What I consider a rather romantic-sounding term in Italian is barlume (masculine, plural: barlumi) which is the word for any kind of dim light, such as a glimmer, flicker or gleam. It derives from the word lume (one possible translation for light in Italian) and the prefix bar- which is akin to the pejorative prefix …
The cappuccino is a hot drink of Italian origin consisting of coffee and milk that has been frothed up with pressurised steam. It is traditionally consumed with sugar at or following breakfast, accompanied by a cornetto (croissant) or other baked goods. A cardinal rule of Italian coffee drinking is to never order a cappuccino or …
On a cold wintery day, few things are more comforting than curling up with a bowl of hot minestra (feminine, plural: minestre). Minestra is just one way of saying soup in Italian, and it has a fascinating history as we’ll discover in this article! Learn with our video Although minestra is now a generic term …
The opposite of work is free time, which translates quite literally as tempo libero in Italian. Tempo means time and libero means free. The adjective libero ends with an “o” because tempo is a masculine noun. Some examples of hobbies people enjoy in their tempo libero include: Passo il tempo libero a suonare il pianoforte. …
Evviva! is what Italians shout when they want to celebrate something such as a promotion at work or a big lottery win. Two equivalents in English are Hurray! (sometimes spelled Hooray! or Hurrah!) and Yay! Evviva is a variation on the interjection Viva! preceded by the conjunction e (and). Evviva, abbiamo raggiunto quota mille iscritti …
In Italian, there are two possible ways to translate the word old: Unlike vecchio, which can sound quite impertinent when talking about a person’s age, anziano is more polite and respectful. Il signore anziano sta camminando lentamente verso la piazza. The old gentleman is walking slowly towards the square. The feminine form of anziano is …