Buondì. Walking around the lake in our local park this morning, in the drizzle (Tripadvisor has some nice photos, if you’re curious), I came across – not the usual street gang of aggressive geese, who were nowhere to be seen – but a stork! Picture a turkey-sized bird, but with long spindly legs, an elegant […]

Buondì. Yesterday evening was the Inter – Milan rematch, which is a very big thing in Italian soccer – two teams from the same city battling it out for some title or other, don’t ask me which. My adult son (Tom, voice of EasyItalianNews.com) informed me, after I’d spent half the morning preparing a nutritious […]

Buondì. Lots of people had opinions about Kindles and the like (the topic of Friday’s article), which was rather a surprise. So it took me a day or two to notice, then to approve people’s contributions. Sorry! Anyway, now they’re all published and visible. Read what other club members think here. Coincidentally, this week we have […]

Buondì. Does anyone still use an actual Kindle? Rather than a Kindle app on a smartphone or tablet, I mean. Please don’t email to tell me you do. It’s Friday, I’m still convalescing, and so have hopes of doing the minimum at the computer. You could leave a comment on this article, if you wish. […]

Buondì. A club member who’s currently studying at our Italian school in Bologna stopped for a chat yesterday. Her Italian was really good, and she was clearly keen to practice, so we spoke in Italian, while I was frantically leaving through old folders, looking for something we’d lost and now urgently needed. I apologised for […]

Buondì. If you read Wednesday’s article How to read in Italian (and why you really should!), you may – or may not – be wondering if I’ll publish Chapter 2 of next Monday’s new ebook ‘easy reader’, ‘Quando suonano alla porta‘ by Roberto Gamberini. It’s Friday, the sun’s shining, and the temperature in Bologna is […]

Buondì. People have lots of daft ideas about language learning, what they should and shouldn’t do, why that will or won’t help, and so on. Two of the most misunderstood areas are reading and listening in/to your foreign language. The other is pronunciation. I could list the the daft ideas people have about reading here […]

Buondì. I’m back, though a shadow of my former self, hobbling through the house, fearful lest an uncontrolled movement or unexpected cough set off agonies in my groin. This not helped by the fact that, having been sent home from hospital, the day after my operation, with six sachets of a potent non-opiod pain-killer (to […]

Buondì. I’m in a pensive mood today. Having got out of bed early, had a healthy breakfast, and walked for the prescribed thirty minutes – to the local park, around the lake, and back again – I got to reflecting that, despite the legions of bastard doctors, things seem to be less stressful lately. In […]