Card games hold a special place in Italian culture. Walk into any bar from the Alps to Sicily, and you’ll likely spot a group of people gathered around a table, studying their cards with the seriousness of surgeons preparing for an operation. We play cards at Christmas, at the beach, at the park, on long …
You’ve just landed in Italy. Obviously, you’ve already memorised all the food vocabulary (priorities!). Maybe you’ve also rehearsed a few survival phrases. But at some point (and trust me, it will happen) you’ll also need to explain how your body feels. And I’m not just talking about the “I think that fifth gelato was a …
Italian is a beautiful, musical language — we can all agree on that, right? But there’s a specific category of the vocabulary that’s honestly next-level. I’m talking about words for sounds, the ones that don’t just describe a rustling leaf or a crackling fire, they sound like one. From a grammatical point of view, many …
Whether you’re marveling at a mosaic tucked inside a quiet neighborhood church or letting your local friend know that the wine they recommended is absolutely incredible, at some point knowing how to express that you like something in Italian becomes kind of essential. But of course, there isn’t just one way to say it. Instead, …
The wind and I are not great friends. In fact, I’m one of those who usually blames it for the colpo d’aria (you know, that uniquely Italian phenomenon where a “hit of air” is supposedly responsible for everything from a scratchy throat to a stiff neck). So yeah, calm, windless days are very much my …
Guest post by Judy Cohen If you love post-war Italian films as I do, I think you’ll appreciate the following list of cinematic terms in Italian and English. Each one is explained in English. I include images as examples, describing their function in the context of the film. The goal here is not for you …