When asking a friend what time you should meet for lunch, she may say ‘a mezzogiorno’ – at midday, at noon, or at 12pm.  However, when Italians use the word ‘il Mezzogiorno’, they are not always be talking about lunchtime.

Instead they could be referring to the southern area of Italy, including the regions Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia. The expression is thought to refer to the intensity of the midday sun in the south of the Italian peninsula.