Paperwork – Part 1 Posted by Geoff on Sep 19, 2018
In my previous article ‘Living The Dream?‘, I wrote about the distasteful subject of corruzione and furbizia, and how these elements conflict with the concept that many foreign visitors have of the ‘Italian Dream’. Today, we’re going to look into another aspect of Italian culture that tends to leave ex-pats rather exasperated: la burocrazia (bureaucracy)…
Il Dottore Delle Bambole – Part 2 Posted by Serena on Sep 18, 2018
Here’s is part 2 of our giallo (thriller) Il Dottore Delle Bambole. You can find part 1 HERE. Il giorno dopo l’arresto del Dott. Franco Sasso sull’isola di Montecristo, l’Ispettore Augusto e il Tenente Ciceri sono in ufficio a riesaminare il caso del killer seriale dello Strano Caso Del Corpo Irregolare. Ispettore Augusto: “Allora, Ciceri…
Il Dottore Delle Bambole – Translation Posted by Geoff on Sep 14, 2018
Here’s my English translation for part 1 of Serena’s story: Il Dottore Delle Bambole Questa è la storia di una classica famiglia: mamma, papà e la figlioletta Gisella di otto anni. This is the story of a typical family: mum, dad, and their eight year old daughter Gisella. La bambina è molto intelligente e tranquilla…
Il Dottore Delle Bambole Posted by Serena on Sep 13, 2018
Questa è la storia di una classica famiglia: mamma, papà e la figlioletta Gisella di otto anni. La bambina è molto intelligente e tranquilla, a scuola è brava, e a casa spende ore nella propria cameretta a giocare con le bambole. Quando il papà torna a casa la sera, lei gli corre incontro festosa, a…
Living The Dream? Posted by Geoff on Sep 10, 2018
Every now and then, inexperienced visitors to the beautiful part of Italy where I live tell me: “You’re living the dream!” A statement which I find difficult to respond to. I guess my instinctive response would be: “No, I’m living the reality”. But that would entail long and complicated cultural explanations which would, for the…
Reflexive Verbs – Part 2 Posted by Geoff on Sep 7, 2018
In part 1, we looked at how reflexive verbs are formed and how we conjugate them in the present tense. Let’s take things to the next level. We’ll work with the important reflexive verb ricordarsi = to remember. Let’s revise the present tense conjugations: io mi ricordo = I remember tu ti ricordi = you…
Reflexive Verbs – Part 1 Posted by Geoff on Sep 4, 2018
You won’t get very far in Italian without reflexive verbs. Many are fundamental to everyday conversation, and not too difficult to grasp, others are more obscure and can be hard to conjugate. Mi chiamo Geoff (my name is Geoff, literally: I call myself Geoff). This is probably one of the first Italian phrases that I…