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Acqua Alta a Venezia Posted by Serena on Dec 2, 2008
On Monday this week acqua alta (high water) reached 156 cm above its normal level in Venezia, creating a lot of damage and discomfort to the city and its population. The whole of the lagoon was flooded and the passerelle (gangways), which are normally set up to allow people to walk on in the event…
La Pronuncia, part 1. Posted by Serena on Dec 1, 2008
Italian, as I’m sure you will have discovered by now, is a ‘challenging’ and often confusing language, and for every rule there seem to be twenty-five exceptions. The good news however is that one set of rules is consistent, and those are the rules governing la pronuncia (pronunciation). Once you have mastered these fixed rules…
A visit to the Archaeological Museum in Florence Posted by Serena on Nov 29, 2008
The first time my husband came to Italy I took him to Firenze (Florence) of course. I warned him before hand not to dress like a tourist (no shorts or sandals, no cameras dangling from the neck) because I intended to take him to a place that is very important to me: not the Uffizi…
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Posted by Serena on Nov 27, 2008
A few days ago we came across a DVD of Sergio Leone’s famous spaghetti western movie ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, starring Clint Eastwood and featuring Ennio Morricone’s unforgettable haunting soundtrack. Its Italian title is Il Buono, il Brutto e il Cattivo, and this prompted the question from Geoff: “which is the Bad…
È arrivata la neve, the snow has arrived! Posted by Serena on Nov 24, 2008
Opening the shutters this morning I was greeted by a world magically transformed overnight by la neve (the snow). The late autumn mauves, blues, golds and ambers of yesterday now seem a thing of the distant past, having been replaced by an almost monochromatic landscape. As usual, when the snow arrives, the world seems strangely…
Mamma Mia! Posted by Serena on Nov 22, 2008
Today I’ll try to shed a bit of light on the use of the aggettivi possessivi (possessive adjectives). Lets first have a quick look at them: My = mio, mia, miei, mie Your (sing.) = tuo, tua, tuoi, tue His/her/its/Your (polite) = suo, sua, suoi, sue Our = nostro, nostra, nostri, nostre Your (plur.)…
La Castagna (The Chestnut) Posted by Serena on Nov 20, 2008
November. It’s time to sit around a log fire and savor a handful of hot caldarroste (roasted chestnuts) with a glass of vino novello (new wine). What more could you ask for? Large parts of central and northern Italy are covered with castagneti (chestnut woods) and for centuries chestnuts were the main source of food…