Buondì. Hope you had a pleasant weekend, wherever you happen to find yourself. In all likelihood that’s not in Italy, as most of our members herald from the English-speaking countries strung out around the globe (for the obvious reason that the website is in English, I suppose.) Going west from Italy, we have plenty of […]

Buondì. One of the reasons I wasted several years studying history at university, instead of something useful like languages, or business, or basically anything else, was a childhood fascination with all things military: guns, of course, but also equipment, the organisation and deployment of troops, tactics and strategy, and so on. It’s a boy thing, […]

Buondì. Episode 11 (out of 30) of our free series of articles with audio ‘La storia di Roma’ is ready. Finally the part that everyone knows! The one with Caesar crossing the Rubicorn, “the dice is cast!”, becoming ‘imperator’, his holiday romance with Cleo, and gory end: “Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi!” (“Anche tu, o […]

Buondì. Stupid people. One purpose of these emailed articles is to suggest HOW to learn, and to recommend including activities like reading and listening in your study program, which people tend not to, unless nagged. And that is best done in English, trust me. Yet I regularly get emails like this: With regret I am […]

Buondì. iPhones are the bane of my life. No offence is intended – two of my children own those infernal (and expensive) gadgets. But when it comes to customer service issues, there’s often an iPhone involved. For example, someone wants to subscribe to EasyItalianNews.com. You enter your email (let’s say it’s a Gmail but you […]

Buondì. I learnt a new word this morning, while proof-reading and listening to the latest installment in our free, thirty-part series of articles with audio, ‘La storia di Roma.’ Sincretismo. If you’re unfamiliar with it, there’s an explanation at the start of Episodio 8. Il sincretismo culturale tra Grecia e Roma. Though you can probably […]

Buondì. I’ve just been listening to/reading Episode 7 in our free, thirty-part series of articles ‘La storia di Roma‘. So far we’ve covered about five hundred years from the mythical beginnings of Rome, and there’s still a long way to go. The Romans have gone from zeroes to heroes and are now busy wiping out […]

Buondì. Hopefully it’s about to rain in Bologna this Friday morning, which will supposedly bring lower temperatures for most of the rest of the day. It’s getting windy and the sky has turned grey, both excellent signs that something good is about to happen! So I’m writing this while sitting in an armchair facing the […]

Buondì. Why do we say a Pyrrhic victory? You probably already know, but it’s explained, I’m not sure how accurately, in the latest installment of our free 30-part series of articles with audio, ‘La storia di Roma‘. Wikipedia has what is probably a more precise and informative explanation. But who cares? The purpose of our […]

Buondì. Episode 4 of our free series of articles with audio for students of Italian is ready for you to read/listen to, when you have a minute. ‘Vita da Romani’ covers such fascinating topics as childbirth, the fate of newborns, the daily lives of aristocratic boys and girls, the power of the head of the […]