Buondì. Friday’s article had a video in it (a song that Anne sent in). But if you read it in an email, it’s likely the video had been ‘disappeared’ by your email provider. You may not even have noticed, but Anne was disappointed so I said I’d mention it today. Here are some options: View […]

The phrase in the title, ‘varie ed eventuali’, can usually be found at the end of an agenda for a meeting. The English equivalent would be ‘any other business’, or perhaps ‘miscellaneous’. ‘Agenda’, by the way, would be ‘ordine del giorno’ in Italian, that is to say the document containing details of the day/time of […]

Buondì. E’ come parlare al muro! It’s like talking to a brick wall! Yesterday I was doing one-to-one English lessons with some key staff at a local company. I’ve been going there each Tuesday for over two years and some of the students I work with have done forty or fifty lessons with me. One […]

OK, so I was wrong. After living in Italy for twenty years, I was convinced Italians had no sense of humour. But reading/listening to our newest Italian ‘Book of the Movie’ easy reader had me laughing out loud! The 1975 film, Fantozzi, features Ugo Fantozzi, a down-on-his-luck employee of a souless ‘mega-company’. A combination of […]

Buondì. I have another in our series of free Italian lessons based on common verbs. In each ‘lesson’ you get the basic conjugation, some examples of use, and a few, more idiomatic, expressions. Today’s common verb is dormire (to sleep). And sleeping, I can declare with all modesty, is one of my superpowers, as I’m […]

Buondì. Tomorrow is a national holiday in Italy, as in many other places, I’m sure. The efficient and business-friendly Brits organise their ‘bank holidays’ for Mondays, in order not to mess up the rest of the week (except for the most important ones – Christmas, New Year and Easter – which are beyond the reach […]

Buondì. We’ve finished the ten mini-lessons based on nouns, so now I have some verbs for you, starting with one of the most common verbs of all, andare. This is a nice little exercise, even if you know the verb well, as there are some useful idiomatic expressions. But if you’re just beginning with Italian, […]

As I’m way later than usual, I’ll wish you ‘Buon pomeriggio’ rather than the customary ‘Buondì’. But also, as it’s the 25th of April, ‘Buona festa della liberazione!’ If you’re in Italy, you’ll have been ‘liberated’ from work or school for the day. In which case, you’ll have no excuse not to study Italian… Here, […]

Published just a few minutes ago, ‘La Via Francigena‘ is Roberto Gamberini’s account of his journey along the ‘Via Francigena’, the famous pilgrim route from the French border down to Rome. If you’re up for a challenge, you too could spend twenty days walking three hundred kilometres through beautiful Tuscany and Lazio. Or you could just […]