We English can sometimes be seen as a bit dissembling by our European neighbours, often charged with saying something that we don't really mean in a sense of polite duty rather than genuine enquiry. And I think we quite like it that way.
When transferring your language directly into another, it's easy to forget the social and customary context behind the words as well. It can be a high risk strategy simply to think 'well I know the correct word, so that's fine'.
Today I was reminded of this, in greeting Franco in the Piazza outside the bar (we shall use this name, though that is not who it really was) with 'come stai?'. In English, a safe enough 'how are you' is a salutation that any right-thinking Englishman knows is not a true enquiry of health, merely a passing acknowledgement. It requires little more than a 'not bad' or 'OK'.
In Italy, when this is offered as a greeting to anyone with whom you have the most light of acquaintances, it is an open invitation to a full exposition of medical history, doctor's visits, pills taken, issues still remaining, and the ongoing general drag on the person's lifestyle that this problem still is.
It's not entirely unlikely that you may even be asked to inspect the particular problem area...and almost certainly there is little that can be done.
So - tread carefully - a 'Buon Giorno' Is usually much safer...
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