Learning Italian in Rome - Phrase of the Week: Non vedo l'ora (fig. Can't wait)

Okay, this short and quick post is inspired by an actual experience. You see, after I published three romanzi rosa (romance/chick-lit novels) featuring gatti (cats), mio marito (my husband) took the hint and went about the process of adopting un cucciolo (any baby animal, aka cub, aka kitten, in this case...it can also mean puppy or lion cub though). However, the one he decided on hasn't been weaned yet, so he's been on pins and needles waiting for our new pet to be ready.

His Italian being better than mine, he wrote an email to the owner of the allevamento (place that raises/breeds animals, including cats) saying "Non vedo l'ora di vedere Zivago (temporary name of kitten). After the reading the email, I was 100% sure he made a mistake.

Me: Honey, why did your email say "I can't see the time to see Zivago?" Are you saying we don't have time to pick him up? (Yes, I was panicking. It took a while to get my neat freak spouse to come around to the idea of us having a pet. I wasn't going to let him back out at this late time.)

At which time, my know-it-all spouse, pointed me to this thread on WordReference.com.

You see, "Non vedo l'ora di vederti" means "I can't wait to see you," which, apparently, is not an uncommon way of ending romantic correspondence.

In other words, Non vedo l'ora is the English equivalent of "I can't wait to" or "I'm dying to" do something. The easiest way to use it would be to follow it with di + infinitive of a verb. Non vedo l'ora di vedere = I'm dying to see, and Non vedo l'ora di vederti = I'm dying to see you. Non vedo l'ora di vedere mia madre = I'm dying to see my mother.

Non vedo l'ora can also be followed by che + different subject + subjunctive tense. For example, Non vedo l'ora che sia natale = I can't wait for (it=new subject) to be Christmas.