Archive for June, 2012
Eccoci in Inghilterra–part 1 Posted by Geoff on Jun 29, 2012
My mother is nearing 80 and, unlike her progeny, has never strayed from the shores of ‘Good Old Blighty’, unless you count a day trip which she once made to the Isle of Wight many years ago. And so every year I make the long journey by car from our village in Lunigiana to my…
Alcune Battute Posted by Geoff on Jun 27, 2012
Personally, I’ve always found humour a really useful means of helping me to improve my Italian. Our zio (uncle) Luciano who is in his 80’s is an inexhaustible font of battute (jokes), many of which have stuck in my mind and helped me out later on, not only in making an attempt at getting a…
Peperoni e Friarelli Ripieni Posted by Serena on Jun 25, 2012
Here is another blog from our friend Mattia. This time he shares another of his favourite Pugliese recipes with us: Peperoni e Friarelli Ripieni Cari lettori, dopo la ricetta “complicata” per modo di dire della scorsa volta, ho deciso, in combutta con (in league with) il capo Chef del Rango più alto (Highest Ranking Chef)…
Il Passato remoto–part 2 Posted by Serena on Jun 22, 2012
In part 1 we looked at the conjugation of the passato remoto (historical past). Today we are going to look at the different ways in which it is used: In historical writing: Il passato remoto is, of course, commonly used when writing biographies or recounting historical events, e.g. Caravaggio nacque nel 1573 (Caravaggio was born…
Il Passato Remoto–part 1 Posted by Serena on Jun 20, 2012
In his latest guest blog, Il Negozio del Papà di Mattia, our friend Mattia uses il Passato Remoto (Historical Past), a tense that is often seen as more or less redundant because it’s mainly used in formal and historical writing, e.g. Napoleone morì nel 1821 all’Isola di Sant’Elena (Napoleon died in 1821 on the Island…
Il Costo della Benzina Posted by Serena on Jun 18, 2012
Here is a brand new Italian word that has come into fashion in the last few months: l’accisa. I came across this word for the first time last November, just after the floods which brought so much damage to Liguria and Toscana, when the President of the Regione Toscana announced the introduction of un’accisa sulla…
Il Negozio del Papà di Mattia–part 2 Posted by Serena on Jun 15, 2012
Spaziando ancora tra le bontà del suo negozio, posso dire che per esperienza lui tenta sempre di variare la merce che ordina, provando sempre nuove specialità e rarità che lui stesso cerca. Infatti, non ditelo a nessuno, il mio babbo ogni domenica, in sella alla sua bici da corsa, va alla ricerca di specialità nei…