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A Romantic Italian Poem for St. Valentine’s Day Posted by Serena on Feb 14, 2014
Today is San Valentino, la Festa degli Innamorati (Saint Valentine’s day), and to celebrate it what better way than reading a beautiful love poem by Francesco Petrarca. Born in Arezzo (Tuscany) on the 20th of July 1304, from Florentine parents, Petrarca is considered one of the fathers of the Italian language, alongside Dante and Boccaccio…
A Prickly Encounter Posted by Serena on Feb 12, 2014
We live in the foothills of the Appennino Tosco Emiliano, an area full of an incredible variety of wildlife. Here the wild animals are really wild, and they don’t rely on humans for their survival like many of the animals which now live in parks and city suburbs. The wildlife around here prefers to avoid…
To Be or to Have? Posted by Serena on Feb 7, 2014
If you’re learning Italian, knowing when to use essere or avere when talking about the past in the present perfect (Passato prossimo) is always a challenge. Should I say “Giovanni è vissuto in Inghilterra dal 2002 al 2007” or “Giovanni ha vissuto in Inghilterra dal 2002 al 2007”? I remember once, when I was teaching…
The Curvy World Posted by Serena on Feb 6, 2014
Have you ever looked critically at a photo of yourself and felt like doing a little tweaking with Photoshop? I must admit that I have, but I’m not very clever with photo editing software. However, many people who spend a lot of their time under the spotlight go to great lengths to have the ‘perfect’…
Pear and Chocolate Indulgence! Posted by Serena on Jan 31, 2014
Do any of you like chocolate? How about pears? If the answer to those two questions is yes then this is the perfect recipe for you. Preamble … Over the Christmas holidays we were inundated with chocolate: boxes and boxes of assorted pralines, and massive bars of the stuff, some of them weighing 500 grams…
How Not to Say I Love You in Italian Posted by Serena on Jan 29, 2014
Italians are very romantic, and town walls all over Italy are covered in graffiti with big passionate declarations of love. Ma amore non fa sempre rima con cuore (but love does not always rhyme with heart), as we say in Italian, so despite the good intentions these romantic graffiti are often full of grammatical mistakes…
Italian Grammar Quiz – The Solutions Posted by Serena on Jan 22, 2014
Here, as promised, are the correct answers to the quiz that we published a few days ago. If you haven’t already had a go at it you can find it here. 1. It keeps the wind off your face in the car. The correct answer is il parabrezza (literally ‘the breeze stopper, the windshield/windscreen of…