Heather Broster
Metterci una pietra sopra is an Italian expression meaning to definitively put an unpleasant matter or argument, or to put a painful memory to rest. The imagery is pretty clear – by placing a stone on top of something, it becomes impossible to see and easy to forget. In many ways, it is similar to …
The verb guidare is fairly intuitive; its prefix clearly mirrors the English ‘to guide.’ While that is one possible translation, there is plenty more to discover. Let’s take a look now! guidare Before we begin, it’s worth mentioning that guidare is an -ARE verb, making it fairly easy to conjugate. Here it is in the …
A curious fact about the noun ospite in Italian is that is has a double meaning – it can refer to either a guest or a host. This is because, in Latin, the word hospes, from which ospite derives, alluded to the “reciprocity of the pact of hospitality” – or in other words, the idea …
If, in English, you want to say that somebody’s house, a shop or a restaurant is very close to where you live, you can rely on the very useful expression “a stone’s throw away” or “within a stone’s throw.” In Italian, there is a very similar expression that replaces stones with muskets. Let’s discover it …
From the 13th to the 16th century, men and women commonly wore light headdresses made of wool, cloth, or canvas, secured under the chin with laces. Over time, these evolved into a staple of women’s nightwear and a standard way to keep infants’ heads warm. In Italian, this style is known as a cuffia (cap …
Bando alle ciance is a wonderfully evocative, albeit somewhat old-fashioned Italian expression meaning either “enough chatter” or “stop the small talk”. As you can imagine, it is used to cut short unnecessary talking, nonsense, or gossip, so as to shift focus immediately to the main topic. bando alle ciance enough chatter / stop the small …