Instantly Italy

Italian speaking practice and grammar tutoring

[Hidden Italy] The Eclectic Italian House of a World-Famous Swiss Clown

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Discovering and visiting hidden places in my region is one of my favorite pastimes.

Liguria is a wonderful region and, even though some of its areas are quite famous among tourists (ever heard of Cinque Terre?), there are still a lot of hidden gems that very few people know of. Sometimes even locals have no idea certain places exist and so it’s always a pleasure to discover them.

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[Italian Books] The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

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The Lying Life of Adults (La vita bugiarda degli adulti in Italian), one of Elena Ferrante’s most recent books, has been made into a Netflix series. 

Before Christmas, I read that this new show based on Elena Ferrante’s book would debut on Netflix on January 5th and I thought I had better read the book before watching the tv series.

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How Do I Translate This? English Words That You Can Use In Italian Too

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A very common question I get from my students is: “How do you say this in Italian?”.

They want to know what the Italian equivalent of certain English words is and they seem quite surprised when sometimes I tell them that we don’t have an Italian equivalent so we just use the English word. And they are even more surprised when I tell them that sometimes we prefer to use the English word even if the corresponding Italian word exists!

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[Hidden Italy] Discover Seborga, An Old Village in Liguria With A Unique Character

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Visiting old Ligurian villages is one of my favorite pastimes and I have been to a lot of them over the years.

I have been to Triora, which is famous for being il paese delle streghe, to Apricale and Perinaldo, two lovely perched villages in the west of the region, to Verezzi and its scenic beauty, to Bussana Vecchia and its unique story, and to many other interesting places but there was one village I still had to cross off my list: Seborga.

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