Archive for the year 2012
Le Mille Ciotole di Catullo Posted by Serena on Sep 25, 2012
Last week, while researching for my quiz about Italian airport names, I came across the poems of the Latin poet Gaius Valerius Catullus, who was born in 84 BC in Verona. When I was at secondary school I studied Latin, and Catullus was on our reading list. We all used to like his poems, because…
Italian Airport Quiz: Answers Posted by Serena on Sep 21, 2012
Well done everybody who had a go at my airport quiz! Her are the answers, with a little bit of extra information: 1. Parma, aeroporto Giuseppe Verdi. Verdi was born in 1813 in Roncole, near Busseto, north west of Parma. You can read about the role of Giuseppe Verdi during the Italian Risorgimento in this…
A bit more about ‘ne’ Posted by Geoff on Sep 20, 2012
We recently published a blog about ‘ne’ (of it/them), a very important little word that is quite tricky to use correctly. I’m going to continue the theme in today’s blog by looking at how we use ‘ne’ as a substitute for ‘of it/them’ or ‘about it/them’, after verbs that are normally followed by the preposition…
Italian Airport Quiz Posted by Serena on Sep 18, 2012
So, here’s a little quiz for you. Many Italian airports are named after famous Italians. Below I’ve given ten descriptions of people who have had an airport named after them. Who are they, and which airports are their names linked to? Please leave your answers in the ‘Leave a Reply’ section at the end. Don’t…
Orecchiette con le Cime di Rapa Posted by Serena on Sep 17, 2012
Here is the recipe that Mattia promised in his article, which was published a few days ago, about le orecchiette, a typical pasta from Puglia. You can find out how to make orecchiette by clicking on the link: orecchiette pugliesi The traditional dressing for this type of pasta is that most humble of all the…
Le Paralimpiadi Posted by Serena on Sep 14, 2012
This has been a great year for the Italian team at Le Paralimpiadi 2012 (The 2012 Paralympics). They finished their amazing adventure with a total of 28 medals: 9 gold, 8 silver and 11 bronze, 10 medals more than the previous Paralympics in 2008 and the same number of medals won in this year’s Olympics…
Le Orecchiette Pugliesi Posted by Serena on Sep 12, 2012
Our guest-blogger Mattia, the ‘young Italian chef’, has sent us a nice article in which he describes how to make a traditional pasta from his native region of Puglia (if you find it hard to read you can have a break while you watch the video! See the link at the end of Mattia’s blog)…