If you want to express that something happens rarely, or with the English idiom “once in a blue Moon”, you can use the Italian idiomatic expression (a) Each death of a pope.
(a) Each death of a pope
Rarely/once-in-a-lifetime
The literal translation of this sentence is “with every death of the pope.” This expression is used in a hyperbolic manner, emphasizing the rarity of the Pope’s death.
Now I use my landline every time the Pope dies. I prefer mobile phones.
I rarely use my landline these days. I prefer my cell phone.
sometimes people say after the death of every popeand once It means “once”.


A Variations of this idiom swap dad with another religious figure, IL bishop (bishop).
Whenever a bishop dies, a singer like Freddie Mercury is born.
Singers like Freddy Mercury come once in a lifetime.
Some possible synonyms for this idiom include:
- rare = rare
- rare = rare
- rarely seen = rarely seen
- rarely seen = rare
- almost never = almost never
- Occasionally = from time to time
Heather Broster is a graduate with honors in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, fluent in English and Italian, as well as varying degrees of fluency in Japanese, Welsh and French. Originally from Toronto, Heather has lived in several countries, notably Italy for six years. Her main research areas are language acquisition, education and bilingual teaching.
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