Archive for January, 2019
Italian Temporal Expressions – Part 1 Posted by Geoff on Jan 30, 2019
Today we’re going to begin looking at words and expressions that deal with time. This is a pretty big topic, so it will be divided in several parts. Let’s begin with the basic vocabulary. We’ll take a logical journey through time, moving from the past to the present and the future. ieri = yesterday la…
Cooked Twice! Posted by Serena on Jan 23, 2019
Have you ever thought about the word biscuit? “Yes, everyday!” I hear you say … Biscuit were originally cooked in a two stage process: first they were baked, then they were dried out in a slow oven in order to preserve them. From this process comes the French word bescuit, which itself comes from the…
A Classic Italian Design – Part 2 Posted by Geoff on Jan 17, 2019
In Part 1, I wrote about the circumstances that gave rise to the world famous Vespa motor scooter. Today we’re going to look at her big sister, l’Ape. We saw the Ape in action in our recent blog, Italy’s Smallest Library, and I’m sure that if you’ve visited Il Bel Paese (Italia!) you’ll be familiar…
A Classic Italian Design – Part 1 Posted by Geoff on Jan 15, 2019
Did you know that in 1948 an Italian wasp gave birth to a bee? At that time, Italy was still struggling to recover from the devastation caused by World War 2. Amongst the many problems that had to be dealt with was a sever shortage of mezzi di trasporto (means of transport), with many people…
Italy’s Smallest Library Posted by Geoff on Jan 10, 2019
In our previous blog, A Positive Message For The New Year, we looked at 9 of the 33 individuals who were praised by il Presidente della Repubblica, Sergio Mattarella in his new year’s honours list. Today we’re going to focus on another fascinating individual who’s on that list: Antonio La Cava. We’d been planning to…
A Positive Message For The New Year Posted by Serena on Jan 4, 2019
Having celebrated Christmas with a bit of seasonal humour let’s begin the new year with some positive news. 2018 has certainly been an incredibly turbulent and troubling year, especially in terms of international politics. It can often seem that we’ve learnt nothing from the past, and are doomed to repeat our errors ad infinitum. But…