Archive for 'Uncategorized'
A Poem For November Posted by Serena on Nov 8, 2018
Here’s a beautiful poem written by Giovanni Pascoli in 1891, which perfectly describes these early November days. In this poem, published in the poetry collection Myricae, Pascoli describes the period from the 2nd of November (I morti = All souls) to the 11th of November, San Martino, normally referred as l’estate di San Martino (Saint…
La Casa Del Balilla Posted by Serena on Oct 25, 2018
Sabato scorso siamo andati a Carrara per visitare un’interessante mostra d’arte intitolata ‘Colori e Forme del Lavoro’. Last Saturday we went to Carrara to visit an interesting art exhibition entitled ‘Colours and Forms of Work’. Erano quadri e sculture della fine dell’Ottocento – inizi Novecento, che rappresentano gente comune nella fatica del lavoro. Fra le…
Describing People’s Character In Italian – Part 2. Posted by Geoff on Oct 18, 2018
In Describing People’s Character In Italian – Part 1. we looked at some important adjectives that also happen to be ‘false friends’, and a few others that have very straightforward translations. Let’s move on to common adjectives that don’t have an obvious meaning. We’ll divide these attributes into three categories: positive, neutral, and negative. affidabile/i…
Describing People’s Character In Italian – Part 1. Posted by Geoff on Oct 15, 2018
In Italian, we use a whole plethora of adjectives that describe people’s character. Several of these also happen to be ‘false friends’. False friends, sometimes called false cognates, are words which look or sound similar in two different languages, leading us to the erroneous conclusion that they have the same meaning. Some of these are…
Italian Harvest Focaccia Posted by Serena on Oct 5, 2018
As I’m writing this blog I can hear our neighbour passing by outside with his motocarriola full of grapes. Yes, it’s the season of la vendemmia (the grape harvest). My mind wanders back to when I used to live in Lucca ……. On our way to school we’d stop by the bakers’ to buy some…
Climate Change Posted by Geoff on Oct 1, 2018
In my brief post informing you of our absence I wrote: “But fear not, we shall soon return to our beautiful, and sometimes crazy Italian peninsula with renewed vigour and inspiration!” Ho davvero scritto questo? Sì, siamo tornati, la penisola è bellissima e un po’ pazza pure … ma il vigore e l’ispirazione??? A dire…
We’re On Holiday! Posted by Geoff on Sep 26, 2018
Dear readers, what, no blog this week!?! I once saw a hand written note taped to the door of a bar which read: Oggi il bar riaprira’ domani. Allora: Questa settimana il blog ricomincera’ quest’altra settimana! Yes, after ten years of continuous blogging we’ve decided that we’re going to take a break whilst we’re visiting…