Here are some points worth mentioning about the Italian calendar: The Italian week begins with Monday. The days of the week, the names of the season, and the names of months are not capitalized in Italian. And, finally, there is an explanation for why settembre (September) is the "seventh" month, ottobre (October) is the "eighth," novembre (November) is the "ninth," and dicembre (December) is the "tenth": A very long time ago, the Roman calendar began in March, so September, October, November, and December were the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months of the year. For a complete list of months (i mesi), refer to the table below.

MONTHS OF THE YEAR

gennaioJanuary

febbraioFebruary

marzoMarch

aprileApril

maggioMay

giugnoJune

luglioJuly

agostoAugust

settembreSeptember

ottobreOctober

novembreNovember

dicembreDecember

Another bit of trivia: When a religious festival or holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, Italians oftentimes fare il ponte, or make a four-day holiday, by taking off the intervening Monday or Friday. To learn Italian days of the week (giorni della settimana), take a look at the table below.

DAYS OF THE WEEK

lunedìMonday

martedìTuesday

mercoledìWednesday

giovedìThursday

venerdìFriday

sabatoSaturday

domenicaSunday

Here are a few other phrases you might find useful:

Che giorno è oggi? (What day is it today?)

Oggi è martedì. (Today is Tuesday.)

Domani è mercoledì. (Tomorrow is Wednesday.)

Ieri è stato lunedì. (Yesterday was Monday.)