There are idioms that are lost in time, others that remain etched in mind, used every day more and more.
"Se non è zuppa è pan bagnato" is one of them, simply used to imply that between two choices, if one is wrong, the other will necessarily the right one!
A figure of speech, even more suitable for November
We decided to tell this saying in November as an excuse to remind people that November is the month of hot dishes. The ideal time to consume the popular Tuscan soup, bread-based ones to which is added an ingredient like vegetables typical of our homeland.
More than a trivial way of saying
""Se non è zuppa è pan bagnato"" is a funny expression used daily by every toscano, since it is small.
We like to think that the first time in which a tuscan man has heard this phrase, was during the school years of childhood. More or less everyone happened to be told by his school teacher "if it's not soup is wet naps," for the sake of messing around on a wrong answer during an interrogation, which promptly simply changed with the actually correct.
To make this a unique expression is its undisputed simplicity. In fact, if we sit at the table and eat a dish to keep warm which is not really a soup, it will definitely be of trivial bread, because it is a traditional soup in Tuscany cannot exist if we don't put inside of bread!
Map