Archive for November, 2016
Combining Prepositions With Articles – Part 3. Posted by Serena on Nov 30, 2016
In today’s exercise, we’re going to focus on combining the Italian definite articles il, lo, la, i, gli, and le (the) with the preposition ‘da‘ (from, to, by, since). We’ll begin by reviewing how we construct these preposizioni articolate (preposition/article combinations). This will be followed by an exercise that requires you to fill in the…
In Your Own Way Posted by Geoff on Nov 28, 2016
If you’ve ever seen Quentin Tarantino’s film Django Unchained you’ll have heard the lovely voice of Italian singer songwriter Elisa performing the song ‘Ancora Qui’ by Ennio Morricone. Elisa Toffoli, better known simply as Elisa, was born in Trieste in north-eastern Italy. Growing up in the border area of Monfalcone, (only 15 km from Slovenia…
Ode To An Odious Teacher Posted by Serena on Nov 25, 2016
A few days ago I wrote a post in which I recounted a pleasant episode that took place when I was a 15 year old student at the Liceo Classico in Lucca. This was a very strict old fashioned school, in which the teachers never paid compliments to the students, but only put them down…
Our Italian Olive Harvest Posted by Geoff on Nov 23, 2016
November through to December is the period in which la raccolta delle olive (the olive harvest) takes place here in Toscana, and 2016 has turned out to be the year of our first ‘real’ olive harvest, even if on a fairly humble scale, as we were to find out. Harvesting Olives For the past few…
Combining Prepositions With Articles – Part 2. Posted by Serena on Nov 21, 2016
In today’s exercise, we’re going to focus on combining the Italian definite articles il, lo, la, i, gli, and le (the) with the preposition ‘a‘ (to, at, from, on, with, in the style of). We’ll begin by reviewing how we construct these preposizioni articolate (preposition/article combinations). This will be followed by an exercise that requires…
A Beautiful November Morning Posted by Serena on Nov 18, 2016
Oggi è una stupenda mattina di novembre: l’aria è fredda ma il cielo terso è di un bellissimo azzurro intenso, e i colori autunnali rallegrano i monti intorno a noi. La mente vagabonda torna ad un’altra mattina di novembre di tanti anni fa. Today is a wonderful November morning: the air is chilly but the…
A Blue Moon In Italy Posted by Serena on Nov 16, 2016
Last night, they told us that we’d see a very special, extra large full moon, the sort of moon that you only see una volta ogni morte di Papa (once in a blue moon). Geoff, who was out on the terrazzo gazing up a silvery disk in the limpid night sky, asked me to go…