Grazie!
You’ve got a belly full of pasta, you’ve just thanked the restaurant staff and you’re about to leave… What’s the best way to say goodbye in Italian?
A casual ciao?
A formal arrivederci?
Or something different?
In this lesson, you’ll find 21 ways to say “goodbye” in any situation. And don’t miss the cultural tips at the end so you can exit smoothly like a true Italian!
Two Simple Ways to Say Goodbye in Italian
| Italiano | Meaning | Pronunciation | Formality |
| Arrivederci | Goodbye | AR–REE–VE–DER–CHEE | Formal |
| Ciao | Bye | CHAOW | Informal |
If you’re a beginner, just learn these two words and you’re away! As a simple rule of thumb, use the formal arrivederci with adults you don’t know, including service staff like waiters, shopkeepers and taxi drivers . Use the informal ciao with friends or young people.
And don’t worry if you get mixed up sometimes. Katie has been living in Italy for many years, but she still has a bad habit of saying ciao when it would be better to say arrivederci. Luckily, Italians are very forgiving!
See you later! Saying Goodbye When You’ll Meet Again
| Italiano | Meaning | Pronunciation | Formality |
| A domani | See you tomorrow | AH DOH–MAH–NEE | Formal and informal |
| A presto | See you soon | AH PREH–STOH | Formal and informal |
| A dopo | See you later | AH DOH–POH | Formal and informal |
| A tra poco | See you in a bit | AH TRA POH–KOH | Formal and informal |
| Alla prossima | See you next time | AH–LAH PROH–SEE–MAH | Formal and informal |
| Ci vediamo | See you | CHEE VEH–DYA–MOH | Informal |
To make this last expression sound really natural, you can combine it with time expressions,
for example:
Ci vediamo domani! – See you tomorrow!
Ci vediamo presto! – See you soon!
Ci vediamo dopo! – See you later!
I’ll Call You! Saying How You’ll Be in Touch
| Italiano | Meaning | Pronunciation | Formality |
| Ci sentiamo | Speak soon | CHEE SEN–TYA-MOH | Formal and informal |
| Ti chiamo | I’ll call you | TEE KYA–MOH | Informal |
| Ti scrivo | I’ll write to you/send you a message | TEE SKREE–VOH | Informal |
| Ci aggiorniamo | Let’s keep each other updated | CHEE AH–JOR–NYA–MOH | Formal and informal |
Just like in the previous example, you can add time expressions to explain when you’ll be in touch, for example:
Ci sentiamo dopo! – Speak to you later!
Ti chiamo presto – I’ll call you soon
Ti scrivo domani – I’ll send you a message tomorrow
Have a Nice Day! Wishing Italians Well
| Italiano | Meaning | Pronunciation | Formality |
| Buona giornata | Have a nice day | BWO–NAH JOR–NAH–TAH | Formal and informal |
| Buona serata | Have a nice evening | BWO–NAH SEH–RAH–TAH | Formal and informal |
| Buonanotte | Goodnight | BWO–NAH NOT–TEH | Formal and informal |
| Buon fine settimana | Have a nice weekend | BWON FEE–NEHSET–TEE–MAH–NAH | Formal and informal |
| Buon weekend | Have a niceweekend | BWON WEEK–END | Formal and informal |
| Buona domenica | Enjoy your Sunday | BWO–NAH DOH–MEH–NEE–KAH | Formal and informal |
| Buon viaggio | Have a nice trip | BWON VYA–JOH | Formal and informal |
| Buon proseguimento | All the best | BWONPROH–SEG–WEE–MEN–TOH | Formal and informal |
When Italians say goodbye, they love to wish each other well. Perhaps even more so than in other cultures! And they have a lovely, simple way of doing it. Usually you can just add…
Buon before a masculine noun:
Buon viaggio – Have a nice trip
Buon weekend – Have a nice weekend
And buona before a feminine one:
Buona domenica – Have a nice Sunday
Buona serata – Have a nice evening
It’s a friendly, versatile way to say “goodbye” in Italian. Check out this post on how to say “bon voyage” in Italian for more on how these phrases work.
Kiss or Handshake? Say Goodbye Like a True Italian!
