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Antonio Ligabue Posted by Serena on Jun 5, 2013
Last Sunday we went to Lucca to see an exhibition of work by the most famous Italian naive painter, Antonio Ligabue. I’d been wanting to see his work since, as a child in long ago 1977, I saw a telefilm about this very particular artist. I’m going to continue in Italian. I hope you manage…
Shovelling Muck in Tuscany! Posted by Serena on May 27, 2013
La settimana scorsa il tempo ci ha dato un paio di giorni di tregua (questa è la più piovosa e fredda primavera degli ultimi trent’anni!) e così siamo riusciti a fare un po’ di lavoro sul nostro povero orto. Prima di tutto abbiamo vangato, diserbato e ridisegnato un paio di aiuole. Poi siamo andati a…
Verdura Nostrana Posted by Serena on May 21, 2013
Carrying on from Geoff’s post about fruit names in Italian, today I’m going to look at the names of the most popular vegetables. Us Italians prefer our verdure (vegetables) to be nostrane (local) and generally try to avoid buying fruit and vegetables imported from foreign countries. A couple days ago I was at the supermarket…
Rice and Stinging Nettles – Italian Style Posted by Serena on May 6, 2013
Whilst our orto is still in sad state after this long and wet winter, stinging nettles are growing everywhere like mad, so I’m going to make the most of them! Here in Italy, when the weeds start growing it’s traditional to go and collect the new leaves and shoots while they’re nice and tender. It’s…
The Death of a Great Italian Actress – Anna Proclemer Posted by Serena on May 2, 2013
On the 25th of April, Anna Proclemer, one of our greatest Italian stage actresses, died in Rome at the age of 90. Click on the image below to visit her official website . Born in Trento in 1923 Anna Proclemer began acting in the early 40’s. I first saw her many years ago at the…
O Bella Ciao Posted by Serena on Apr 26, 2013
Yesterday was the 25th of April, Festa della Liberazione (Liberation Day), which is a national holiday here in Italy. It represents the liberation of Italy from Nazi occupation and Fascist dictatorship, and the end of the Second World War in Italy. 68 years ago, on the 25th of April 1945, Torino and Milano were freed…
Using The Subjunctive In Italian Posted by Serena on Apr 23, 2013
Several years ago I wrote a series of posts about the use of the subjunctive, and I divided the subject in four parts, each dealing with one tense: congiuntivo presente (present subjunctive), congiuntivo passato (past or perfect subjunctive), congiuntivo imperfetto (imperfect subjunctive) e congiuntivo trapassato (pluperfect subjunctive). Today we’re going to look at the some…