Buondì.
I’m writing this yesterday, if you see what I mean, as this morning we’re off for a weekend at the coast.
We’ll be filling up on my Swedish mother-in-law’s pasta, relaxing in the sunshine, and hopefully getting out on the boat, perhaps for the first swim of the year!
Why all the fun?
Well tomorrow, Saturday, is the second of June, la festa della Repubblica Italiana.
This public holiday celebrates the founding of the Italian republic, the day the monarchy was consigned to the dustbin of history.
We have an ebook easy reader, ‘2 giugno 1946‘, which tells the story of the referendum held on that date (also the first time Italian women were able to vote.)
Anyway, before I forget, many thanks from Martina, the young woman who’s doing a masters in teaching Italian online and whose questionnaire I linked to on Wednesday.
She writes “I have received lots of replies and more are coming… Thank you very much!”
If you’re doing online lessons with a ‘real, live’ teacher, and would like to help Martina with her research, I don’t suppose it’s too late. The link to the questionnaire is in Wednesday’s article.
Or if you’re not, but would like to, well do check out our ‘Skype Italian lesson’ options.
Having now done 64 hours (!) of online Swedish lessons, I can testify to how effective working one-to-one with a teacher can be: in just a few months I’ve gone from zero to hero!
Now you may have noticed that, so far today, I’ve used everything I’ve written about to link to things you can buy – ebooks for learning Italian, online Italian lessons, and so on.
Know why?
Well it’s not because I ‘mangio pane e volpe‘ (eat bread and fox = very crafty).
Nor is it because I’m ‘buono come pane‘ (good as bread = generous, kind-hearted).
Though I do, and I am.
It’s because the club has bills to pay, as always.
But what’s all this ‘pane’ stuff?
Today’s free Italian lesson is on Expressions with ‘pane’.
Marika, a UK-based Italian teacher, has picked out for you some idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘pane’ (bread).
You get the expressions, explanations, example sentences and English translations.
Check it out: Expressions with ‘pane’
The others in this series are on our ‘New’ page, here.
But what about the expression used in the title of this article, “Pane e vino, fa bel bambino!”
That one’s not in our free lesson. I came across it while looking up the meaning of one of the other phrases, on a website which appears to be run by some Italian bread fanatics and which therefore has an entire page of bread expressions.
“Pane e vino, fa bel bambino!” just jumped off the page at me, I have no precise idea what it means (if anyone can clarify that, do write to me).
It just seemed to sum up my plans for the weekend!
A lunedì, allora.