Archive for 'Italian Language'
La Vendemmia – un po’ di vocabolario Posted by Serena on Oct 7, 2009
One of the great pleasures of living in our little village in Lunigiana, is being surrounded by nature and her changes of season. The lives of the contadini (peasant farmers) are still closely tied to the ancient rituals that have always accompanied natures rhythms. Late September, for example, is the period of la vendemmia, a…
La Mantide Religiosa Posted by Serena on Sep 25, 2009
September is the time of year when we start noticing le mantidi religiose (the praying mantises), which are very common here in Italy. I had always wondered why they seemed to appear so late in the year, and where they arrived from, but a quick investigation revealed the simple fact that they are already present…
Come non liberarsi dei calabroni! Posted by Serena on Sep 13, 2009
Earlier this summer I wrote that this year was a good year for insects, I was thinking, of course, about the beneficial effects that insect have on the environment. However, as my husband discovered when he was bitten by a couple of zecche (ticks), a good year for insects isn’t necessarily a good one for…
Parla come Mangi Posted by Serena on Sep 1, 2009
Browsing through a magazine a few days ago I came across an article about a recent survey which set out to discover the best known Italian words throughout the 27 countries of the Unione Europea. Although the article itself was rather trivial it did remind me of something quite important: the existence of La Società Dante Alighieri…
La storia di un’autovelox Posted by Serena on Aug 29, 2009
A few blogs ago I wrote about the tough new laws which are being applied to cyclists here in Italia despite the continuing infringements committed by the idiosyncratic ‘Italian Driver’: Ancora una nuova legge da dimenticare As a ‘coda’ (sequel), I thought you might enjoy the following article which I read a few days ago…
Tricky little words: “Ci” – part 2 Posted by Serena on Aug 5, 2009
Last week I wrote a post in which I explained as best as I could the many ways in which we use that tricky little word called ci. If you missed it you can read it here: Ci – part 1 . Well done those of you who had a go at translating my two silly sentences…
‘Bat-box’ to the rescue! Posted by Serena on Jul 30, 2009
Roma, our illustrious capital, is launching a new campaign to improve living conditions in the quartieri periferici (city suburbs). We are pretty much used to hearing about these campaigns: a campaign to fight against the deterioration of the environment, a campaign to help homeless immigrants, a campaign against le lucciole (lucciole are fireflies but the…