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Italian Idiomatic Expressions: Hearing the Other Bell
I love Italian idiomatic expressions - those sayings you just can’t translate directly but which make the Italian language the colorful and charming language it is.
Today’s saying offers a musical take on fairness:
Sentiamo anche l’altra campana.
Date: February 23rd, 2008 |
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Gourmet Magazine Giving Away Free Trip to Italy
I’m sitting at the airport killing time before my flight to Italy this afternoon, and as I was cleaning out my email inbox I found something I thought I’d share with y’all. It had the words “Italy” and “free trip” in the same sentence, so I figured you might be interested.
Gourmet Magazine, that fabulous foodie mag, has recently launched a new website - and to celebrate, they’re giving away some really cool prizes. The biggest of them all is the $5,000 trip to Italy, courtesy of Expedia, but there are also other foodie prizes that you can win daily throughout the duration of the contest.
To enter, visit the Gourmet website for the “Volare! Video Sweepstakes” and register your information on the site. You don’t need to subscribe to Gourmet to enter. Some of the other cool prizes you can win include tickets to a Broadway show, a Caribbean cruise or dinner at the Eiffel Tower. All of those sound quite cool, but it’s the $5,000 trip to Italy that sounds the best to me!
Date: February 18th, 2008 |
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Italy to Hold Elections in April
Maybe you’re reading this from someplace in the United States, and you’re overwhelmed enough with the upcoming US election - but I’m here to tell you that you’re not the only one with an election looming. Most of the news coming out of Italy these days it about last month’s collapse of the Italian government, the subsequent inability of what remained of Parliament to put together an interim government in order to fix what’s widely thought of as a problematic election law, and the recent declaration by Italy’s president that he was left with no choice but to dissolve Parliament entirely and schedule new elections for mid-April.
And you thought all the election mail and phone calls you’ve been receiving were bad.
While my upcoming trip to Italy will not overlap with the actual elections (scheduled for April 13-14), I will be there for much of the campaigning that will most certainly be taking place throughout the country. As I’ve said before, Italian politics are incredibly confusing (at best), so I don’t think that even six weeks in the country before an election will get me to a place from which I can explain what the hell’s going on with any measure of confidence - but I think being there for the campaigning will be very interesting nonetheless. Along with my posts about traveling through Italy, I will hopefully be able to write some posts about the upcoming elections as well.
Date: February 12th, 2008 |
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Italy Logue Forums
I want to say up front here that I’m not a tech expert. For instance, I’m finally learning some HTML, only to discover that it’s an almost entirely outmoded form of writing code for these here internets (you know, that series of tubes)… But even though I’m not especially tech-savvy, I can read reports on the traffic the Italy Logue is getting. So I know how many of you are out there, reading what I’m writing about traveling in Italy - and we figured, “Hey, maybe all those Italy-lovin’ people might want to talk to each other now and then! Let’s make a forum for them!”
So, here you are, folks - a brand new Italy Logue Forum just for you. You’ll see a few Italophiles I know have helped me seed the forum with a few questions and answers here and there, so that you can see how it looks when it’s working, but there’s obviously lots of room for more topics and wisdom. And before you click over eagerly and start posting (which I encourage you to do!), let me give you the grand tour.
Date: January 31st, 2008 |
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Italian Government Collapses. Again.
Well, it’s official. The 61st Italian government since World War II has finally collapsed. Prime Minister Romano Prodi lost a vote of confidence on Thursday, and former PM Silvio Berlusconi is calling for a new election. Italy’s President, Giorgio Napolitano, has said he won’t call new elections until the election law is reformed. The current law (which I don’t understand, so don’t ask) was put into place by Berlusconi back before the last elections in 2006, and it apparently makes it nigh to impossible to create and keep a solid majority in the Senate. People on all sides of politics in Italy seem to agree that change is needed in the law, and some reformers are even encouraging the Italian people to boycott a vote if one is held before the law is changed.
Date: January 25th, 2008 |
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My Favorite Bag Lady* in Milan
This is from yesterday night before my head hit the pillow, heavily:
Well, we’re here. We’re in Milan. It’s been a helluva long day, with some downright lows (neither of the husband’s bags made it here because of a too-short connection in London, so we’re just hoping they appear mysteriously in the night), but I had a couple nice moments that just made my day. The final one is what I wanted to share with you.
Because we’re here for six weeks, and because I’m not the best packer under normal circumstances, I had with me today two carry-on bags and two checked bags. Wheeling these through an airport is not a big deal, but getting from Malpensa Airport to our hotel required no less than three train changes (two of them being on the Milan Metro) and lots of stairs. By the time I emerged from the last Metro stop to begin the trek down Viale Umbria toward the hotel, my arms were already screaming ENOUGH at me.
I took lots of breaks, stopping alongside the sidewalk to rest my arms and catch my breath, and (uncharacteristically for me) not caring what I looked like to anyone else. I am quite sure I looked like a sweaty and dissheveled tourist with too much luggage, but I can’t get too annoyed at that - because that’s precisely what I was.
Date: February 20th, 2008 |
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Italian Idiomatic Expressions: Hair on the Tongue
I love Italian idiomatic expressions - those sayings you just can’t translate directly but which make the Italian language the colorful and charming language it is.
Today’s saying will put hairs on your tongue:
Non ha peli sulla lingua.
The idea this phrase is meant to get across is that “He/she speaks his/her mind.” But rather than say it so literally, the Italians have come up with a more interesting way of indicating this. The phrase above literally translates to “He/she doesn’t have hairs on his/her tongue.” No hairs on the tongue presumably means there’s nothing to get in the way when someone’s …
Date: February 17th, 2008 |
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Globe Trekker TV Features Italy in February
Every month the folks at Pilot Guides - you know, the people behind fantastic travel shows like Globe Trekker and Planet Food - put out a new batch of travel shows that are available for downloading from their website. This means you’re able to watch just the shows you want, on your own time. This month, GlobeTrekkerTV has a feature on Italy - and it’s a festival I’ve heard about for years, though I’m not sure I’d have the guts to go myself…
Part of this month’s free preview of GlobeTrekkerTV offerings has Megan McCormick participating in the festival
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Date: February 4th, 2008 |
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Italy Travel Guide Gets Reviewed - By You?
Usually, with the Italy Travel Guide here, I just write stuff because I like writing about Italy. The fact that people are reading what I’m writing is, well, a bonus. So I don’t often think about what others might think of this here site - until, that is, I see that someone has reviewed it.
I just came across the site Blogged because another Italy blog I read got a review on it. So, I thought I’d search for the Italy Logue and see what came up. Much to my surprise, it’s been reviewed already! I don’t know who submitted it or how it was found, or even who reviewed it. All I know is that it’s already on the site with a 7.5 rating (which equals “very good” apparently).
Date: January 28th, 2008 |
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Win a Half-Kilo of Italian Candy
This is just a quick post, because I wanted to get it up here before the contest I’m about to introduce you to ends this Friday. I was remiss in not telling you about it earlier, and I feel badly about that - especially because it’s a subject near and dear to my heart: Italian candy.
My friend Sara over at Ms. Adventures in Italy has written what she’s calling “An Introduction to Italian Candy,” but it seems way more than a simple introduction. She’s given you everything you need to authoritatively browse
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Date: January 22nd, 2008 |
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