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Archive for May, 2009

Meta’ or Mezza? Posted by on May 10, 2009

They say that two halves make a whole, but that’s not necessarily true. Let me explain: in Italian we have two words, meta’ and mezza, which both mean “half” in English. This can be very confusing, and students of Italian often find it difficult to know which of the two to use. Hmm, let’s see…

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Cicero’s chickpea Posted by on May 7, 2009

A few days ago I had an interesting reply to my blog La Farinata from Vince, who wrote: “Did you know that Cicero is a nickname meaning chick pea? Thus it seems the word is ceci in modern Italian. At least this is what I have read”. I was intrigued by this comment and decided to do…

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Ombrello, ombrellino, ombrellone Posted by on May 4, 2009

Ideas for blogs come in all shapes and sizes. This blog, which deals with nomi alterati (altered nouns) was inspired by a short filastrocca (nursery rhyme) by Luigi Grossi:   L’ombrello Se il tempo e’ piu’ brutto che bello, c’e’ chi porta l’ombrello. Se pero’ chi lo porta e’ un bambino, l’ombrello e’ un ombrellino. Se invece…

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La Farinata Posted by on May 1, 2009

Very often it’s the simple things in life that are the best, take for example la farinata. La farinata, or faina’ as the locals call it, is a delicious savory pancake made with farina di ceci (chick pea flour), water and olive oil. Originating in the region of Liguria, la farinata  is also popular a bit further south…

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