Buondì.
With reference to Friday’s article, Can you lick your nose like a cow?, it appears that only one club member can, or could be bothered to send me a photo.
Thank you, Anastasia!
Moving on then, Canto XVIII is now up on the literature page.
Someone, I forget who, wrote to say that after my encouragement last week, she had given Dante a try and found it more manageable than she expected.
Beh, it’s manageable if you have a guide (as Dante himself does!) – in our case, Francesca. With her notes, written in modern Italian, and with the help of an English translation, I’m getting through the tale.
But I confess to only reading the extracts, not the whole of each canto. It IS hard after all and, in any case, even dipping in as we are doing, reading just an extract or two from each canto, is teaching me a lot.
For example, not to try prostituting my sister so as to get on good terms with a Count.
Tut tut…
But also that ‘adulatore’ does not mean ‘adulterer’ (which would be ‘adultero’) but
leccapièdi s. m. e f. [comp. di leccare e piede], spreg. – Adulatore vile e interessato.
that is to say ‘a vile and self interested toady’, a foot-licker.
You learn something new every day!
Or at least you do if you can be bothered to expose yourself (ahem..) to new things:
Canto XVIII | Previous cantos in the series
E poi, thanks to everyone who bought a copy of our latest Italian easy reader ebook ‘Il mistero della quercia‘, the offer on which has now ended.
Hope you’re enjoying it!
But whether you are or not, don’t forget to leave a review! There are instructions on how to do so here. It doesn’t have to be positive – grumpy reviews are welcome too.
(If you had been planning to buy a copy but missed the offer, well, what with the British pound now being worth the equivalent of used toilet paper thanks to Brexit, it’s still good value even at £7.99: ‘Il mistero della quercia‘.)
Anyway, lately all our new materials have been on the hard side, B2, C1 or above. So I thought I’d have a look for something EASY for the new ‘Book of the Week’ offer.
We’re going all the way back to 2014/2015 this time, when we were just beginning, so to speak.
And I have TWO A1/A2 titles at half the usual price!
Why two?
Well, the logic is this – if you’re just starting out with Italian, or have done so recently, you’re probably still flagellating with irregular verbs and worrying about tenses that no one ever uses.
You’ll likely not have gotten around to building a reading/listening habit yet, which is a shame because it helps.
Hence, a selection of materials at a super low price. Buy one, or the other, or both. Read and listen to a chapter a day, with the aim of getting used to de-coding the Italian you read and hear, rather than just ‘studying’.
It’ll stand you in good stead, I promise.
Anyway, this week’s titles are:
Ciak si gira (A1/2), which I haven’t looked at for years but remember being super easy!
Follow Marco – a young Italian student who dreams of becoming an actor – and his best friend Luca as they catch a train to Rome for an audition.
There’s a free sample chapter (.pdf) to download, so you can see just how easy! And you can buy the full version, at half the usual price, here.
The second title is also very manageable, even for those who haven’t been learning Italian for long. It’s La crisi di mezz’età (A1/2). 
Find out what happens when two middle-aged Italians, who dream of leaving behind their day jobs to become professional musicians, actually give it a try…
And again, there’s a free sample chapter (.pdf) to check out before you considering buying the full version.
Both ebooks are featured on the homepage of our online shop (where it says ‘On Offer!’ – you’ll probably have to scroll down to see it…)
And in our Catalog, which shows ALL the ebooks, at ALL the levels, along with the prices and links to the free sample chapters.
Così.
More from me on Wednesday.
Oops! Almost forgot.
Don’t forget to listen to Saturday’s EasyItalianNews.com bulletin, will you?
There’s a lovely picture of The Donald, not that you should let that put you off…