Learning Italian isn’t just about having the right words. Knowing the cultural stuff will help you avoid surprises and blend in with the locals.
Kiss or Handshake?
With people in the service industry, you can usually just smile and say arrivederci . In a formal work context, you can add a handshake, too.
With friends, you can do the Italian double cheek kiss. Lean left (this is important, otherwise you might meet in the middle and kiss each other on the lips by accident!) Then, gently touch your right cheek against theirs, whilst kissing the air to the side of their face.
Psst: don’t make the same mistake as our friend Josh who spent a few awkward days planting a proper kiss on Italians’ cheeks!
Mix and Match
Sometimes you’ll hear Italians say ciao twice in a row . And because Italians love to take their time saying goodbye (especially on the phone), you’ll often hear a few phrases combined, like this:
Ciao, a domani. Buona serata. – Bye, see you tomorrow. Have a nice evening.
Feel free to experiment with your own combos!
Be Appreciative
Italians are a sociable bunch, so they’ll usually be really happy to hear that you enjoyed meeting them. To make a really good impression, try saying:
È stato un piacere – It was a pleasure (EH STAH–TOH OON PYA–CHEH–REH)
How to Say Goodbye in Italian: Review
Here’s a quick reference list of all the expressions you learned in this lesson:
Arrivederci – Goodbye (formal)
Ciao – Bye (informal)
A domani – See you tomorrow
A presto – See you soon
A dopo – See you later
A tra poco – See you in a bit
Alla prossima – See you next time
Ci vediamo – See you!
Ci sentiamo – Speak soon!
Ti chiamo – I’ll call you
Ti scrivo – I’ll write to you / send you a message
Ci aggiorniamo – Let’s keep each other updated
Buona giornata – Have a nice day
Buona serata – Have a nice evening
Buonanotte – Goodnight
Buon weekend/fine settimana – Have a nice weekend
Buona domenica – Enjoy your Sunday
Buon viaggio – Have a nice trip
Buon proseguimento – All the best
È stato un piacere – It’s been a pleasure
But we’re not ready to say arrivederci just yet! Check out our quiz and vocabulary cards to help you remember what you learned in this lesson.
K: Ciao a tutti e benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to “Learn Italian with Joy of Languages”.
M: Before we get started, can we ask you a quick favore? If you’re listening to this on your podcast app, could you hit the subscribe or follow button? This way you’ll get notified when we release a new episode and you’ll help our podcast grow so we can keep making free lessons like this. Grazie!
K: Today we’re talking about how to say goodbye in Italian. Do you know when I hear these words a lot? Just before we put the phone down. This happens in English too “ok bye… speak soon, have a nice weekend, yep see you soon… bye!”
M: The exact same thing happens in Italian, in fact, we probably do it even more! Especially when there are other people around, like when I’m in Naples talking to you on the phone, my family always says “goodbye” too.
K: That’s really nice. Let’s listen to an example: how many different Italian ways of saying goodbye can you hear?
M: Ciao, ci sentiamo.
K: Ok, ti scrivo dopo.
Matteo’s mom: Ciao ciao!
K: Ciao a tutti! Buona serata!
Matteo’s sister: A presto!
M: Ciao!
K: So the first word you heard was…
M: Ciao
K: You’ve probably already heard this way to say goodbye in Italian.
Keep in mind is that ciao is the informal way to say goodbye. If you wanted to say goodbye to someone you don’t know, for example, a taxi driver or waiter, how would you usually say it?
M: Arrivederci (x2)
K: Here we’ve got the double, rolled R, arrrrrrivederci! If you’re not able to do it yet, don’t worry, Italians will still understand you. And you can find tips in episode 16.
K: Then you heard:
M: Ci sentiamo. – Speak soon.
Ci – this one little word “ci” literally means “each other”
Sentiamo – we hear
K: Ci sentiamo is a really interesting expression that Italians use all the time. Literally “each other (ci) we hear (sentiamo)”. It can take a bit of getting used to at first but it kind of makes sense! We’ll be speaking to each other, either on the phone or via message, but not seeing each other. So, “each other, we hear!”.
