How do you say “shaken, not stirred” in Italian?

“Agitato, non mescolato” is how James Bond’s “shaken, not stirred” lands in Italian, and it doubles as a neat verb lesson. Agitare is to shake or agitate; mescolare is to mix or stir. So the line draws the exact line a learner needs: violent shaking versus gentle stirring. The same pair runs through a kitchen — you mescoli the sauce, you agiti the bottle — making one iconic cocktail order a memory hook for two everyday verbs.

In the dubbed films the order is often the fuller “Un Martini, agitato, non mescolato.” Note the false-friend trap: mescolare looks like “mescal” or “mescaline” but simply means to stir or blend, and agitato as an everyday adjective also means “upset, worked up.” Past participles double as adjectives here — agitato (shaken/agitated), mescolato (mixed).