Italian simultaneous interpreter in Tbilisi

Italian interpreting in Georgia feeds on its own, easily recognisable contexts: wine tastings and preparation for the Verona fair, installation of Italian machinery in Georgian factories, visits by buyers of hazelnuts and agricultural produce, groups of Italian tourists, Italian citizens' visits to the notary and to clinics, consular and cultural events. In interpreting, Italian stands out for its speed, emotionality and regional diversity, which demands particular flexibility from the interpreter. This page looks at every format and helps the organiser make the right choice.

The pace of Italian and simultaneous interpreting

An Italian speaker utters more words per minute on average than a German or an English one, and the emotional intonation, hand movements and "spiral" development of thought, where the main statement often comes after several subordinate sentences, demand fast and at the same time composed work from the simultaneous interpreter. When interpreting simultaneously from Italian into Georgian, the interpreter "condenses" the text so that the Georgian version keeps up with the speaker, and when interpreting from Georgian into Italian, conversely, takes care to preserve natural Italian phraseology so that the text does not sound "mechanical" to an Italian listener. This is why two interpreters work on Italian simultaneous interpreting, alternating every 20-30 minutes, and study the speakers' presentations before the conference so that they know the terminology and figures in advance.

Consecutive interpreting: negotiation, visit, signing

The consecutive format is used in the Italian context at business negotiations, factory visits, contract signing ceremonies and when accompanying delegations. Italian business culture puts the personal relationship before the deal: a negotiation often starts with lunch, the conversation about family and the city comes before the business topic, and the interpreter must translate this "informal" part with the same attention, because that is exactly where trust is built. Forms of address ("Dottore", which in Italy belongs to any person with a degree, "Ingegnere", "Avvocato", the "Lei" form) must be rendered exactly, and Italian courtesy formulas ("con piacere", "figuriamoci", "la ringrazio") with Georgian equivalents, not word for word. In consecutive interpreting the interpreter takes notes and renders a 3-5 minute segment in full.

Wine and gastronomy: a specialised interpreter

Italy is a wine country, and Italian sommeliers, importers and journalists expect professional vocabulary in Georgian wine cellars, at qvevri tastings and on Kakheti tours. An interpreter who cannot render "maceration", "tannin", "oxidative ageing" or "autochthonous variety" with the correct Italian term (macerazione, tannini, affinamento ossidativo, vitigno autoctono) cannot "open up" the story of Georgian wine for an Italian professional. When accompanying a Georgian stand at the international fair in Verona, the interpreter talks to a sommelier, a trader and a cultural historian at the same time, and our wine sector interpreters command all three vocabularies. The same applies to gastronomic tours, where the Italian names of dishes, techniques and ingredients are simple at first sight but in reality specialist knowledge, and an Italian guest expects the same detail in the description of Georgian cuisine that they use when talking about their own.

Factory visits and installation of Italian machinery

Italian production machinery (winery lines, stone processing equipment, furniture and packaging machines, agricultural machinery) is widely used in Georgian factories, and its installation, commissioning and staff training are accompanied by visits from Italian technicians. During such a visit the interpreter works in the plant, in a noisy environment, wearing protective equipment, and must command the technical terminology ("messa in funzione", "manutenzione ordinaria", "quadro elettrico", "pressa", "nastro trasportatore") instantly, without a dictionary. Before the visit we ask for the machine's technical documentation so that the interpreter learns the terminology of the specific equipment in advance. Italian technicians often use a regional dialect or accent in informal conversation (the regions of Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy are the main source of production machinery), and our interpreters know the speech of northern Italy.

Hazelnuts, agriculture and buyers' visits

Buyers from the Italian confectionery and food industry regularly visit Georgia to purchase Georgian hazelnuts, wine, mineral water and other agricultural produce, and the hazelnut plantations and processing plants of Samegrelo are at the centre of Italian companies' interest. On such visits the interpreter works in the field, in the plant and at the negotiating table at the same time, commanding agronomic terminology ("resa", "calibro", "umidità", "aflatossine", "certificazione biologica"), quality standards and trade terms (Incoterms, payment terms, phytosanitary requirements) in both languages. Certification issues for the EU market (organic, GlobalG.A.P., HACCP) are often the main topic of the visit, and the interpreter knows the terminology of these systems. For a multi-day visit the same interpreter follows the delegation.

Tourist groups and cultural tours

The flow of Italian tourists to Georgia is growing, and a guide-interpreter or an interpreter accompanying a Georgian guide is increasingly in demand for Italian groups. An Italian tourist expects detail and comparisons on a historical tour (the architecture of Georgian churches against the Roman and Byzantine tradition, Georgian cuisine against Italian), and an interpreter who draws these parallels naturally makes the tour "their own" for the Italian guest. In the tourist format interpreting is consecutive or of the "whisper" type for a small group, while for a large group a portable transmitter system is used, which protects the guide from straining their voice and gives the group freedom of movement. At cultural events (Italian film week, opera tours, lectures of the Dante Alighieri Society) the interpreter commands literary text and audience questions at the same time.

