Archives for December 2019

Buondì. Picture the scene: we’re at the kitchen table, at our home in Bologna, it’s five years or so ago. My younger daughter has recently started ‘liceo scientifico’ (scientific high school), having opted for one of the toughest choices in a city full of above-average schools. She could have gone for ‘liceo classico’, which would […]

Buondì. A rare Sunday article, because of our recently-started ‘January Sale’ (details in the P.S. – scroll down!) “How much do you want to improve your Italian in 2020?” Actually, that’s a rhetorical question, for the moment. So, at this time of year, I’m always thinking about my own language-learning, congratulating myself on my progress […]

Buondì. And how nice that it’s a normal Friday! The shops are open, the sun is shining, the kids are slumped in front of the TV in their pyjamas – everything is well with the world. Except, it’s NOT a normal Friday… Because today we have the start of the 2020 January Sale! Which means […]

Buondì. Three things today: 1.) What to do to avoid the ‘January Sale’ This Friday (27th December 2019) we’ll be beginning our ‘January Sale’ on online lessons, ebooks and so on. There’ll be a coupon code to use to save £££ on EVERYTHING in our online shop. Watch this space on Friday for full details… […]

Buondì. Bet you didn’t know that the drive-by shooting was invented by the Ukrainian anarchist-revolutionary, Nestor Makhno. Wikipedia’s helpful page puts it like this: He combined horse and carriage with a machine gun in order to quickly assault targets then flee before they could properly react. Once motorised transport became ubiquitous, the tactic was widely […]

Buondì. On the bus to work yesterday morning, as is my habit, I was listening to the Swedish news headlines on an app on my phone – bluetooth headphones jammed in my ears to squeeze the extra thirty minutes or so of listening practice into my day. When one of the app’s headlines caught my […]

Buondì. This from Leigh, via email, overnight: Hi there I was wondering if you had an article on the verbs trattare and trattarsi? I don’t know how and when to use them and the information on the net was not well explained. Your lessons are well written and easy to understand and then the follow […]

Buondì. Stefi and I went to Florence on Saturday to visit our daughter, who’s in the first year of ‘medicina’ and has recently moved into an apartment with two other girls. It was the first time I’d been to ‘Firenze’ (other than for a business meeting) since she showed me around when we were ‘courting’, […]

Buondì. Before today’s rant, here’s a quick reminder about this week’s new Italian ‘easy reader’ ebook, Natale a sorpresa. Until Sunday night, it’s priced at just £5.99, thereafter the usual easy reader price of £7.99, which is about the price of a large beer in the pub we were in last night. As a language-learner […]

Buondì. I’m a little delayed this morning, as my Windows 10 laptop wanted an update, which means switching off all the things I usually keep handy on my desktop (email accounts, the shop interface, payment processors) and letting the machine get on with renewing itself while I scrub last night’s dinner dishes and clear up […]