AtDTdA: (9) 246

[Jasper]

246 The Chums in Venice (continued)

"/sotoporteghi/"
passageways. See picture for one example:
http://www.dialetto-veneto.it/images/FotoComano/Comano-Cattognano.jpg
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"Sa stai, O! Lungo, ehi!"
It does not mean anything in Italian or in the Venetian dialect. One 
possibility is mimicking the callouts of gondoliers. Lungo could be 
someone's nickname.
Other possibility is a wrong lettering of: Xa star, oh! Lungo, ehi!, 
meaning Ehi, Lungo, let it be and let's go! or something similar.
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"they're all so invisible"
"Unless we decided to disobey for once"
"So... then, [...] it's only fear?  Is that what we've become, a bunch 
of twitching rabbits in uniforms intended for men?"

Fear of retribution?  Hellfire?  Darby as Satan, urging rebellion.

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"a kind of compressed rapture"
See also rapture on p. 243.  I mention it only because it seems a strong 
word for the circumstances.

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cameriere
waitresses.
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pallonisti
ballonists.
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Ehi, macché, Pina!
"Ehi, Giusep(Pina), what are you telling me?"
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giadrul
Again, doesn't mean anything in Italian or Venetian dialect. Seems to be 
a term of insult, variously described as American-Italian only (see 
previous link) and southern Italian (see next). One source gives one 
meaning as "zuccone" - this appears to mean "pumpkinhead". I guess we're 
looking for something phallic, given the context.
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Neapolitan
a native or inhabitant of Naples
a delicious ice-cream triptych
standard or normal sex
(probably want the first definition here)

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"with all the spaghetti-joints in this town to choose from, are you 
saying those dadblame Russians have come in here?"
reminiscent of a similar line from the film Casablanca, spoken by 
Humphrey Bogart: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the 
world, she walks into mine."
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