Accompanying an Italian family to the doctor: the Italian particularity of medical interpreting

An Italian patient rarely goes to the doctor alone: a spouse, child or parent accompanies them to the consultation, asks questions and takes part in the decision, and an interpreter serving an Italian patient at a dental, ophthalmology or aesthetic clinic in Tbilisi must manage this family dynamic: whose question to interpret when, how to preserve the patient's "I" when a family member speaks for them. At an Italian doctor's online consultation for a Georgian patient the difficulty is the reverse: the Italian doctor speaks fast, uses medical abbreviations even orally (TAC, RMN, ecografia, PS, ricovero) and often voices hypotheses one after another, and the interpreter organises this flow so that the patient understands the diagnosis, the plan and the next step unambiguously. In both cases the interpreter studies the translated medical history before the consultation and, at the patient's wish, prepares a written summary afterwards, which is submitted to the Georgian insurance company together with the Italian clinic's preventivo.

Rogito in Georgian: with an Italian at the notary, the registry, the court

An Italian buying an apartment in Georgia comes to the notary with the experience of the "rogito", the Italian deed of sale: in Italy the notary reads the deed to the parties, checks the cadastral data, mortgage encumbrances and the energy performance certificate (APE), calculates the taxes and often handles the payment themselves. A Georgian sale is much faster, the Public Registry is electronic and an apostilled extract is obtained in minutes, and the interpreter's work is two-way: they convey the content of the deed in Italian so that the Italian party understands every clause (for which they are recorded by name in the deed and sign it), and at the same time explain to the Italian which Italian stage "does not exist" in the Georgian procedure and why. The same logic applies when founding a company (the Italian expects the two-stage procedure of the notaio and the Camera di Commercio, the Georgian registry completes it in one day), at a wedding at the Public Service Hall and in court, where the testimony of an Italian witness or party is interpreted consecutively, in the first person. At the Italian consulate an interpreter is rarely needed, because the consulate has Georgian-speaking staff.

Regional Italian and dialects

Italian is regionally diverse: alongside standard Italian there are Neapolitan, Sicilian, Venetian, Lombard and other dialects, which often surface in informal conversation, while regional accent and vocabulary are noticeable even in standard speech. In business and official situations an Italian speaker uses standard Italian, but at lunch, in the plant or during a tour dialect phrases return, and an interpreter who knows the regional variation does not lose these moments. Our Italian interpreters have experience of living or working in different regions of Italy, and we choose the interpreter according to where the delegation comes from. For work with companies from southern Italy, where dialect is more active, we take this into account especially.

At the table and in the cellar: chuchotage in Italian

The most important part of an Italian visit often happens not in the conference hall but at the table and in the wine cellar, where a booth and a microphone are unthinkable and the discussion runs without a break. This is exactly where chuchotage, whispered simultaneous interpreting, works: the interpreter sits next to the Italian importer or technician and interprets the Georgian host's toast, the winemaker's comment or the engineer's explanation for them continuously, in a low voice, and renders the Italian's reply to the table consecutively. This format is natural for Italians, because an Italian business dinner is a full stage of the negotiation and not a "break", and an interpreter who cannot drink the wine but interprets the talk about wine keeps the rhythm of the table. At a dinner longer than two hours two interpreters alternate, and when there are more than two Italian guests (for example a group of journalists or sommeliers on a Kakheti tour) we switch to a portable transmitter, which delivers the interpretation to the group by earpiece as it moves between cellars and protects the guide or winemaker from straining their voice.

A video call with Italy: pausa pranzo, talking at once, technology

When planning a remote meeting with Italy, two Italian realities must be taken into account. The first is the time zone: Milan and Rome are two hours (in summer) or three (in winter) behind Tbilisi, and 14:00 in Tbilisi is 12:00 in Italy, that is the edge of the pausa pranzo, the lunch break, which an Italian office strictly observes between 13:00 and 14:30; so we schedule calls at 12:00-14:00 or 17:00-19:00 Tbilisi time. The second reality is the manner of conversation: Italian participants interrupt each other and talk in parallel even on a video call, which is natural in a room but makes interpreting impossible online, and at the start of the meeting the interpreter politely asks both sides for "one voice at a time", which the Italian moderator usually enforces themselves. Technically we deliver simultaneous interpreting through the interpretation channels of Zoom and Teams and consecutive in the shared call, the interpreter works with a wired internet connection and an external microphone, and a technical test is run with both sides before the meeting.

