Buondì. Volgograd is a city in south-west Russia, apparently. Pictures on the internet show green parks and an attractive river. I’d probably heard of it before writing this, but have never thought of visiting. Well why would I? Turns out that Volgograd used to be known as Stalingrad (named for a Russian dictator, Stalin) and, due […]
Italy joins WWII / Mussolini speech / Customer of the month
Buondì. I’ll keep this brief, as I’ve wasted time answering ‘customer service’ emails, which is always the first job of a morning. That’s because things come in all through the night while I’m asleep, but the USA is still up, and Australia and New Zealand have already started tomorrow. So below is the link to […]
WWII begins / NEW ‘easy Italian reader’ -25% this week
Buondì. As you’ll have observed from the title of this article, there are two things I have to tell you this Monday morning. First off, we’re into the final two weeks of our ten-week-long, thirty-part Summer Series of articles with online audio. We began in July, way back in the nineteenth century, so proper history! […]
Fascist propaganda and the ‘Italian Hollywood’
Buondì. After Wednesday’s article, promoting Episode 23 in our Summer Series, which featured Fascist Italy’s disgraceful invasion of Ethiopia, I had several people write to me saying they’d watched the film linked to at the end and found it really interesting. Well done to them! Plus there was one stupid person whose point, I think, […]
We’ve got a film today, children.
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 […]
My apology to language teachers everywhere (not really!)
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 […]
Female? Here’s how to be a good fascist and Catholic!
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 […]
Cinico e opportunistico – the historical parallels never end
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) […]
‘Che caldo, oggi si suda!’
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 […]
What happened next, and why it mattered
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 […]