Italian Days of the Week: What You Actually Need to Know

So you're learning Italian and you need to know the days of the week. Makes sense. You want to make plans with Italian friends, understand when that museum is closed, or just not look confused when someone asks "Che giorno è oggi?"

Here's the thing—Italian days of the week are actually pretty straightforward once you get past a couple of weird grammar rules. And unlike French (where the weekdays can trip you up in different ways), Italian follows some nice patterns.

Let me break down what actually matters.

The Seven Days (and How to Say Them)

Here are your days, Monday through Sunday:

Lunedì (loo-neh-DEE) - Monday Named after the Moon (luna). Makes sense—it's the start of the week, just like the moon is Earth's closest celestial body.

Martedì (mar-teh-DEE) - Tuesday
Mars day. The god of war. Fitting for the second day of the work week when reality really sets in.

Mercoledì (mehr-ko-leh-DEE) - Wednesday Mercury's day. The messenger god. Midweek hustle.

Giovedì (jo-veh-DEE) - Thursday Jupiter's day. King of the gods. You're almost to the weekend.

Venerdì (veh-nehr-DEE) - Friday Venus day. Goddess of love. Thank god it's Friday, right?

Sabato (SA-ba-to) - Saturday This one breaks the pattern. Comes from "Sabbath"—the day of rest. Notice the stress shifts to the first syllable.

Domenica (do-ME-nee-ka) - Sunday From "Dies Dominica," meaning "the Lord's Day." The only day named after the Christian God instead of a Roman one.

See the pattern? Monday through Friday all end with that accented -dì (which comes from the Latin word for "day"). The stress lands on that final syllable every time. Sabato and domenica are the rebels.

The Grammar Stuff That Actually Matters

Don't Capitalize the Days

Look, English speakers mess this up constantly. In Italian, you don't capitalize the days of the week unless they're starting a sentence.

It's a small thing, but it makes you look like you know what you're doing.

Domenica Is Feminine (Everything Else Is Masculine)

Six days are masculine (use "il"), but domenica is feminine (use "la"). This matters when you're using adjectives:

The Article Thing

This is where it gets weird if you're coming from English. When you're talking about something that happens regularly on a specific day, you add the article:

Il lunedì vado in palestra = "On Mondays, I go to the gym" (habitual) Lunedì vado in palestra = "On Monday, I'm going to the gym" (one time)

See the difference? The article means it's a recurring thing. No article means you're talking about a specific upcoming Monday.

Some regions use different prepositions (di domenica, alla domenica), but the standard way is with il/la.

Friday the 17th (Not Friday the 13th)

Here's a fun one. In Italy, the unlucky day isn't Friday the 13th—it's Friday the 17th.

Why? Because in Roman numerals, 17 is XVII. Rearrange those letters and you get VIXI, which means "I have lived" in Latin. Past tense. As in, you're dead.

Plus, Friday is the day Jesus was crucified, so combining Friday with an already unlucky number? Italians are not having it.

ITA Airways (the national airline) doesn't even have row 17 on their planes. Hotels often skip the 17th floor. Soccer teams won't schedule matches on the 17th of any month. Some people literally stay home on Friday the 17th.

Meanwhile, 13 is actually considered lucky in Italy. So when you're making plans with Italian friends, maybe avoid suggesting Friday the 17th for that road trip.

Cultural Context (Because It Actually Matters)

Monday Is the Start of the Week

In Italy, Monday is officially the first day of the week. Sunday is the end. The calendar literally starts with lunedì.

The Thursday Expression

Italians have this expression: "Sei come il giovedì" (You're like Thursday).

It means you're always in the middle of some drama—just like Thursday is in the middle of the week. If an Italian tells you this, they're calling you a drama queen. Good to know.

Riposo (The Long Lunch)

Italians take lunch seriously. We're talking 2-4 hours. It's called riposo (or riposino), and it can include a home-cooked meal, a nap, running errands—the whole deal. Not as common in big cities anymore, but still very much a thing in smaller towns.

Work starts around 8 am, lunch hits at 1 pm, and then things stretch into the afternoon. It's a different rhythm than what you're probably used to.

Sunday Is Sacred

Domenica is for family. Long lunches that turn into dinners, hours of conversation, maybe a passeggiata (stroll) afterward to walk off all that pasta. Churches fill up. Shops close. It's genuinely a day of rest in a way that feels almost foreign if you're from the US or UK.

How to Actually Learn These

The etymology helps. Monday is lunar day. Tuesday is Mars day. You can connect these to English words you already know (lunar, martial). The pattern of -dì for the first five days gives you a structure to hang the words on.

But honestly? You're going to learn these by using them. That's how language actually works.

You need to see these days in context—in Italian TV shows, YouTube videos, or articles where people are actually talking about their week. You need to hear lunedì when someone's complaining about going back to work, or venerdì when they're making weekend plans.

Flashcards can teach you that lunedì means Monday. But real Italian content teaches you that Italians say "Buon lunedì!" (Happy Monday!) when Americans would never say that. It teaches you the rhythm of how people talk about their week, which days are for which activities, how the culture shapes the language.

That's the difference between knowing words and actually understanding how to use them.

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If you're serious about learning Italian (and not just memorizing a list of days), you need to engage with real content. That's where Migaku comes in.

The browser extension lets you watch Italian shows on Netflix or browse Italian websites, and when you hit a word or phrase you don't know—like when someone mentions "giovedì sera" (Thursday evening)—you can look it up instantly and save it to your spaced repetition deck. You're learning in context, from actual Italian, not from textbook exercises about Marco going to the biblioteca.

The mobile app syncs everything, so you can review those cards while you're on the bus or waiting for coffee. And because you learned these words from real situations, they stick better. You remember that venerdì was mentioned when the character was planning a party, not because you stared at a chart.

Immersion learning isn't just a buzzword—it's how you actually get comfortable with a language. The days of the week show up constantly in real Italian. You just need the tools to catch them and remember them. There's a 10-day free trial if you want to see how it works.