We know it's not Valentine's Day...but we wanted to talk a quick minute about this fun Italian phrase:
Colpo di Fulmine
Colpo di fulmine means love at first sight! But it literally means a lightning strike. So it's like you were struck by love! It's as if love struck you unexpectedly and even as powerfully as a lightning bolt would.
I think this quote explains it perfectly:
“Colpo di fulmine. The thunderbolt, as Italians call it. When love strikes someone like lightning, so powerful and intense it can’t be denied. It’s beautiful and messy, cracking a chest open and spilling their soul out for the world to see. It turns a person inside out, and there’s no going back from it. Once the thunderbolt hits, your life is irrevocably changed.”
― J.M. Darhower, Sempre
Is there such a thing as the Sicilian thunderbolt?
No, the Sicilian thunderbolt is not a real phenomenon. It is an expression used to describe being struck by love at first sight It is meant to invoke the feeling of being so taken by someone that your world is turned upside down and you feel an instantaneous connection. While there won't be a literal bolt of lightning coming out of the sky to signify this moment, the concept behind it can still be felt.
What is a Sicilian Thunderbolt?
It’s a powerful, instantaneous connection between two people that can feel like being knocked off your feet with lightning.
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Now you have a new Italian term to add to your repertoire: colpo di fulmine!
Have you every experienced a "colpo di fulmine"? Tell us about it in a comment!
Bryan says
It's very real. It happened to me nearly two years ago (with an Italian-American woman no less). You will never be the same. The most amazing moment in my life, without a doubt.
Anonymous says
It is real! We had an instant attraction to each other even as kids. We just really liked each other from the moment we met. Many years later, our first kiss gave both of us such a jolt of electricity that it was like an electric shock. It is as if your soul recognizes or remembers the other person's soul. It has always been so. This is your destiny. You were meant to be with them, and nothing else matters.
Jared Campbell says
A little over a year ago, I was attending a medical course in Birmingham, UK. As a private security contractor I attend several courses over a year to maintain compliancy and an up-to-date skill set, however, I’d let my medical qualifications lapse at this point, and I had frantically been searching for a course with an immediate start date as I was due to deploy the following week. I’d contacted dozens of course providers, and all had been fully booked, this one was the last one left, and I managed to secure a place.
I’d arrived at the hotel the provider had recommended I stay at, late that evening and had gone to check in. The desk clerk recognised me as being on the course and had said ‘Rachel hasn’t arrived yet’, I didn’t know anyone else on the course, and certainly didn’t know anyone called Rachel, nor did I understand why he thought I would. I disregarded the comment with an ‘oh’ and went upstairs to bed.
The next morning, I’d come downstairs for breakfast and walked to the dining area...and she was the first, and the only thing I saw. She was sat by the window eating breakfast with the dawn light bathing her, but she seemed to shine with her own light that was brighter than everything around her. To try and describe that feeling of when I first saw her with words is completely inadequate. It was if all time stopped for a moment, and my heart along with it, and it had literally felt as though my heart had burst with emotion and sent currents of feeling rippling through my whole person. It felt as though, even just to look at her, I was complete, like I’d wandered through life having had pieces of me missing that I never knew; not as though half of me was missing, but all the pieces, here and there that I’d been trying to fill all my life, and had given up looking for believing it was no more than romanticism...everything fell into place at that moment.
It was as if to look forward and backward in time, this was the moment that everything had led to, and the moment I’d look back on as the most significant in all my life, and my life was changed forever from that day. I knew her soul just to look at her, and saw the unique beauty that set her apart from everyone else in the world. It was fate to find her, and the culmination of everything I had sought all my life, yet given up on as nothing more than a romantic myth. To feel what I felt though, upon that first moment of seeing her; it was the only real thing I’d ever felt in my life.
I attended that course, and sat with her everyday, ate dinner with her in the evening, and didn’t let her know how I felt. I’d cast glances at her throughout the day, and when we benignly touched when passing something to one another, or brushed when walking, it was the purest expression of ecstasy for me. I never told her how what she meant to me, how she made me feel, and, after saying a hasty goodbye to her, I left that course in a hurry not wanting to torture myself any longer by looking at her from afar; she was much too special for someone like me, and all I wished for was for her happiness in the world.
When I’d returned back to the hotel, the receptionist greeted me with a note from her, it was a simple piece of paper torn from a notebook with my name and room number on ones side, and her name, phone number and email on the other. As simple as this note was, I don’t remember being as happy in all my life up to that point.
