Archive by Author
Il Congiuntivo Presente – An Exercise Posted by Serena on May 10, 2017
Here’s an exercise to help you practice the use of the Italian present subjunctive. You can revise the conjugation of the present subjunctive in these two recent posts: Italian Present Subjunctive and Present Subjunctive of Irregular Verbs. At the end of each of these Italian sentences we’ve given the infinitive of the verb that needs…
Popular Italian Names – 2. Female Posted by Serena on May 9, 2017
When I was a child I used to hate it when people asked me: “Come ti chiami?” (“What’s your name?”), because I knew that, nine times out of ten, their immediate reaction to my reply: “Mi chiamo Serena” (“My name is Serena”) would be: “Sei Serena di nome e di fatto?” (“Are you Serene by…
Really Lucky! Posted by Serena on May 5, 2017
Today I want to tell you about a book that is very special to me. It’s called Tutte Le Fortune – Badavo Ai Badanti (Really Lucky – I Took Care Of the Carers), an autobiography written by my childhood friend Riccardo Taverna. Riccardo, better known as Ricky, was my neighbour in Benghazi and my best…
Totò In Milan Posted by Serena on Apr 26, 2017
A few days ago was the 50th anniversary of the death of Totò (Napoli, 1898 – Roma, 15th April 1967), one of Italian cinema’s greatest comedians. Totò is the pseudonym of Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfiro-genito Gagliardi de Curtis di Bisanzio. Guess why he used the nickname Totò! Totò (a common abbreviation…
Tales From The Bar – Breakfast In Viareggio Posted by Serena on Apr 21, 2017
Here’s another little scene from bar life in Italy. Today I want to tell you about when I was a secondary school student in Viareggio, near Lucca. We’ll publish the English translation at the beginning of next week. That gives you all weekend to work on your own translation. Frequentavo il Liceo Classico a Viareggio…
Parliamo Romanesco! Posted by Serena on Apr 18, 2017
Last week I wrote an article based on the poem La Margherita (The Daisy) by the Italian writer Trilussa. The poem is written in the musical Romanesco dialect which was Trilussa’s preferred means of expressing himself. If you have a reasonable grounding in the Italian language, Romanesco isn’t too difficult to read. You just need…
La Margherita di Trilussa Posted by Serena on Apr 13, 2017
“M’ama … non m’ama” (“he/she loves me … he/she loves me not”). In the innocence of our youth we pulled petals one by one from le margherite (daisies) hoping to discover whether the object of our heart’s desires truly loved us or not. Do today’s kids still do that, or do they now have an…