Pace

Italian word of the day

Origin	From the Latin word pacem, “peace”
Translation	Peace
IPA pronunciation	/ˈrɔmpi ˈskatole/

Pace is the direct translation of peace in Italian and is a feminine noun. It is indefinite, so it has no plural form.

It’s pace, not pece. Pay attention to your vowels! Pece translates as tar or pitch.

Se vuoi la pace, prepara la guerra.
If you want peace, prepare for war.

Ora mi sento in pace con me stesso.
I feel at peace with myself now.

The adjective pacifico, “peaceful”, comes from pace. Pacifico is most often used to describe a person. If you are describing an environment, say tranquillo or calmo.

Luca è un tipo pacifico.
Luca is a peaceful guy.

L’atmosfera di questo ristorante è sempre molto tranquilla.
The atmosphere in this restaurant is always very peaceful.

Expressions with pace in Italian

If you want to be left alone, you have to say in Italian that you want to be left “in peace”.

Lasciami in pace!
Leave me alone!

If you know a very peaceful person, you can say that they “would not hurt a fly”.

Mio fratello? Non farebbe male a una mosca!
My brother? He wouldn’t hurt a fly!

When you need to concentrate on a task, you may want to close the windows to keep any noisy activity out of your office. You want to work in santa pace, in peace!

Finalmente posso dormire in santa pace!
At last I can sleep in peace!

Con tutto questo rumore non riesco mai a studiare in santa pace.
With all this noise, I can never study in peace.

If you want to wish someone peace in a somewhat solemn way, you can say che la pace sia con te. Note that this uses the pronoun “tu”, which is an informal way of addressing people. It is not used with the polite form “Lei”.

Non dare pace and non darsi pace are used to mean “not to leave someone alone” and “not to come to terms with, to reconcile with”.

Dare is a verb that means to give, and darsi is its reflexive form.

You use non darsi pace to emphasize that you or someone else is unable to accept a given situation.

Quest’afa non ci dà pace da tre settimane.
This mugginess has not given us peace for three weeks.

Giorgio non si dà pace per quanto successo ieri sera.
Giorgio cannot come to terms with what happened last night.

Mettersi il cuore in pace or mettersi l’animo in pace is the opposite of the above expression because it describes a situation where you accept an unpleasant situation and stop thinking about it endlessly.

Devi metterti il cuore in pace, Giorgio. Non puoi fare più nulla.
You have to set your heart at rest, Giorgio. There is nothing more you can do.

You use the expression far tornare la pace when you manage to make peace again. Literally, it can be translated as “to make peace come back”.

To make peace can simply be translated as fare pace.

I bambini che stavano litigando hanno appena fatto pace.
The children who were fighting have just made peace.

You can also negoziare, negotiate, peace with a trattato di pace, peace treaty.

I Paesi hanno negoziato un trattato di pace.
The countries negotiated a peace treaty.

What kinds of peace are there in Italian?

Pace interiore
Inner peace

Pace permanente
Permanent peace

For example, you can say…

Elisa trova la pace interiore solo quando ascolta della musica.
Elisa only finds inner peace when she listens to music.

La pace permanente non è altro che un’illusione.
Permanent peace is nothing but an illusion.

Someone who promotes peace is said to be a pacifista, pacifist.

A common peace symbol is the colomba, dove, holding an olive branch, rametto d’ulivo.

Justice of the peace is another word that features the word for peace in Italian, giudice di pace.

Finally, to rest in peace is translated in Italian as riposare in pace.

---

More free Italian resources

❤️ If you liked this lesson on the meaning of pace in Italian, share it with your friends!