What’s the meaning of “Piove sempre sul bagnato”?

In this short lesson, we will learn the meaning of the Italian proverb Piove sempre sul bagnato along with its pronunciation. Open your umbrella, this is a very wet idiom!

Let’s start! Iniziamo!

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Piove sempre sul bagnato

Meaning of the proverb

Piove sempre sul bagnato can be literally translated as “it always rains on what is wet”, meaning that rich people will usually get richer and poor people will always get poorer. It’s equivalent to the English idiom it never rains but it pours.

Linguistically speaking, this idiom can be broken down into…

• piove (“it rains”, from piovere, to rain)
• sempre (always)
• sul (on the)
• bagnato (wet, past participle, from bagnare meaning to wet)

Chi è povero diventa ancora più povero. Piove sempre sul bagnato.
The poor always get poorer. It never rains, but it pours.

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Pronunciation of the proverb

Now let’s hear how this proverb is pronounced.

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Where does Piove sempre sul bagnato come from?

If you already have enough of something, but you still get more, then what you get in excess is basically useless, just like water on an already wet field is. The people who could benefit from it will get nothing.

This proverb comes from a quote by the Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli who once wrote:

Piove sul bagnato: lagrime su sangue, sangue su lagrime.

Giovanni Pascoli

Lagrime is an old way of slepping lacrime, tears, while sangue is the translation for blood.

And that’s the end of our lesson on the Italian proverb Piove sempre sul bagnato!

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What next?

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