Archive by Author
Meta’ or Mezza? Posted by Serena on May 10, 2009
They say that two halves make a whole, but that’s not necessarily true. Let me explain: in Italian we have two words, meta’ and mezza, which both mean “half” in English. This can be very confusing, and students of Italian often find it difficult to know which of the two to use. Hmm, let’s see…
Cicero’s chickpea Posted by Serena on May 7, 2009
A few days ago I had an interesting reply to my blog La Farinata from Vince, who wrote: “Did you know that Cicero is a nickname meaning chick pea? Thus it seems the word is ceci in modern Italian. At least this is what I have read”. I was intrigued by this comment and decided to do…
Ombrello, ombrellino, ombrellone Posted by Serena on May 4, 2009
Ideas for blogs come in all shapes and sizes. This blog, which deals with nomi alterati (altered nouns) was inspired by a short filastrocca (nursery rhyme) by Luigi Grossi: L’ombrello Se il tempo e’ piu’ brutto che bello, c’e’ chi porta l’ombrello. Se pero’ chi lo porta e’ un bambino, l’ombrello e’ un ombrellino. Se invece…
La Farinata Posted by Serena on May 1, 2009
Very often it’s the simple things in life that are the best, take for example la farinata. La farinata, or faina’ as the locals call it, is a delicious savory pancake made with farina di ceci (chick pea flour), water and olive oil. Originating in the region of Liguria, la farinata is also popular a bit further south…
A day in Firenze Posted by Serena on Apr 28, 2009
Last week here in Italy was Settimana della Cultura (Culture Week). Organized by the Italian Ministry of Arts, Settimana della Cultura offers free entry to all the national museums, so we decided to make the most of it and go to Firenze (Florence) for the first time in many years. On the Monday afternoon we went down to…
Parole Curiose, le soluzioni e una leggenda molto interessante. Posted by Serena on Apr 25, 2009
(Unusual words, the answers and a very interesting legend.) Well done everyone who had a go at my little quiz called ‘Parole Curiose’. It was, admittedly, quite hard and no one has attempted to answer all the questions. Let’s begin with the answers, and then I want to tell you a story related to one…
Buon Compleanno Roma! Posted by Serena on Apr 22, 2009
Yesterday, Tuesday the 21st April, Rome celebrated her birthday, and she’s is not doing too badly given her age: 2,762! Rome’s birthday is called il Natale di Roma: Natale comes from the Latin word natus, which is the past participle of the verb nascere meaning ‘to be born’. Nowadays we only use the word Natale for…