, when I was eight years old. My parents, brothers and I spent a few months near Geneva, Switzerland, where my father was working, but we often traveled by train to see other parts of the country and visit nearby parts of France. E Pericoloso Sporgersi was affixed under every window on practically every train.It is dangerous to lean out.
The sign was in other languages, too (French: Ne Pas Se Pencher Au Dehors; German: Nicht Hinauslehnen), and English. But decades later, I still only remembered the Italian, perhaps because as a young child I thought E Pericoloso Sporgersi sounded quite silly (try saying it fast a few times), not to mention that the French is a bit of a tongue twister and the German has the harsh sounding nicht. Or maybe I remembered it because the Italian was the first line of the warning sign, followed by the other translations (English was last). Was this because it was thought that Italians would be more likely than French or Germans to lean out the window, therefore it had to be most visible? Or maybe the signs were produced in Italy, so Italian came first out of national pride.
Regardless, on my first train ride in Italy, from Venice to Bologna, I looked for the sign and was dismayed not to find it. Ditto on the train from Bologna to Ravenna. Had everyone learned in the intervening 30+ years to not lean out of train windows? But from Ravenna to Florence, where I changed trains to continue to Rome, the little sign was displayed under the window of my local train, just as I remembered. I photographed it. There was still no Spanish translation on the sign - I will leave you to develop a theory as to why.
The local train slowly wound its way through hilly countryside covered with farms and vineyards and sprinkled with villas and castles. I was tempted to stand up and lean out the window to take some photographs, but I did not.
[P.S. This post has been so popular that I wrote a companion piece. You can read it here]
27 comments:
I remember countless (bored) hours in French trains in the late 80s, memorizing those lines.
Signs were in four same languages then and had me wonder why just four, and who decided the four? Who sits on such a committee?
Anyway, thirty years later I only remember the Italian version.
I have always been curious to know if others would have noticed the sign enough to memorize it. Nice to see there is someone else out there like me.
Thank you for the memory, I too remebered the italian phrase probably because it had a poetic ring to it, like a haiku of some sort. The reason there was no Spanish is that the trains from the rest of Europe could get in Spain because the width of the tracks was different and you had to move to another train when you entered Spain. Dominique.
Oh, this is one of my absolutely favorite signs of all times and signs (that have ever existed). I even have a blog post about it before it occurred to me to google it for popularity purposes.
Actually, the language order depended on the country you were in - on trains in Germany, for example, the German version would be first, followed by the English underneath, with the French version to the right and last but not least the famous Italian phrase right below the French.
"E pericoloso sporgersi" rules - forget bungee jumping!
I'm delighted to know I'm part of a small club of people who memorize train signs! Thanks, Dominique, for explaining that the Spanish tracks are different. I have a new blog up at http://www.alacartespirit.com if you care to visit.
yes... "E Pericoloso Sporgersi" is my automatic reply when anything italian comes up !!! :-) happy to find a fan club for this
yes, "E pericoloso sporgersi"
this comes up in my mind when anything italian shoes up :-)
happy to find a brotherhood of "E pericoloso sporgersi" mind programmed people :-)))
Thanks for a very evocative post. E pericoloso sporgersi takes me back to a wonderful school trip to northern Italy in 1961. (And now, in a fab. novel coming to an electronic bookstore near you some time soonish, Dottore Sporgersi turns out to be a well-known archaeologist...)
Just had to google the phrase - whuch i had misremembered slightly! Ive never been to Italy let alone on one of their trains, but my old mate Wily from University obviously had and delighted in intoning it with maximum mock Italian accent - rolling every syllable in his mouth like the finest Chianti. A legendary and very beautiful warning
Thanks again to all who have commented! I just revisited these three lovely words here: http://alacartespirit.com/2014/02/09/the-power-of-e-pericoloso-sporgersi/
yes, e Pericoloso Sporgersi over this blog :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXakev1ROj0
I always sing it to the first line of Mattinata. Try it and you'll never get it out of your head.
I'm delighted to find this "e pericoloso sporgersi" community! I learned the phrase on overnight trips from Paris to the South of France in the mid Eighties and, like everyone else, forgot the French and German versions. For some reason, though, I had forgotten the "e". This page was the highest search result for "e pericoloso sporgersi", so if BBC Radio 4 ever make a half-hour documentary about the phrase (which is by no means impossible) I expect they'll want to interview you, Ilona. Thank you for posting.
Thanks, Edmund, for leaving a comment! I'm so glad there is a community around this memorable phrase...I had no idea when I posted this years ago. I'd be delighted if the BBC were to contact me. ;-)
My only Italian phrase - learnt on a school trip in 1966 and never forgotten. Pleased to see it has followers :)
Hello hope it’s not too late to chime in and join the club...
The same for me, I remember this sign, ”E Pericoloso Sporgersi” very clearly, from my travels in Europa with Interrail-card back in 1974, -75 & -76.
I once in a while, like a couple times a year just out of a sudden just yell out ”E Pericoloso Sporgersi”, sometimes people are getting shocked but sometimes other people smiles when they also remembers the phrase. It’s something special with that phrase, do doubt about it…
I did a search on this phrase to find out the exact spelling and I found this nice place.
Cheers!
/Tomas from Sweden
indeed Tomas :-) "e pericoloso sporgersi" community has now 10 years and 15 comments.
If and when we have a reunion, we should all wear these. https://www.spreadshirt.com/trainleanout+blak+men-s+premium+t-shirt-D5a3621b85d52cd3f1149bfcc?appearance=231&color=CBCBCB
All of your comments make me smile! Tomas, it's never too late to join....I had no idea when I wrote this so many years ago that others remembered this phrase. Patrick, what a great t-shirt! Glad they have them for women, too. I just might order one. I do think we should have a reunion. Which train station in Italy? ;-)
Yes, that was my first and only phrase I learned in Italian when traveling by train. I was told it meant Dont spit out of the window! Only now I discovered the teal meaning 😉
Oh wow! As a 21 year-old expat in France, I too was fascinated by that phrase! So poetic, musical and unforgettable. It has made my day to have found a community of "pericoloso sporgeri" fans❣
Lovely idea!!!
*sporgersi
Makes me smile that people are still enjoying this post of mine!
So nice to read the E sperigolso sporgersi story !On my 16th I made my first train trip from Ansterdam to south of France , because one of my classmates his parents owned a vacationhouse near the Italian border !
That Italian frase was so funny ! It is still on this day stucked to an eternal and wonderful holiday with our race bikes and backpack and group of 5 friends !
I still use it for my wife and children and as a teacher to inspire , because life can be a train with a lot of supprises !!
Franklin LS
Yesterday I suddenly remembered the phrase from an Italian vacation in 1970, now more than 50 years later. I also figured out why it was put there.In 1934 during the Mussolini days, two people put their heads out of the window in trains going in the opposite direction. Their heads met, were ripped off and got lost. A bloody mess in both trains and Mussolini had the sign posted in all Italian trains.
Thanks for letting us know the origin of the phrase...a bloody mess, indeed. I am still amazed that people besides me remember this phrase.
The same for me in Bulgaria many years ago.
Four languages, the first sentence was in Bulgarian, the sentence at the bottom in Italian.
Read it countless times and was amazed how it sounds :-)
Post a Comment