Quiz–Italian Christmas Traditions Posted by Geoff on Dec 21, 2012
Here’s a little Christmas Quiz for you. Most of the answers can be found in our December blogs of the last four years. I’ve given links to the relevant blogs below. You can answer the questions in English if you prefer. 1. Dove è nato il poeta Giuseppe Ungaretti, autore della poesia “Natale”? 2. Come…
La Pesca di Beneficienza di Natale Posted by Serena on Dec 18, 2012
Erano gli ultimi giorni di scuola prima delle vacanze di Natale di tanti, tanti anni fa. Io in quei giorni frequentavo il Ginnasio e mio fratello Francesco faceva ancora le elementari. Una mattina mia madre, dopo averci accompagnati a scuola, era andata come al solito in centro a Lucca a comprare il pane. Strada facendo…
Complicated Hair! Posted by Geoff on Dec 14, 2012
O.k., now that I’ve caught your attention with the cryptic title I suppose I’d better explain myself. There are certain words, or variations on words in Italian that can be infuriatingly difficult to remember. Very often, they are small words that seem like they should be straightforward, such as the dreaded ‘ci’. And this only…
So Many Ways to say Many! Posted by Serena on Dec 12, 2012
Last week we looked at the differences between how we use molto and tanto when we want to say ‘many’, ‘a lots of’, ‘very much’, and so on. Today we are going to look at several colloquial expressions that are commonly used to express this same concept of quantity. Un sacco = literally: a sack…
Canzone Piccola Posted by Geoff on Dec 7, 2012
Italian popular music, be it opera or contemporary pop, is well known for its obsession with grandi emozioni, passioni, tragedie e l’amore! And that’s probably one of the reasons that I love Canzone Piccola. Singer songwriter Jovanotti goes completely against fashion by singing about simple little everyday things in a musical poem that, in the…
Using Molto and Tanto Posted by Serena on Dec 4, 2012
In Italian we have a variety of ways to say ‘a lot’ and ‘many’. The two most common of these are molto and tanto, so let’s begin by looking at how we use them. 1. molto and tanto used as adjectives Molto/a/i/e is an adjective meaning ‘much, many, a lot of, lots of’ and as…
Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini Moves Home Posted by Serena on Nov 30, 2012
A few days ago, while browsing through the newspaper ‘Corriere della Sera’, I came across an interesting article about Michelangelo’s last sculpture, la Pietà Rondanini. Michelangelo is thought to have started working on this Pietà (pietà is the name used for a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead body of Christ) in…