Heather Broster
As the holiday season approaches, Italy awakens with a symphony of festive flavours and time-honoured traditions. Among the many enchanting customs, the spotlight gleams brightly on two iconic Christmas treats: panettone and pandoro. These desserts not only grace Italian tables with their presence but also carry a rich cultural legacy that transcends generations. In this …
In Italian, a positive way to describe a person or an action is by using the adjective carino. Carino is the diminutive form of caro, which translates to dear. It can be used in its masculine form, carino, feminine form, carina, or in their respective plural forms, carini and carine. When referring to a deed …
This classic idiom was suggested to me by my mother-in-law, who uses more idiomatic expressions in her everyday speech than most Italians! mettere una pulce nell’orecchio (di qualcuno) to plant an idea in someone’s head In Italian culture, the act of slipping a flea into someone’s ear isn’t about bugs; it’s a metaphor for introducing …
Italian and Spanish are both Romance languages, which means they share a lot of similarities in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Do you already speak Spanish, and now wonder how easy it would be to pick up Italian? Which languages are easiest to learn depend on your background and the other languages you are …
During my time in Italy, I worked for five years at a nursery school, which meant I interacted with a lot of children! Most of the kids had very classic names, but there were a few with especially adorable names that stayed with me for years. Some of them even made it onto the shortlist …
Today we’re going to explore pensare, a common verb in the Italian language that will offer a gateway to convey your thoughts and feelings. pensare to think Italian verbs are categorised into three classes: -are, -ire, and -ere. Pensare belongs to the first category, meaning that its conjugation in the present tense adheres the following …