Instead where I come from the old people say "Mo v� la strolega (Zingara) e te se porta co essa".
Oh, indeed, that one too. I was really afraid when they came around when I was little. I'm sorry to say that they weren't held in very high regard, not even in terms of dress. Even far into adulthood, if I wore what my mother considered too much jewelry, or, if God forbid, I wore red or something, she'd say, take it off, you look like a zingara. Of course, to my mother the only colors a lady would wear were white, cream, beige, grey, navy, and black, and if you wore big ear-rings you didn't wear a necklace, if you wore a watch, no bracelets, and on and on. The fight I had to wear big hoops when they were in style! Oh well, she taught me a lot, in every way, even if I did loosen it up a bit.
In terms of phrases that can't really be translated, or at least the emotional content is different:
Dai...I use it all the time
Meno Male: Less bad. It's hard to explain to non-Italians that when presented with good news we don't always say "Great"! Instead, we often say, well, it's less bad, as if bad is the default state, the outcome we expected, which I guess it is or has been for a lot of our history.
So much for the stereotypes about our sunny personalities, although I have to admit people are "sunnier" the further south you go. There was absolutely nothing particularly "sunny" about my father's family. Dour is more like it a lot of the time. Not that they aren't wonderful people. My favorite uncle was one of my father's brothers, one of the most compassionate, kind-hearted, generous, honest and loving men ever created, but it was hidden inside a very silent, yes, dour, personality. He spoke very little, he had very little tolerance for fools, he was an absolute terror as a boss, and even his humor was of the dry, sarcastic, ironic type. So much for stereotypes.