I worked in the Middle East, and still do, and we began to exchange emails and talked of dreams, philosophies, our histories and our own lives. I eventually told her how I felt, but that is another long tale in itself...
It’s a little over a year later, and we're together. My life was changed in that very moment I saw her, and I could do naught but but think of her and dream of being together since that day. Now, we live in a home together and share our lives; it’s everything I wanted, and dreamed of from the very first moment she took my heart; took it, and made it complete. It wasn’t just a simple attraction that day, it was a love, a pure love that transcended everything else, and it was the first moment in my life that I understood a simple truth: to love, and be loved, purely, is the truest meaning of life.
She sent me a link to this late last night as I slept; we're currently separated by geography as I languish in Iraq and she in the United Kingdom, and further kept apart by the travel restrictions of the coronavirus panic. But this is for her, to remind her how much she means to me, has always meant to me, and how she is the fulfilment to my life.
I love you Rachel, always and forever.
Lora says
Hello Jared, Thank you so much for answering my request to share a "colpo di fulmine" love story. I wasn't sure if I should leave a reply here to you, as this is a love letter to Rachel. But my mom said I must write you back, that this is my blog and I should write a quick note to acknowledge it (I have to listen to mom!).
Your story is a very special story and is quite beautiful. It made my heart smile and put a tear on my face to read such honest words.
It was refreshing to read something so lovely when there is so much hurt happening now in the world. It is a true love story that continues on and and I wish for you and Rachel to be reunited very soon in the UK. Stay safe and wishing you and Rachel all the best! Lora
JP says
I'm not sure that this would count, but I think it does... When I was 17, a cute 14 year old girl started talking to me while I was in the pro shop of the hockey rink I was working at. She started coming to skate when I was on the ice for open skating and kept talking to me more and more. I knew she had a little crush on me, but even though she was cute I felt she was a little too young just yet as I was going to be heading to college soon and she was still in jr high. I never did anything to pursue her or even acknowledge her crush, but I knew I had to keep my eye on her when she was a little older. We kept in touch and remained friends and even worked together for a couple years, working for the city parks in the summers during and right after college. She seemed to always have a boyfriend when I would see her so interest was never expressed by either of us thru the years. Then life kept happening and eventually we both got married to other people and had kids... Almost the exact same ages and both had 2 boys and a girl. Years would pass with a random meeting somewhere like at a grocery store and feelings would rush back. First my marriage ended, then hers was ending when I ran into her at a bar one night and I walked her out to her car and we kissed for the first time. I asked her the next day if I needed to apologize and got a very adamant no. So I was pleased with that, but we didn't discuss it after that. 3 years passed until I asked her to meet for a drink at the same bar. To my chagrin, she showed up with a friend of hers who I was also friends with. It didn't matter, though... No one else was in that bar except for the two of us for the rest of the night. When I walked her to her car this time, I didn't even have to ask if I could kiss her. We both knew and, finally, the timing was right for both of us. We kissed passionately for a few minutes until the friend got a little impatient. We started texting that night and haven't stopped. All day, every day. Then video chats... I live 6 hours away so that's all we had until I could make it back to town. Took a month, but I got there... The I love yous were officially said by each of us for the first time with in a minute or two after arriving at her house. It's been intense, it's a been long time coming, and it's been the most beautiful relationship either of us have been in... It's unbelievable. To think it took 30 years to get from there to where we're at now is amazing and we're never going to forget that. So, the thunderbolt was either really slow or it just waited for the right time, but that second time at the bar with her was when it hit
Chris says
It definitely is a very real and beyond amazing feeling. It happened to my lovely and beautiful wife Carolyn and I not long after we first met. We felt an instant connection as if we had known each other all of our lives and our feelings had only intensified from that moment on. One night, we both felt the lightning bolt of love strike our souls and knew that we definitely are soulmates and our love is meant to last forever. We had never felt nor experienced anything like that so we knew that it was very special and profound and it literally hurt us to be apart from each other. Three and a half years later, we're happily married, very much in love, and share a very loving and happy home and life together. We treasure every moment we get to spend together and inspire and motivate each other to be even better people every day. We thank God for each other every time we pray and we always show each other how much we love and appreciate each other and put each other first.
Helena says
Yes it's real. My friend introduced me to K Manns. I didn't want to shake his hand...but as soon as I did I could not see for a couple of seconds. I felt a jolt from my head down to my feet. I was in Love with him like magic. This was before cell phones. Geography and other things kept us apart. But I know we will reunite. I wait.