Instantly Italy

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[Italian Books] Two Great Books Based on True Stories

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I have read two really good books recently and thought you might like them as well. 

It’s been a while since I wrote a post about Italian books and it’s great to be finally able to do it again. I have been reading a lot, as usual, but no books really worth mentioning. So I am happy to have finally found two very good books I am sure you will like!

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Three Italian Movies About Human Relationships That You Might Find Interesting

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I do not go to the cinema often, I have to confess.

I am very fussy about movies and do not like people chatting, eating, or, even worse, using their phones when they are in a cinema. In an ideal world, everybody should shut up and simply watch the movie. I know this is impossible, that’s why I stopped going to the cinema!

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[Italian Vocabulary] How to Talk About Murder Mysteries in Italian: Some Useful Words

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Murder mystery novels are probably the books my Italian students enjoy reading the most. 

It’s not my favorite genre but I perfectly understand the passion for this type of novel. Also, crime novels obviously are a perfect read for language students because they are heavily focused on action, have a lot of dialogues, and are generally way easier to understand than other books.

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[Italian Grammar] The Imperfetto: Common Uses In Spoken Italian

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Speaking about the past in Italian requires the use of two tenses: the imperfetto and the passato prossimo. 

Knowing when to use the imperfetto or the passato prossimo when speaking about the past can be quite difficult for Italian students. Over the years, I noticed that even advanced students struggle with this grammar topic, which seems quite simple at first but has many nuances that can be difficult to comprehend.

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[Italian Books] The Story of an Italian Family, of a Business, and of a Whole Town

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For this series of posts I normally pick Italian books that have an English translation as well. I do it to give people the opportunity to read good Italian books even if they can’t read in Italian.

However, I’ve decided to make an exception today because the book I want to tell you about tells a true Italian story that is really worth knowing even though you won’t read the book.

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[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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