The next time you find yourself enjoying a grilled sandwich, impress any nearby Italian speakers by using its proper name: “panino,” not “panini.” The latter term is actually plural, while “panino” — a diminutive of pane, meaning “bread” — is singular. 

This is similar to several other Italian words we English speakers tend to use incorrectly, such as “graffiti” (singular: “graffito”) and “paparazzi” (singular: “paparazzo”). Italian panini also differ from the kind eaten in the U.S. in that they aren’t always grilled and tend to feature just two or three ingredients.

Italians have been making sandwiches for centuries, but panini as we think of them today were popularized in Milan in the 1970s. It was there that bars known as paninoteche became so popular that an entire fashion-based youth movement, called paninaro, took its name from them. Young people known as paninari tended to hang out at these sandwich bars because they’d grown weary of the slow pace of other more classic Italian restaurants, and panini were the closest thing to fast food available in the area at the time. Paninari were so hip at the time, in fact, that they inspired a song by Pet Shop Boys. Those must have been some pretty good sandwiches.

Microstates within Italy (Vatican City and San Marino) 2

Kilograms of pasta eaten annually per capita in Italy, the most in the world 23.2

Kings of Rome before it became a republic 7

Countries bordered by Italy (Switzerland, France, Slovenia, and Austria) 4

Word of the Day

As of today, Friday, June 27, 2025:

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