The word of the week is pollice (POLL-lee-cheh), meaning both thumb and inch (an inch is in fact about the length of a thumb).Oddly enough, although Italians obviously use the metric system like other Europeans, they measure screen sizes (TV, computer monitors) in inches, because TVs were first mass-produced in the US and had specs in inches.
Pollicino ("little thumb") is a very small fairy tale character similar to our Tom Thumb and the French le petit Poucet.
