March is mad and April is capricious — spring weather in the Veneto is unpredictable, mixing sun, frost, rain, and hail within the same day. The proverb warns farmers not to trust early warmth and plant too soon.
The agricultural calendar of the Veneto plain has been governed by proverbs about weather since at least the medieval period, when the survival of a harvest depended on reading the seasons correctly. March in the Po valley and the Veneto lowlands is notoriously unstable: warm southerly winds (scirocco) can bring temperatures of 18°C, only to be followed by a polar front dropping snow on the Euganean Hills or killing frost on the Valpolicella vineyards. The word pazzo (mad) perfectly captures this unpredictability. Grape growers in the Prosecco hills above Conegliano and Valdobbiadene — a landscape so beautiful it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019 — track the frost dates of March and April with particular anxiety, since a single late frost can destroy an entire vintage of Glera grapes. The proverb is also used metaphorically to describe any person or situation that is changeable, unreliable, and impossible to plan around. Venetian farmers extended the weather-proverb system across the entire year, creating a detailed oral almanac that was passed down through generations in the family cantina over jugs of young wine.
Part of an extensive system of Venetian agricultural proverbs (proverbi contadini) that governed planting, harvesting, and animal husbandry; recorded in collections from the Treviso province dating to the eighteenth century.
A farmer warning his son not to plant seedlings yet
Non mettere ancora i pomodori fuori. Marzo pazzo e april gazoso — aspetta ancora due settimane.
Do not put the tomatoes outside yet. March is mad and April is capricious — wait another two weeks.
Two women at a market in Treviso on a sunny March day
— Che bella giornata! — Non ti fidare. Marzo pazzo — domani potrebbe nevicare.
— What a beautiful day! — Do not trust it. March is mad — tomorrow it could snow.
A Prosecco producer talking about a difficult year
Quella primavera ci ha rovinati. Marzo pazzo e april gazoso — abbiamo perso metà della produzione al gelo di aprile.
That spring ruined us. March is mad and April is capricious — we lost half the production to the April frost.
Describing an unpredictable colleague at work
Non sai mai come lo trovi. Marzo pazzo — oggi ti sorride, domani non ti saluta nemmeno.
You never know how you will find him. March is mad — today he smiles at you, tomorrow he does not even say hello.