It’s unpronounceable and it turns out it is really quite rude in Italian too.
This year I looked into changing the name but here’s why it’s a keeper –
The Nanny position I had in Italy was with a 6 month old baby girl (she’s now nearly 21 yrs old) every lunchtime & dinnertime I met with the family and lots of extended family for noisy mealtimes at Nonna’s house, on arrival Virginia would be bear hugged by Nonna and her cheek squeezed with an ‘Oh Cicciona!’
Through my broken Italian I took this to mean cute/chubby/cherub, loving words and the very essence of a doting Italian Grandmother.
Actually with a little help from google translation its more along these lines –
chubster /fatso /lardass / porker
In my defense for clearly not doing any proper research in to the word, it isn’t what you’d expect from Nonna.
This year we went on a family holiday to Italy, visiting Cento to see the family I had Nannied for 20 years ago. I took the opportunity to have a proper chat with Barbara, mother of said chubster child about whether it really is too rude and should be changed.
Yes Barbara agreed, it is rude BUT it is also very funny and definitely a keeper and yes… Nonna is one rude lady.
