Originally Posted by
Waterhorse
Incidently, Malaria, literally means “bad air” as it was thought that miasmas carried the disease. So MXP, or Malpensa airport, means “ he thinks badly” in Italian - go figure
The literal translation is correct, but the background is that the airport was built on the ground of an old farm ('cascina'), called 'mal
pensàa' due to highly acidic grounds that gave a low yield. There's quite a few places named in a similar way in Lombardy, and in Piedmont there's a wine producer called "Mal Virà" - which means 'badly oriented' - because of the way the cellar is placed (I think it's mostly facing north-south).