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Che attesa interminabile che c'è al confine!

Che attesa interminabile che c'è al confine!
What an endless wait there is at the border!
From Lesson 446:Emphatic exclamations (che)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Che attesa interminabile che c'è al confine!

Why are there two instances of che in this sentence?
The first che is the standard exclamatory word meaning "What a". The second che is what grammarians call a pleonastic (extra or redundant) che. In spoken Italian, people often throw in this second che right after the noun phrase to add strong emotional emphasis before finishing the sentence.
Is the second che grammatically required, or could I just drop it?
You can absolutely drop it, and doing so makes the sentence more formally correct. The double che structure is a feature of colloquial, spoken Italian. In formal writing, you would drop the second one and simply write Che attesa interminabile c'è al confine!
Does attesa just mean "wait", or does it also mean "expectation"?
It means both! Here, the context of being at the border makes it clear it refers to a physical wait. However, you will also frequently see attesa used for expectations, such as in the phrase tradire le attese (to fall short of expectations).
Could I use frontiera instead of confine here?
Yes, alla frontiera would work perfectly. Confine generally refers to the geographic or political boundary between countries, while frontiera often implies the actual physical crossing point with customs. In everyday speech about border crossings, they are used interchangeably.

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