The Italian calendar begins with Monday and ends with the weekend (logical, no?) days Saturday and Sunday. Days of the week, months of the year, and names of seasons are not capitalized in Italian unless, of course, they are at the beginning of the sentence.

Days of the Week

The days of the workweek are related to the names of the planets: lunedì, the day of the Moon (Luna); martedì, the day of Mars (Marte); mercoledì, the day of Mercury (Mercurio); giovedì, the day of Jupiter (Giove); venerdì, the day of Venus (Venere). The word for Saturday (sabato) is related to the word for Sabbath, and the word for Sunday (domenica), is related to the Latin words Dominicus and Dominus, which have a religious significance, referring to God.

Months of the Year

You may notice that the months settembre, ottobre, novembre, and dicembre look similar to the words for seven (sette), eight (otto), nine (nove), and ten (dieci). This may lead one to conclude that settembre (September) is the seventh month, ottobre (October) is the eighth, novembre (November) is the ninth, and dicembre (December) is the tenth, which is obviously not the case in modern times. This interesting phenomenon has its roots in the Roman calendar, which began in March so that September, October, November, and December were the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months of the Roman year.

Seasons