Water makes you sick and wine makes you sing — a humorous defence of wine drinking common in the wine-producing areas of Lombardy. Also a reminder that pleasure has its place.
This proverb was born in an era when water sources were genuinely dangerous. For most of Italian history, drinking untreated river or well water was a real health risk — typhoid and cholera killed thousands. Light wine, by contrast, was a safe drink: the fermentation killed bacteria, and a watered wine was the everyday drink of everyone from children to the elderly. The proverb preserves this medical reality in amber, long after running water and sanitation rendered it obsolete. In Lombardy, where Franciacorta, Lugana, and Oltrepò Pavese wines are produced alongside the great reds, the proverb has become a cheerful toast and a defence of conviviality. It is now always said with a smile, at the table, as someone reaches for the bottle.
Lombard proverb rooted in the historical reality of unsafe water supplies. Found across the wine-producing regions of northern Italy.
A toast at a Lombard farmhouse table
— Bevi ancora? — L'acqua la fa mal e 'l vin fa cantar. Salute! — Salute!
— Are you drinking more? — Water makes you sick and wine makes you sing. Cheers! — Cheers!
A wine producer in Franciacorta
I nostri nonni sapevano già quello che la scienza ha scoperto dopo: l'acqua la fa mal e 'l vin fa cantar. Con moderazione, ovviamente.
Our grandparents already knew what science discovered later: water makes you sick and wine makes you sing. In moderation, of course.
A Milanese dinner party
— Non vuole vino, prende solo acqua. — L'acqua la fa mal e 'l vin fa cantar! — Lascialo stare, deve guidare.
— He does not want wine, he is only having water. — Water makes you sick and wine makes you sing! — Leave him alone, he has to drive.
Two elderly Lombard men at a village festival
A novant'anni bevo ancora un bicchiere la sera. L'acqua la fa mal e 'l vin fa cantar — lo diceva mio padre e lo dirò finché campo.
At ninety I still drink a glass in the evening. Water makes you sick and wine makes you sing — my father used to say it and I will say it as long as I live.