A call to Italy: Questura, INPS and "richiamiamo noi"

The everyday difficulty of Georgians working in Italy is a phone conversation with an Italian office, where an automated menu, a long wait and finally the operator's fast, dialectal Italian merge into one: at the Questura about whether the residence card is ready, at INPS about contributions or the pension, at the Comune about registration of residence, at the ASL about choosing a family doctor. The interpreter joins by conference call, catches the pace of the Italian conversation on the client's behalf and renders the operator's standard phrases ("la pratica è in lavorazione", "deve presentarsi di persona", "richiamiamo noi", which in practice rarely happens) in Georgian with their real meaning. From the Georgian side, clarifying Italian customs documents, an urgent call from an Italian supplier about a machinery breakdown or an Italian tourist's urgent visit to a clinic are handled by the same service, within minutes during working hours. Italian offices answer in the morning hours, so calls are scheduled at 11:00-14:00 Tbilisi time.

"Ma dai!" and the language of hands: what the interpreter interprets and what not

An Italian negotiation sometimes looks dramatic to a Georgian participant: raised voices, energetic hand movements, talking at once, "ma dai!", "assolutamente no!" and a minute later laughter. The interpreter's task here is to hold a precise line. They interpret everything that was said, including the tone, because tone is information, but they do not "soften" or "sharpen": the Italian "assolutamente no" is "categorically no" in Georgian, even if "va bene" follows five minutes later. They do not interpret gestures, but if a gesture carries content (the famous "what do you want" finger movement instead of a question), they note it in words. They are neither side's adviser nor a "peacemaker", but when they see that the Georgian side reads the emotional tone as conflict and the Italian reads Georgian restraint as lack of interest, they say openly, in front of both: "Cultural note: this tone is the norm of Italian negotiation and does not mean refusal". Without this transparency the interpreter becomes a party, which contradicts the ethics of the profession.

Press conferences, academic lectures and the fashion industry

At the press conference of an Italian ambassador, minister, investor or artist the interpreting is public and is quoted directly by journalists, so the interpreter studies the text of the statement in advance and renders figures, names and dates with particular care. The Italian studies programmes of Tbilisi State University and Ilia State University, the Dante Alighieri Society and the cultural programme of the Italian Embassy regularly invite Italian lecturers, writers and historians, and academic interpreting requires the exact rendering of complex, multi-level sentences, quotations and authors' names. A separate field is the fashion and design industry: presentations of Italian brands, furniture and interior exhibitions and visits of Georgian designers to Milan, where the interpreter commands aesthetic and technical vocabulary ("tessuto", "taglio", "finitura", "collezione") at the same time.

Italian interpreters: who stands at the stand, in the cellar and in the factory

Most of our Italian interpreters lived in Italy for years: some studied at the universities of Bologna, Padua or Florence, some worked in an Italian company or in the restaurant trade, and some come from Italian-Georgian families and have both languages as native. This biography matters because Italian interpreting happens at the table, in the cellar and in the factory, where textbook Italian is not enough and regional speech, jokes, gestures and dinner etiquette are part of the language. For the wine sector we have interpreters who took a sommelier course or worked in wine companies; for technical installation, interpreters with an engineering education who know the dialect phrases of technicians from Veneto and Emilia; for agriculture, specialists in agronomic terminology. For the conference booth there is a separate team with simultaneous experience. Every interpreter works under a confidentiality agreement, and on a multi-day visit the same interpreter follows the Italian delegation, because for Italians personal trust in the interpreter is part of the deal.

Season, route, days: planning an Italian visit

Most Italian visits go to Kakheti or Samegrelo and last several days. Seasonality matters too: during the harvest (September-October) and before the Verona fair (March-April) wine sector interpreters are booked in advance. The interpreter prepares on your products and technical documentation in advance. Accompanying a Georgian stand abroad, in Verona or Milan, is a separate service.

Which format for which case

• International conference or business forum: simultaneous from a booth, two interpreters
• Seminar or training with 10-30 participants: simultaneous with a portable system or consecutive
• Business negotiation, contract signing, business lunch: consecutive, sector interpreter
• Factory visit, machinery installation, training: consecutive or with a portable system, technical interpreter
• Wine tasting, Kakheti tour, fair stand: consecutive or whispered, wine interpreter
• Hazelnut plantation, plant, agronomic visit: consecutive, agricultural sector interpreter
• Visit to the notary, court, an office: consecutive, interpreter registered with a notary
• Medical consultation: consecutive, medical interpreter, on site or by video call
• Tourist group: consecutive or with a portable system, guide-interpreter

Frequently asked questions