Malocchio: Why Your Compliment Could Be a Curse — The Complete Italian Superstition Guide

Your Italian neighbour just got a new car. You admire it enthusiastically. She smiles — but later, privately, she makes a subtle gesture with her hand, fingers extended and pointing down, to ward off the evil eye. You did not mean any harm. You probably did not even know you were dangerous. But in Italy, excessive admiration is a form of risk, and there are ancient, specific, and entirely serious countermeasures. Welcome to the world of il malocchio.

The malocchio (evil eye) is one of the oldest and most widespread beliefs in human history, found in cultures from Greece to Turkey, from Mexico to Ethiopia. In Italy it is particularly strong in the south and in rural areas, but traces of it exist everywhere. The belief is that certain people — sometimes intentionally, often not — can harm others through envious or admiring glances. The remedy involves ritual, prayer, olive oil, and the right grandmother. Italy's relationship with the supernatural is layered: officially Catholic, practically pragmatic, secretly ancient.

The ritual for diagnosing and removing the malocchio varies by region but typically involves water, olive oil, and prayer. A practitioner — usually an older woman, often a grandmother — drops oil into a bowl of water and observes how it behaves. If the oil spreads rather than forming a ball, this is said to confirm the presence of the evil eye. Then a specific prayer, usually learned in childhood and passed down through female family lines (it is often said the prayer loses its power if written down or taught to outsiders), is recited three times. In southern Italy this figure is called la guaritrice (the healer) or simply la nonna (grandma).

The number 17 is Italy's unlucky number — not 13, as in English-speaking countries. The Roman numeral XVII can be rearranged to spell VIXI — Latin for 'I have lived', an inscription found on ancient tombstones meaning, essentially, 'I am dead'. Many Italian buildings skip the 17th floor. Ryanair's Italian flights famously do not have a row 17. And if a sporting event is scheduled on the 17th, expect some quiet Italian anxiety.