When I was working as an au pair for an Italian family in Turin, the three children I looked after would begin every meal with a cheerful chorus of Buon appetito! (Bon appetit! / Enjoy your meal!), an expression many Italians say before eating. The proper response to this expression is grazie, altrettanto (thanks, likewise) …
We have officially entered the first days of July (i primi giorni di luglio) which means it is time to get out the swimsuits, sunscreen and the classic Spritz – one of Italy’s favourite alcoholic summer drinks! Luglio is the seventh month (settimo mese) of the year according to the Julian and Gregorian calendars. As is the case with all months …
The Italian word for mouth is bocca (feminine, plural: bocche), which comes from the Latin bucca meaning cheek. Below are a few common verbs you’ll often see used with bocca: aprire la bocca = to open one’s mouth chiudere la bocca = to close one’s mouth coprire la bocca = to cover one’s mouth tenere …
The word for breakfast in Italian is colazione (feminine, plural: colazioni). Traditionally, the first meal eaten just after waking up was referred to as la prima colazione (the first breakfast), whereas the midday meal was called la seconda colazione (the second breakfast). The latter has since been replaced by the word pranzo (lunch) but the …
The Italian word for nature is the similar sounding natura (feminine, plural: nature). It corresponds to the English meaning of the word in every sense as we’ll discover below. The first translation is the physical world that surrounds us including plants (piante), animals (animali), the landscape (paesaggio) and any other features or products of the …
An adjective you simply cannot survive without in Italian is carino. The diminutive of caro (dear), it translates in many ways including cute, pretty, nice, kind and lovely to name a few. In Italian, adjectives always agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. Those ending in o have four forms – masculine, …