Archive for 'Italian Language'
Come Picchia il Sole! Posted by Serena on Jul 23, 2010
Meriggiare pallido e assorto presso un rovente muro d’orto. To slump at noon thought-sick and pale under the scorching garden wall. These opening lines of Montale’s famous poem (here with a translation by Millicent Bell) perfectly evoke the ambience of a hot summer day. I don’t expect to compete with a Nobel prize winner, but…
Il Telefono Posted by Serena on Jul 20, 2010
Il telefono, for some a lifeline, for others a necessary evil. It’s good to be in touch, but sometimes ‘ti viene la voglia di buttarlo dalla finestra!’ (you feel like throwing it out of the window!) Here is a bit of useful telephone vocabulary: telefonare a qualcunodare un colpo di telefono a qualcuno chiamare qualcuno…
A Handy Collection Posted by Serena on Jul 13, 2010
When children learn to speak, they progress from using fairly generic terms to more specific ones as they gradually acquire and refine their vocabulary. They might, for example, begin by learning the word ‘dog’, believing that it can be applied to any small four legged animal. They then learn to differentiate dog from cat, rabbit…
Gol! Posted by Serena on Jul 4, 2010
I must admit I’m not a big football fan. However, there is something special about Il Mondiale (The World Cup), and as we don’t have a televisione we usually go round to my parents’ apartment to watch the more interesting partite (matches) with my dad, who is an enthusiastic ‘couch footballer’. After a grueling primo tempo (first…
Bed and Breakfast – Gli Ospiti Posted by Serena on Jun 8, 2010
If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that at the moment me and Geoff are managing our friend’s Bed and Breakfast ‘Ai Chiosi’. One of the nicest things about this job is that we have the opportunity to meet a variety of interesting people from different parts of Italy. Here…
Una Veduta dalla Finestra dei Chiosi Posted by Serena on Jun 5, 2010
A few months ago I wrote a blog entitled: ‘Una Veduta dalla mia Finestra’, in which I described the view across the valley from la mia casa in Valdantena, Toscana (my house in Valdantena, Tuscany). Today it’s a different window and a different view, this time the view is from the window of our apartment…
Una Mela al Giorno – part 2 Posted by Serena on May 27, 2010
Grazie a tutti for the interesting responses to my blog ‘Una Mela al Giorno’ I asked you to help me out by finding English equivalents for five common Italian sayings or proverbs. Here below are those that I consider to be the closest in meaning: Proverb Meaning chi fa per sè fa per tre ‘who…