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Maremma Amara Posted by Serena on Sep 5, 2012
A few days ago Geoff wrote an article about the effects of this summer’s draught on Il Parco Naturale dell’Uccellina in Maremma, which reminded me of a folk song that I love. My professor of Topography at the University of Pisa used to sing it during our archaeological campaigns in Vada, near Livorno. Maremma is…
Una consonante fa la differenza Posted by Serena on Aug 31, 2012
There are times when a single or a double consonant can make a big difference to a sentence, e.g. Mi passi la pala per piacere? (Can you pass me the shovel please?) instead of Mi passi la palla per piacere? (Can you pass me the ball please?), or Mi piace Luca (I like Luke, a…
Vietato Cantare l’Ave Maria in Chiesa Posted by Serena on Aug 28, 2012
È vietato cantare l’Ave Maria in chiesa! (It’s forbidden to sing the Hail Mary in church!) Unbelievable but true! But why? A couple of weeks ago, actor and film director Michele Placido, originally from Foggia in Puglia, got married to the young actress Federica Vincenti. He asked his old friend Al Bano, a famous pop…
Insalata Russa Posted by Serena on Aug 24, 2012
Despite its name, l’insalata russa (Russian salad) is originally from Piemonte (Piedmont), a region in the north west of Italy, and, in fact, in France it’s known as "salade piemontaise". According to the Vocabolario della Lingua Italiana Treccani “Insalata russa è chiamata anche insalata italiana” (Russian salad is also called Italian salad). It seems that…
La Scherma Italiana delle Olimpiadi del 2012 Posted by Serena on Aug 22, 2012
The Olympic Games are over, now it’s time to have a little rest and to count our results. In total we brought home 28 medals: 8 gold, 9 silver, and 11 bronze. Nothing compared to the USA or China (we’re only a little country!), but enough to give us a dignified 8th place in the…
Talking About The Past Posted by Serena on Aug 20, 2012
Here’s a brief description of a morning walk. It highlights some grammatical points which will help you when talking about things that happened in the past. Each sentence is translated into English, and for the text in blue we have given a grammatical explanation. Words in red are links to old posts. 1. Oggi ci…
Un po’ di Burocrazia Posted by Serena on Aug 17, 2012
Last week Cathy, an English friend of ours who has a holiday house near Pontremoli, asked me if I could go with her to the Council offices. Her Italian is not fluent and she wasn’t sure if she was up to date with all the different council taxes and so on. So Monday morning we…