What the heck does that mean?

I found an apartment for next year (WHIPPPEEE) and in my *new* "coinquilina's" email she wrote:

"...una coinquilina con cui parlare inglese, calza proprio a pennello!!"

In my attempt at deciphering this, it translates roughly into "fits like a glove!"

am I right?

Literally it means something like, "a sock painted on with a paint brush?!?!"

Thanks for the help. Either way I think it's a compliment. I'm so excited! My new room overlooks the Adige river!!!!!!!!

hoorah!

Hey, I opened this to see what it meant. Never heard it. Sock just to a brush? Stocking just at a brush? Where the heck are the Italians when you need them?

Seriously, Judith.

It looks like we need to call in the experts for this one.... it's tricky

I'm neither an expert nor an italian - both of you are probably more fluent than I am - but a quick glance at wordreference.com tells me that:

Calza is a form of the verb "calzare" which means to fit; or, even better, it could be a noun from that verb, meaning "fit".

Pennello does indeed mean paintbrush, but "a pennello" is a frase fatta that means "perfectly".

Proprio, of course, we know as an all-purpose intensifier.

So, fits just perfectly / perfect fit?

Boh; we'll get no help from Silvia on this one, unless they have the web on beaches in Greece now. Where's Dora, Pola, or Alessandra, or Chia or... ?

BTW Katie, couldn't you ask your boy for help on this one?

Bravo, Michael!

You get an A+ from me for prompt and thorough research.

That's what I thought it might be... but it's such a strange phrase! ... Well, I guess it's no stranger than some of the phrases we have in English

Now, once you have an Italian confirm your brilliance, I think you can officially say you've "made" it hehehehe.

Grazie mille!!!

Ok, here's the expert!!

It means "fits like a glove"

The -liberal- translation could be

"It fits like a shoe that is painted on your feet"

Meaning that it looks ike somebody painted a shoe on your feet, it fits perfectly.

Does it make any sense in my it's-about-9-hours-I-am-at-the-shop-I-am-exausted- english?

BTW to your BTW, Michael.

I have this weird thing that I hate asking him for help! He's so good at English and takes my corrections so gracefully... but I for some reason hate being corrected by him or blantantly asking for help. I'll ask half of Italy for help with my Italian and accept all corrections from anyone else but not him.... I'm such a loser.

Plus, I'm at work right now and he's at dinner.

Yay Alessandra!

Makes perfect sense. That's exactly what I thought *pat on the back for me*... and *pat on the back for Michael who claims non-fluency* (I'm on to you... )

Go home already, Alessandra! You're Italian! What are you doing working 9 hour days?