Italian speaking practice and grammar tutoring
We have been celebrating Christmas in the same way and with more or less the same food for years. Every year we gather around the same table, with the same people, and we eat more or less the same dishes.
It’s been a really strange year – I am being kind, 2020 – and Christmas won’t make an exception. Christmas is all about traditions and knowing that everything will be the same, year after year, but this obviously cannot be said for this year.
This is one of the questions I get asked the most by non-Italians when we chat about Italian eating habits. I actually have no quick answer and I always just reply with a smile and “I don’t know”. But after having been asked such a question so many times, I started thinking about it.
Well, this is basically what Susan Zimmerman, the lady I am interviewing today, had to face when she arrived in Italy, after marrying her Italian husband. It must have been challenging to say the least and Susan is great at describing how she felt and how she managed to overcome the frustration of being in a completely foreign environment without knowing the language.
They always say that Italian is the language of love, right? So, it is useful to know some nice Italian words to use if you want to impress your loved one – be he or she Italian or not.
No matter how I complain about Italian culture and lifestyle – we Italians always do it, every day – there are some traits of our culture that I really like and that I think can make life better, so I thought I might share them with you.
But probably it is worth writing one more post about the topic because I still hear too many people ordering “un espresso” when asking for coffee, here in Italy. So let’s take some time to recap a few basic guidelines you need to follow if you want to order coffee in Italy.
There are art and history and the amazing scenery, obviously, but food plays a very important role in the culture of us Italians.
Even if it is not as big as Christmas, Easter is a very heartfelt celebration here in Italy. Actually, if you are a religious person, Easter is a very important feast, as it celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and there are a lot of important traditions linked to it.
Born in the north of Italy, it can now be found on the table of every Italian family at Christmas. If you do not know about it, panettone (which can be translated as big bread) is a sweet bread loaf with a cupola shape, usually weighing more or less 1 kilo.
