Rapporti&Piante Lyrics in English gIANMARIA
Vivaio literally translates to "nursery" in the context of plants, a place where plants are grown and cultivated.
In "Rapporti&Piante," gIANMARIA uses this word metaphorically to describe a place where relationships, like plants, are cultivated or perhaps neglected. The line "In vivaio assieme agli altri" (In the nursery with the others) suggests a feeling of being just one among many, highlighting themes of vulnerability and the transient nature of human connections, much like plants in a nursery waiting to be chosen or discarded.
"Rapporti&Piante" ("Relationships & Plants") builds its whole song around one extended metaphor: love and family ties are living things that need tending, and they can wither just like the plants gIANMARIA keeps mentioning.
He opens by comparing himself and the people around him to ants and seedlings, fed on "water and sugar" until "some pesticide" kills them off — a bleak, almost fatalistic way of saying how fragile and small we all are. From there he moves into a specific relationship: someone who plants roots in him ("mi pianti," which is also a pun on "mi piangi," "you cry on me") and then leaves him in a "nursery with the other guys," passed around like just another plant among many.
The chorus leans hard into that double meaning of "piante" (plants) and "pianti" (cries/tears), tying growth and grief together. A grandmother's plant dying stands in for a family loss, and the cramped, high-rise apartment life he describes — plants stuck "on the sixth floor in an industrial area" — mirrors how boxed-in and disconnected he feels in his relationships, even while living surrounded by people.
By the end, the song settles into a quieter, more reflective tone: two people touching without really connecting, imagining a future where they meet again as strangers. It's a song about how relationships, like plants, need real care to survive — and about what's left when that care runs out.
