In Italian, the idiomatic expression: "avere una spina nel fianco" (literally "to have a thorn in your side"), means “to have a difficult situation, an annoying problem.”

Since thorns are usually very painful, the adjective "thorny" is often used in a broad sense to express something difficult, complicated, painful: "un problema spinoso, una situazione spinosa" (a thorny problem, a thorny situation).

Do you have any thorns in your side?

Do you know how to use "siccome"?

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This wonderful Renaissance statue, "Spinario" (boy pulling a thorn from his foot) probably modeled in 1496 by Antico (pseudonym of Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi), reminds us that when we encounter some difficulties we must look for solutions. And get rid of the thorns!

Since the use of "siccome" is the thorn in the side of many students of the Italian language, we have created the following exercise to help you understand how to use "siccome" and the difference between "siccome" and "perché".

In general, "siccome" (since, as) is used to define the cause of an action: siccome piove, prendo l'ombrello (since it rains, I take the umbrella). We can replace it with "dato che" (dato che piove, prendo l'ombrello - given that it rains, I take the umbrella) or with "poiché" or "giacché" (but they sound very formal): poiché piove, prendo l'ombrello. Giacché piove, prendo l'ombrello (since it rains, I take the umbrella).
We cannot replace it with "perché", causal conjunction used to explain a cause following the action: studio italiano perché mi piace (I study Italian because I like it.)

PLEASE NOTE: "siccome" is used before defining the cause of the action. Otherwise we prefer "perché" that follows the action: Siccome mi piace l'italiano, lo studio. Studio l'italiano perché mi piace. (Since I like Italian, I study it. I study Italian because I like it.)

You will notice that the emphasis of the sentence changes depending on whether the cause of the action is explained before or after.