If there's one thing Italy's known for, it's food. And when you have access to real Italian cooking, it's only natural to want to make the most of it and treat yourself to a feast, a blowout, a binge, or a scorpacciata in Italian (hear it pronounced here).
I festeggiamenti si sono conclusi con una scorpacciata.
The celebrations ended with a blowout feast.
If you're pairing the word with a verb, you'll want fare – 'to do' or 'make' – or farsi, to do/make for oneself (the reflexive form is sometimes added to verbs that don't require it, like mangiare or bere, for emphasis):
Si sono fatti una bella scorpacciata.
They had themselves a great feast.
Per il mio compleanno abbiamo fatto una scorpacciata di pesce e frutti di mare.
We had a mountain of fish and seafood for my birthday.
An alternative word is abbuffata, which can be turned into a verb with abbuffarsi (to binge or stuff oneself).
Non mi sorprende che tu abbia sonno dopo quell'abbuffata.
It doesn't surprise me that you're feeling sleepy after that feeding frenzy.
Stamattina mi sono abbuffata di torta e ora non ho spazio per il pranzo.
I stuffed myself with cake this morning and now I don't have any room for lunch.
Both scorpacciata and abbuffata can, of course, have negative connotations, with abbuffata in particular sometimes referring to binge-eating.
While both words usually refer to food, they can be used in a figurative sense to talk about a glut or binge of books, movies, card games, or anything else done to excess.
C'è una scorpacciata di eventi da non perdere a settembre.
There's a smorgasbord of events to look forward to in September.
Non so se riuscirò a dormire dopo questa abbuffata di film horror.
I don't know if I'll be able to sleep after this horror film binge.
Just remember to pace yourself for your next scorpacciata – whether it revolves around spaghetti or slasher movies.
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