Reading the Italy news reminded me that the Italians' favorite insult, va fare in culo, often shortened to fangool, which is the equivalent of our English invitation to go and perform an anatomically difficult act, is, more often than not, expressed not verbally but with one of three different gestures:
1. The most familiar one, striking the left arm just above the elbow with the palm of the right hand, the left arm at a 90-degree angle and elevated, the left fist loosely clenched.
2. The most ancient, known as "il fico" (the fig), made by folding down the fingers of the hand over the palm, the thumb inserted between the first and second fingers so that it protrudes through the first finger which will be wrapped around it. This is mentioned in Dante's Inferno.
3. With the right hand clenched loosely in a fist, the thumb sticking up on the outside, flick the thumb against the underside of the top front teeth in someone's direction. This is portrayed in the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet, where the respective retinues of the Capulets and the Montagues are trying to provoke a fight in the square. You have the dialogue, "Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?" "I do bite my thumb, sir."
