Pullman is one of my favourite words in Italian, not because it sounds particularly sweet to the ear, but because of its interesting history. Before we turn our attention to the Italian definition, let’s take a brief look at the original meaning associated with the term. In America, pullman actually referred to a luxurious railway …
I spent most of my early life living in big cities, but for the past seven years, I’ve had the immense privilege of being able to live by the mare (sea). There is nothing quite like breathing in the fresh salty air and falling asleep to the sound of the waves and the gabbiani (seagulls)! …
One of the more traumatic memories from my time living in Italy involves a walk along the River Po in Torino with a little girl I used to babysit. About halfway along the path, she decided to climb up the river bank, and took an unfortunate tumble into an enormous patch of nettles. Between her …
An alcoholic beverage prized the world over is beer, known as birra in Italian. Like its English counterpart, its origin can ultimately be traced back to the German Bier. Birra is a feminine noun whose plural form is birre. The definite and indefinite articles are as follows: la birrathe beer una birraa beer le birrethe …
The Italian word sgarbo sounds just as unpleasant as the meaning it suggests. It can be translated in many ways, including rudeness, discourtesy, impoliteness, and slight depending on the context. Sgarbo is a masculine noun whose plural form is sgarbi. Because it starts with the consonant cluster sg-, the definite and indefinite articles it takes …
The Milky Way, or Via Lattea as it is known in Italian, is the spiral galaxy (galassia) that we call home. An estimated diameter of 100,000 light years (anni luce), it contains the Sun (Sole) and the Solar System (Sistema Solare) in addition to at least 100 billion other stars (stelle), planets (pianeti), clusters (ammassi), …