Turning over a new leaf with voltare pagina

By Sigrid Lee

There are certain moments in life, and January is often one of them, when we reassess things, we try something new, or we turn over a new leaf. Did you ever wonder if there is an equivalent expression in Italian for turning over a new leaf? There is! It's voltare pagina (to turn the page). It's not exact, but it's close. Turning over a new leaf looks to the future with the adjective "new," and it implies getting a fresh start, whereas voltare pagina might imply leaving the past in the past. It can mean "to move on." It all depends on the context. Turning over a new leaf is usually applicable to one individual, whereas voltare pagina can be general or specific.

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When you turn over a new leaf, it's like turning the page. Back in the day, at school, we would use loose-leaf notebooks, also called "ring binders." In Italian, these are called either raccoglitori ad anelli or quaderni ad anelli. So "leaf" is another word for "page" (or more precisely, "sheet of paper or parchment"), even though when we hear, say, or read the word "leaf," we usually think of a tree or plant with leaves. In Italian, a leaf is una foglia.

Fun fact: 2 Italian nouns, la foglia (the botanical leaf) and il foglio (page, leaf, sheet of paper including back and front) come from the same Latin word "folium," meaning "leaf" or "sheet of paper."

Il mese di gennaio è un buon momento per voltare pagina.

(The month of January is a good opportunity for turning over a new leaf.)

Il passato non torna, Albe'. Dobbiamo voltare pagina.

The past doesn't come back, Albe'. We have to turn the page.

Captions 4-5, Non è mai troppo tardi EP1 - Part 5
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Sì, lo so che non me ne dovrebbe fregare più niente, che... che dovrei andare avanti, ma, ma... non ci riesco.

Yes, I know I shouldn't give a damn anymore, that... that I should move on, but, but... I can't.

Captions 8-9, Sposami EP 3 - Part 20
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In the previous example, the speaker could have said:

Sì, lo so che non me ne dovrebbe fregare più niente, che... che dovrei voltare pagina, ma, ma... non ci riesco.

Yes, I know I shouldn't give a damn anymore, that... that I should move on, but, but... I can't.

For more about the verb voltare (to turn) and its origins, and about other related words and topics, see this lesson, especially the section titled:
"When manuscripts had leaves, not pages."

Here are two examples contrasting foglia and foglio.

Allora qua abbiamo un pittore, come vedete, che disegna foglie secche e frutta marcia.

So here we have a painter, as you see, who designs dry leaves and rotten fruit.

Captions 40-41, Caravaggio EP1 - Part 6
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Se vuoi fare contento un bambino, dagli un foglio bianco e una matita colorata.

If you want to make a child happy, give him a white sheet of paper and a colored pencil.

Captions 7-8, Questione di Karma Rai Cinema - Part 1
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Have a little fun with words that have different meanings depending on whether they end in a or o.

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