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L'attore ha scioccato tutta la città per essere arrivato in pigiama.

L'attore ha scioccato tutta la città per essere arrivato in pigiama.
The actor shocked the whole city for having arrived in pajamas.
From Lesson 288:Causal clauses with past infinitives (per aver fatto)·Italian

Questions & Answers about L'attore ha scioccato tutta la città per essere arrivato in pigiama.

How does per essere arrivato work here to mean "for having arrived"?
This is the past infinitive. We form it with the infinitive of the helping verb (essere or avere) plus the past participle (arrivato). Here, the preposition per introduces the reason or cause of the shock.
Why do we use essere here instead of avere for the past infinitive?
Just like in the passato prossimo (the regular past tense), verbs of motion like arrivare require essere as their helping verb. If the verb took avere, like mangiare (to eat), it would be per avere mangiato.
Why does arrivato end in "-o"? Does it change based on who is arriving?
Yes! Because the helping verb is essere, the past participle must agree with the subject performing the action. Since l'attore is masculine singular, it is arrivato. If it were an actress (l'attrice), it would be per essere arrivata.
Why does the Italian sentence use the singular in pigiama when the English translation says "in pajamas"?
In Italian, il pigiama is a singular masculine noun (despite ending in -a). While English treats "pajamas" as a plural pair, Italian treats the whole outfit as a single item. Also, the preposition in is naturally used to describe what you are wearing, like in pigiama or in divisa (in uniform).

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