Il Pozzo di San Patrizio

Category: Tourism
Translation: Well of St. Patrick (located in Orvieto)
The Story: In the extremely tourist friendly Orvieto, the sign outside the Well explained that the name of the 53m well is also used as a common allusion to someone who is wealthy ("[person] has pockets as deep as il pozzo di San Patrizio"). I tried to google the phrase to find out more on its usage, and decided to google-translate wikipedia, ending up with an article on the "Sink of Saint Patrizio." Reading between the lines, the common usage of the phrase is a misunderstanding because the allusion is actually to the Irish well of the same name, at the end of which is supposed to be the doors of Purgatory. The phrase can also refer to a particularly difficult task as well, according to Rick Steves ("[task] is like digging il pozzo di San Patrizio").

In any case, the phrase is interesting, but not horribly useful unless we're begging for a gelato stop (insert "Shawn" for "person") or talking about posting our papers (insert "taming Blogger" for "task").