Archive for May, 2014
Elisa’s Apple Jam Posted by Serena on May 29, 2014
Yesterday afternoon, as I was looking in the fridge to see what ingreadients I had, I noticed an open carton of fresh single cream that needed using up. “Stasera faccio un bel apple crumble per dolce” ho pensato (“This evening I’ll make a nice apple crumble for dessert” I thought). But first I needed to…
A Very Typical Italian Joke Posted by Geoff on May 28, 2014
Uncle Luciano loves telling jokes, and every time we go out to the restaurant with him he manages to come up with some new ones. Here’s a joke that is very typically Italian as it uses for its theme marital fidelity and religion: Due uomini sono morti e si trovano all’ingresso del Paradiso, davanti a…
Eating Out In Italy – With Special Dietary Requirements Posted by Serena on May 27, 2014
A few days ago it was my father’s birthday, and we decided to celebrate by taking him out for a meal. Now, out of the six of us who went to the restaurant, only one didn’t have any specific dietary requirement: mia madre! Here’s a brief account in Italian of the rather complicated process of…
It’s All In The Accent – Part 2. Posted by Serena on May 21, 2014
Last week in It’s All In The Accent, we took a look at how we use accents in written Italian, and how they can completely change the meaning of some words. Astute students of Italian will have noticed though that we use two different accents: ` accento grave (grave accent) used in open sounds such…
The Italian Monuments Men Posted by Geoff on May 20, 2014
Reading about the work of the Monuments Men during WWII left me with a strange sense of unease. It’s not so much the thought of what could have been lost. What really disturbs me is the idea that the same sick brutes who engineered the ‘Final Solution’ could have put so much time, effort and…
Saving Italy’s Artistic Heritage Posted by Geoff on May 19, 2014
What would it be like to fight a war inside a museum? Not long ago I had an e-mail from a long time follower of our blog, William Auge, telling me about a fascinating book he’d just finished reading called Saving Italy by Robert M. Edsel. “How about writing a guest blog for us Bill?”…
Spinning Wool … The Hard Way! Posted by Serena on May 15, 2014
Have you ever tried to spin wool? It looks so simple when you see an old peasant lady sitting there on a rustic wooden chair, turning the spindle with one hand and holding a distaff under her other armpit. But the truth is actually very far from this charming bucolic image. I can personally testify…