America's a Nice Italian Name

Allan Sherman

I live in Italy, the sky is sunny
This is a nice place, this is a nice place
And if you think the way I talk is funny,
Shut up you face Shut up you face
America to me is not so foreign
It's just the same She's just the same
Of course you have no got Sophia Loren
Don't be ashamed, don't be ashamed

Bella, bella, atsa means cute
Vespa, Vespa, atsa motor scoot
And if you in a nice mood for some nice Italian food,
Veal with cheese on it is veal parmigiana

The opera house in Rome is called La Scala
Is very strange Is very strange
Ten thousand lira makes a half doller
You get some change You get some change
In Venice if you do a lotta driving,
Then don't forget, please don't forget,
Before you drive, go study scuba diving
The streets is wet The streets is wet

Vino, vino, atsa glass wine
You drink yourself, I'll drink mine
Vittorio DeSica makes a picture twice a week
Soup with macaroni is called minnestrone

I wrote to Anna Maria Alberghetti
She sings high up very high
I typed the letter on my Olivetti,
I don't know why I took a try
Dean Martin, he's a nice Italian fella
A friend of Frank's a friend of Frank's
If you give them a piece of mozzarella,
They tell you thanks a thousand thanks

Dolce, dolce, dolce means sweet
Grapes is things you stamp with you feet
The Tower of Pisa, she's lean a Necchi is a sewin' machine
Eat some lasagna, but don't get any on you

A nice painter was Botticelli
He's very old, he's very old
He's paint a lady with a naked belly,
She caught a cold She caught a cold
I know a man who wrote a song, "Volare"
He gotta cash a lotta cash
He took da cash and bought a new Ferrari
He made a crash his fender smash

Gina, Gina Lollobrigida
I love her, but que sera sera
And if you see Anna Magnani with Marcello Mastroianni,
Ask if you could borrow some spaghetti marinara

Columbus was a nice Italian fella
He had no boats he needed some boats
So he's fool around with Queen Isabella
She had three boats she give him the boats
The queen, she said, "Columbus, pootchy-wootchy,
If you should land in some new land,
Please name it for Americus Vespucci,
'Cause he's a nice Italian man

Nina, Pinta, and Saint Marie,
Fourteen ninety-two they sailed the sea,
They found the land and it was grand, and then Columbus he's proclaim
"I call this land America, a nice Italian name"

(And that's why America's a nice Italian name)