“C’ho Provato.”

 “I tried.”

“In Italy, many people like to always, surprise others, to gain something in their favor. So, for example, they try not to give you the correct change when you pay, and when you ask, if they committed the act on purpose, they’ll tell you, ‘C’ho provato’, meaning ‘I tried’ in the sense of taking advantage of the person.”

My dad, the informant for this saying, was born in London, England, but lived in Italy for 10 years of his life, from the age of 30. Over this period of time, he became fluent in the Italian language, learning many colloquialisms and expressions used in everyday speech. Though he does not speak in Italian as much as he used to, when interacting with friends and/or co-workers who are Italian, he still uses many of these sayings.

The informant vividly remembers when he first heard this expression. He had gone to a local grocery shop to buy some bread, and when he went to the register to pay for it, he noticed that the price being rung up was much higher than that listed for the bread. When he opened his bag, it turned out they had added a variety of other items to it that he had neither put there nor wanted. Confronting the cashier about it, his ironic response was, “C’ho provato”. The goal of the employee was obviously to get the informant to pay more money than he was supposed to, to bring in more revenue for the store, but through a shrewd and crafty way. The informant found himself in a few more situations like this before he realized that it was a common custom. The expression reflects the crafty sentiment that many Italians have, upheld by other expressions such as “La fortuna degli audaci” – the fortune of the audacious. This attempt to cut corners seems to be a common theme in Italian culture, and to a foreigner experiencing it for the first time, it may not seem as exciting and playful as it does to a native Italian, but may be distancing, given the fact that it seems like an effort to rip someone off.