Breakdown of Non vedo l'ora di partire per l'avventura.
partire
to leave
per
for / in order to / because of
l'avventura
the adventure (f)
non vedo l'ora di
I can't wait to… (lit. I don't see the hour of)
Questions & Answers about Non vedo l'ora di partire per l'avventura.
What does Non vedo l'ora literally mean?
Literally, it means "I don't see the hour." This is the standard Italian idiom for "I can't wait" or "I am looking forward to." When you want to add an action after it, you always connect it with the preposition di.
Since "can't wait" expresses a strong emotion, why isn't this sentence using the subjunctive?
Because the person who can't wait and the person leaving are the same (I). In Italian, when the subject doesn't change between clauses, you use di + the infinitive verb (here, partire). You only trigger the subjunctive if the subjects are different.
Why do we use per instead of a after partire?
How would this look if the subject changed and it was in the past, requiring the imperfect subjunctive of essere?
If you wanted to say "I couldn't wait for the adventure to be over", you would put the first verb in the imperfect indicative (Non vedevo l'ora). Because the subject changes from "I" to "the adventure" in the past, you would use che plus the imperfect subjunctive of essere: Non vedevo l'ora che l'avventura fosse finita.
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