ILGUR: Italian Language, Grammar and Usage Resource

In English, we capitalize a lot of things: languages, nationalities, countries, proper nouns, etc. In Italian, the rules are a little different. Here are some guidelines on what to capitalize in Italian:

• Proper names (i nomi propri), such as:
  Carlo, Carla, Paolo, Signor Mattini, Ministro Padoa Schioppa, etc.

• Place names, countries, cities, regions, rivers, geographic locations, archaeological sites etc:
  such as Roma, Africa, Stati Uniti, Lazio, Foro Romano, etc.
• Titles of books, magazines, newspapers, movies, articles, etc., such as:
  Panorama, La Repubblica, I promessi sposi

  However…if the title consists of three or more words, then only the first word is capitalized. If the title consists of a definite/indefinite article + 1 noun, then both are capitalized (La Repubblica, Il Santo, etc.). If more than one noun follows a definite/indefinite article, then the title is considered long enough and only the first word is capitalized (I promessi sposi, Il giorno della civetta). If a proper noun is part of the title, then it would be capitalized (La vita di Giovanna).
  

• Organizations, such as:
  Onu, Ansa, Cgil, etc.
  *note on abbreviations: In Italian, typically only the first letter is capitalized, unlike in English where we write UN, ANSA, NATO, etc.
• Religious figures/terms:
  La Vergine, L’Ultima Cena, San Pietro
  
• Holidays, festivals, and other cultural events, such as:
  Natale, Festa della Repubblica
  
• Specific and important historical periods, such as:
  Il Rinascimento, Il Medioevo
• Names of companies, such as:
  Alitalia, Banco Popolare, etc.
• The first word of a sentence
• Formal pronouns are typically capitalized for respect as well as to prevent ambiguity to distinguish between informal forms:

  Non sapevo che Lei non è andata, Signora Martinelli.
  I didn’t know that you were not going, Signora Martinelli.

In Italian, the following are generally not capitalized:

• languages

• days of the week
• The first letter after a colon in Italian is not capitalized
• Scientific and technical terms are not capitalized — however, if said term contains a proper noun, such as the name of the scientist, then that word would be capitalized
• points of the compass (north, south, east, west)

• The noun, l’oceano, is never capitalized, even when referring to a specific ocean, but the word that follows is capitalized: l’oceano Pacifico, l’oceano Atlantico, etc.
• streets, highways and roads are not capitalized save for the proper noun that accompanies them (via Appia, autostrada di Massachusetts)
• historical periods that do not have a weighty historical relevance
• months
• seasons
• adjectives (unless it is the first word of a sentence)
• unnamed individuals:

  Conosci gli americani all’albergo? | Do you know the Americans at the hotel?

• the subject pronoun, io (unless it is the first word of a sentence)