Italian Stereotypes Posted by Serena on Jun 17, 2015
‘Abbiamo fatto l’Italia, ora dobbiamo fare gli Italiani’ (we have made Italy, now we have to make the Italians) said Italian writer and politician Massimo d’Azeglio shortly after the unification of Italy in 1861. Over a century and a half later we still haven’t got ‘standard’ Italians, but rather an eccentric collection of regional cultures…
How Do You Find Yourself? Posted by Geoff on Jun 15, 2015
Trovarsi = to find oneself, is a colloquial way of saying how you find/like something. That ‘something’ may refer to a place, a job, or an object. The easiest way to illustrate how we use trovarsi is through practical examples: Domande = Questions come ti trovi qua in Italia? = how do you (singular informal)…
A Carpet of Flowers Posted by Serena on Jun 11, 2015
By Serena with an English translation by Geoff Domenica scorsa era la festa del Corpus Domini, e in molti paesi e città italiane c’è la tradizione di celebrare questa solennità con una ‘infiorata’. ‘Infiorata’ viene dalla parola ‘fiore’ e consiste nel creare dei quadri religiosi usando i petali colorati dei fiori raccolti il giorno prima…
Adagio Posted by Geoff on Jun 10, 2015
I love exploring youtube in search of inspirational musicians, and every now and then I find one that I can’t believe I’ve never heard of before. Just a few days ago, for example, I noticed a video entitled Lara Fabian – Adagio. Okay, let’s have a listen and see what she’s like … mamma mia…
Italian Identikit Posted by Geoff on Jun 8, 2015
Dear Readers, are you tall or short? What colour are your eyes? Do you have straight or curly hair? How well would you be able to describe yourselves in Italian? Here are a few examples of simple descriptions of a couple of my friends. Michele: è di media altezza e grasso. Ha il viso tondo, gli…
How To Describe People In Italian Posted by Geoff on Jun 4, 2015
So far this week, we’ve had two family orientated articles: La Famiglia Italiana and La Casa Della Strega. Today, as an introduction to some of the vocabulary that we use when describing people, Serena and I have decided to write about members of our family who have passed away in recent years. I’ll begin by…
La Casa della Strega Posted by Serena on Jun 2, 2015
Quando ero bambina la scuola finiva il trentuno maggio, e dal primo giugno al trenta settembre ci godevamo le meritate vacanze estive: quattro mesi completi di mare, sole, giochi e niente compiti, niente sveglia la mattina. Poi ad un certo punto l’Italia si dovette adeguare alle normative europee, e così le vacanze scolastiche furono ridotte…