M: Ci sentiamo (x2)
K: While ci sentiamo can be used on its own to mean “speak soon”, it’s actually a shortened expression. The full version includes the word “soon”... presto
M: Ci sentiamo presto (x2)
K: And you can replace it with other time expressions like “tomorrow”. Speak to you tomorrow:
M: Ci sentiamo domani
K: “Later” … dopo. Speak to you later:
M: Ci sentiamo dopo (x2)
K: Then I said:
M: Ok, ti scrivo dopo. – OK, I’ll send you a message later. Literally:
Ti – here’s another little word ti which literally means “to you”
Scrivo – I write
Dopo – later
M: Ti scrivo dopo (x2)
K: How would you say “I’ll send you a message tomorrow”. To you, I write tomorrow?
M: Ti scrivo domani (x2)
K: Then you heard Matteo’s mum say…
M: Ciao ciao!
K: Bye bye! Sometimes you’ll hear Italians say ciao twice in this way. Then I said:
M: Ciao a tutti! – Bye everyone!
Ciao – Bye
A – To
Tutti – Everyone!
M: Ciao a tutti (x2)
K: And you might be familiar with this phrase because I say it at the beginning of the podcast. As you probably know, ciao can be both “hi” or “bye” in Italian. Next I said:
M: Buona serata! – Have a nice evening!
Buona – Good
Serata – Evening
K: If you’ve heard the word sera which also means evening, you might be wondering, what’s the difference?
M: In this case, we use sera to greet someone when we arrive or first talk to them: buonasera. And serata when saying goodbye to wish someone a nice rest of evening. Buona serata (x2)
K: Then Matteo’s sister said:
M: A presto! – See you soon!
A – till
Presto – soon
K: In Italian, we sometimes use “a” to mean “till” when we’re talking about time, for example: from today till tomorrow: da oggi A domani (x2). So it’s a bit like saying “till soon”. Soon, again, is presto. See you soon, or till soon:
M: A presto (x2)
K: You can use other “time” words with this expression too. Remember how to say later? [...] Later is dopo. How would you say “see you later”?
M: A dopo (x2)
K: “See you tomorrow”?
M: A domani (x2)
K: So you’ve learned quite a few ways to say goodbye in Italian! Let’s review. We started with ciao.
M: Ciao (x2)
K: And the formal version?
M: Arrivederci (x2)
K: Speak soon. There was that little word “ci” for each other. Literally “each other we hear”.
[...]
M: Ci sentiamo (x2)
K: I’ll send you a message later? Literally, to you, I write later:
[...]
M: Ti scrivo dopo (x2)
K: Bye everyone
[...]
M: Ciao a tutti (x2)
K: Have a good evening. Starting with buo…
[...]
M: Buona serata (x2)
K: And remember how to say “see you soon”, literally “til soon”?
[...]
M: A presto (x2)
K: Let’s listen to the whole conversation again:
M: Ciao, ci sentiamo.
K: Ok, ti scrivo dopo.
Matteo’s mom: Ciao ciao!
K: Ciao a tutti! Buona serata!
Matteo’s sister: A presto!
M: Ciao!
K: Over on the blog, you’ll find a few more handy ways to say goodbye in Italian.
M: And some very useful cultural tips, for example, when should you shake hands and when should you do the Italian double cheek kiss? And how to avoid an awkward mistake one of our friends made.
K: It’s very easy to do, I probably did it too in the beginning! Head over to our website by clicking on the link in the description. Or you can go to italian.joyoflanguages.com/podcast and search for episode 139.
M - See you next time.
K - Or as we say in Italian.
Alla prossima!
Time to check your understanding and remember everything you just learned! Below you’ll find a mini-quiz and some vocabulary cards to help it all go in.
Quiz
How much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: Say Goodbye in Italian
Vocabulary
Ciao = Bye (informal)
Arrivederci = Goodbye (formal)
Ci sentiamo = Speak soon (lit. each other we hear)
Ci sentiamo dopo = Speak to you later (lit. each other we hear later)
Buona serata! = Have a nice evening
A presto = See you soon (lit. till soon)
A dopo = See you later (lit. till later)
A domani = See you tomorrow (lit. till tomorrow)
Ti scrivo dopo = I’ll send you a message later (lit. to you, I write later)
Flashcards: Say Goodbye in Italian
Remember the vocabulary from this lesson by downloading the flashcards.
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
