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The Changing Face of Cheating Posted by Serena on Jun 19, 2014
Cheating isn’t what it used to be! When I was at school we used the good old fashioned methods handed down from generation to generation. But kids these days are spoilt by modern technology. In short, they’re cheating at cheating! Why this sudden nostalgia for good old fashioned cheating? Well, right now, all over Italy…
Molta Confusione! Posted by Serena on Jun 18, 2014
It’s a perennial source of confusion, we’ve examined it in depth in a couple of posts, it’s the theoretically simple but deceptively elusive word molto, molta, molti, molte. Here’s a quiz that should help to clarify any difficulties you may be having. But before you have a go at it I suggest that you revisit…
Italian Fruit and Vegetable Proverbs and Sayings Posted by Serena on Jun 12, 2014
They say that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Well, true or not we have exactly the same expression in Italian: una mela al giorno leva il medico di torno. However, perhaps because of our national passion for food, we have many more proverbs and idiomatic expressions involving fruit and vegetables. Let’s have…
A Sleeping Sloth Posted by Serena on Jun 5, 2014
oggi ho l’energia di un bradipo a riposo (today I’ve got the energy of a sleeping sloth). These were the opening words of a short post on my friend Annalisa’s Facebook yesterday evening. Intrigued by this metaphor, I carried on reading, and … the rest of the post was so beautiful and sad that I…
Duelling Poets Posted by Serena on Jun 2, 2014
Introduction and photos by Geoff For some reason June seems like the kind of month that needs a poem … or maybe even two! These beautiful days of early summer, full of nature’s renewed activity and the return of colours and scents that we’ve been deprived of for months, seem to inspire creativity. We feel…
Elisa’s Apple Jam Posted by Serena on May 29, 2014
Yesterday afternoon, as I was looking in the fridge to see what ingreadients I had, I noticed an open carton of fresh single cream that needed using up. “Stasera faccio un bel apple crumble per dolce” ho pensato (“This evening I’ll make a nice apple crumble for dessert” I thought). But first I needed to…
Eating Out In Italy – With Special Dietary Requirements Posted by Serena on May 27, 2014
A few days ago it was my father’s birthday, and we decided to celebrate by taking him out for a meal. Now, out of the six of us who went to the restaurant, only one didn’t have any specific dietary requirement: mia madre! Here’s a brief account in Italian of the rather complicated process of…