Arriverderci Roma-Goodbye to Rome
The Original Song—More Complex than the Simple English Version
The English lyrics to this 1950s and 1960s popular standard, while quite romantic, miss the charm, the poignancy,and even the point of the original Italian.
This wonderful song has endured for more than fifty years. It was written in 1955 by Renato Ranucci (stage name Renato Rascel), Pietro Garinei, and Sandro Giovanni. Carl Sigman created an English “translation” in 1958. This latter version was introduced in the movie Seven Hills of Rome (also released under the title Arriverderci Roma), a musical with Mario Lanzo. In the 1960’s, during the times of La Dolce Vita, it seemed that you heard this song in every restaurant with a strolling guitarist/singer.
The Italian version, at least in this writer’s liberal interpretation, reveals insights into the Italian character and culture. It tells you of the legend about the Fontana di Trevi, later made famous in the Oscar-winning movie Three Coins in the Fountain. By now, every traveler—in person or by armchair—probably knows that whoever throws a coin into the fountain will always return to the Eternal City.
A Small Travelogue in Song
The singer reminds you of a meal at Squarciarelli, a famous restaurant in Grottaferrata, one of the Castelli Romani to the southeast of Rome. To these cool hills, Romans have retreated for centuries for some quiet and comfort, particularly in the hotter days of summer. Even the Popes have made a summer home in one of the Castelli, Castel Gandolfo. Here, surrounded by the immortal pines, you can feast on fettucine and wine from the area, quite likely the excellent Frascati table wine.
Through the words of the song, you might revisit in memory a ride in a carriage and a woman who was very beautiful but always said “No!” You will hear the tale of the English girl with a turned-up nose that you met at the Trevi Fountain, and kissed . . . the one who told you later, in a little lost voice, that it was over and she was going north (home to England). However, before she left, she threw a coin in the Fountain.
The singer says the lady would like to return to places where you and she were so happy. She will carry back to England in her heart the memories of where you told her “I love you.”
As the song repeats Arriverderci Roma, Good Bye . . . au revoir, the lady chases away a young boy who tries to fish out the penny from the fountain.
Finally, if you have a soul with a romantic turn, you know that arrivederci literally means not “Goodbye,” but “We’ll see each other again.”
