Archive by Author
La Pubblicità Posted by Serena on Apr 17, 2010
A few days ago we went to visit a friend who lives in the little hilltop town of Vezzano Ligure. Wandering down the main street, we noticed a hand written sign that someone had put next to their cassetta della posta (mail box). It read: "Siete liberi di lasciare la pubblicità consapevoli che verrà usata…
Bureaucratic Italian part 2, I tuoi Doveri Posted by Serena on Apr 14, 2010
In the first part of this blog I explored some of the bureaucratic language found in a ‘health and safety at work’ leaflet. If you’ve studied that blog you will all be familiar with ‘I Tuoi Diritti’ (Your Rights), but, of course, as an employee you also have ‘I Tuoi Doveri’ (Your Duties). Let’s find…
Bureaucratic Italian part 1, Conosci i tuoi Diritti? Posted by Serena on Apr 11, 2010
Every now and then I write a blog about ‘colloquial Italian’, explaining everyday language and expressions that you don’t normally find in grammar books and language classes. At the other end of the spectrum we have ‘bureaucratic Italian’, and although it won’t help you much if you want to fare due chiacchiere (have a chat)…
Che Stanchezza! part 2 Posted by Serena on Apr 7, 2010
In part 1 of this blog I looked at some of the expressions that we use to describe physical tiredness. Now let’s have a look at how we express mental tiredness. Listed below are four common ways of expressing mental tiredness, the familiar sensation that we get when our brain is beginning to grow numb…
La Pastiera Napoletana Posted by Serena on Apr 4, 2010
La Pastiera Napoletana is a traditional cake which is made in the Naples area and eaten on Easter day. It’s very rich and takes a lot of effort to make, but ‘ne vale davvero la pena’ (it’s really worth it). If you’re on a diet however, simply reading this recipe could be bad for you…
Che Stanchezza! part 1. Posted by Serena on Apr 1, 2010
Now that the winter is drawing to a close (teniamo le dita incrociate -let’s keep our fingers crossed) all the plants are coming out of hibernation and are having a competition to see who can grow the fastest. So far l’erbaccia (the weeds) appear to be winning, in fact some of them are managing to…
La Primavera di Vivaldi Posted by Serena on Mar 29, 2010
È giunta la Primavera (spring is upon us), and to celebrate her arrival what better way than by listening to Vivaldi’s Le Quattro Stagioni (the Four Season). A few days ago we had the pleasure of going to a great performance of this famous piece of music at Il Teatro della Rosa, a beautiful little…