Archives for August 2023

Buondì. At the end of today’s free Summer Series article (with online audio), there’s a link to a video on Youtube. It’s about the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, is mostly black and white, and reminded me of my school days when – very rarely – the teacher would walk into the classroom and […]

Buondì. It’s ‘Caldo ma non troppo’ here in Bologna today, according to the app on my smartphone, which makes a nice change. It appears the opressively-hot weather has broken, though not with the promised violent storm. Oh well, we have to take what we can get at this time of year. Here’s a quick introduction […]

Buondì. As last week, hopefully we’re on the road again this morning, this time heading for the coast at Rimini, for a weekend with the in-laws, and maybe a swim in the Adriatic, which is now the temperature of soup, apparently. Tourist soup! Look Rimini up in Google Maps, why don’t you? It was a […]

Buondì. It’s a ‘giornata rovente’ today, unfortunately. At nine a.m. it’s already 29C, and by early afternoon it’ll have reached 37C. Troppo caldo! Fortunately, our Italian school in Bologna (where I’m composing this, as my wife’s at the beach) has air-conditioning. Phew! For now, though, I’m making do with the windows open and a (relatively) […]

Buondì. The weather app on my smartphone uses the phrase ‘Che caldo, oggi si suda!’ on days when the temperatures approach 35C (95F). Thinking about it now, while the meaning is obvious (‘hot’, ‘sweat’), it’s one of those Italian constructions that don’t translate easily into natural-sounding English (“What hot, today one sweats!”) Tomorrow the temperature […]

Buondì. I’m writing this yesterday, and plan to keep it super-short, as this morning we’re off to Tuscany for the weekend, and there’s plenty to do before we jump in our Fiat Punto and hit the autostrade! On Saturday evening we have tickets (the cheapest ones) to see the Puccini opera, Turandot, at the Puccini […]

Buondì. If you read Monday’s article La scuola di Bom! you might have had a go at translating the Gramsci quote, which I set as ‘homework’. A fraction of one percent of club members did, and posted their results as comments on the article. I’ll link to them in a moment, so you can see […]

Buondì. Longer-term club members will remember Roomie, who lived with us for a little over a year, until March this year. Driving her to the petting zoo each weekday morning (located on the other side of the city) was a chore, as was picking her up in the evenings. She didn’t like the car, and […]

Buondì. On Wednesday we read about charismatic self-publicist Gabriele D’Annunzio, who did his best to stir things up in post-war Italy. To his own advantage, of course! The years immediately after WWI were a difficult time. The economy was in tatters, and the result was a wave of strikes and protests. Think a sort of […]

Buondì. If you saw Monday’s free Summer Series article, you’ll already have heard of Gabriele D’Annunzio, who that article describes as a “patriota e nazionalista … che a quel tempo è il poeta più famoso (e scandaloso) d’Italia”. That article would have given you an idea of what he was capable of – invading someone […]