Epiphany is the name of a national Italian holiday that falls on January 6. In the night of the 5th January, la Befana – an ugly old woman – flies with a broomstick delivering both socks full of candies to good children and socks full of (sugar-made) coke to naughty children. But who is this …
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Twelve things you should know before visiting Italy (part 1)
Every year millions of tourists plan to visit Italy for different reasons – sightseeing, food, culture, etc. If you are one of them, you have probably already read one or more tourist guides to prepare yourself for the trip. Despite this, you could still ignore some useful information. PARKING If you’re hiring a car, for …
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Italian food – Pumpkin Risotto
One of the reasons tourists love Italy so much is food. Today I want to share with you my family’s recipe for pumpkin risotto, taken from my new book Sos Italian cooking. Ingredients 300 g (10.58 oz) Arborio rice 300 g (10.58 oz) fresh pumpkin 3 slices of onion 50 g (1.76 oz) unsalted butter …
Learn Italian sounds – the alphabet
Italian is one of the most musical languages in the world. But what are exactly the sounds of this language? Let’s summarize the main ones in the tables below: ALPHABET EXAMPLES PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION SIMILAR SOUNDS IN ENGLISH A Animale (animal) [ani’male] Cup B Bagaglio (luggage) [ba’gaʎo] Bike C [1] Cane (dog) [‘kane] Cold D …
Exam preparation: CILS, CELI, PLIDA, CIC
After years of study you have finally decided it’s time to get an official certification of your Italian level or to start your exam preparation? That’s good. But maybe you should know a thing or two first. If you are still unsure about the certification you want to get, you should have a look at …
