In Italian, is the expression "... e mezza" used often to exaggerate a quality?

Question

Today I bumped into a friend of mine, an Italian native speaker, on the street I hadn't seen for quite a while. I'm pretty sure she said:

Sarà un'eternità e mezza che non ti vedo!

In English, we use the expression "... and a half" to exaggerate a quality:

I haven't seen you in forever and a half! == {forever and a day}

Does this (colloquial?) Italian expression work in a similar way? If so, what other nouns than "eternità" are commonly coupled with "... e mezza"?

Answer 1

Ciao

Your translation is spot on. The English meaning is pretty much the same.

As far as I know, un eternità e mezza is not an established idiom, it's just personal quircky/fun use of the language. Although, Italian language greatly varies between regions and idioms greatly vary.

In short, eternità is not usually coupled with e mezza. It was a way to exaggerate and emphasise that she haven't seen you a while.

I am a native speaker :)