Culture

Phrases for Enjoying Your Time at the Beach

The sun is shining, and you’ve just arrived at your seaside resort hotel in Taormina. Before you even reach your room, you’re already thinking about what the ocean breeze is going to feel like once you roll out your towel and lay underneath the big umbrellas lining the shore. Even if you’re just going to…

9 Reasons Why You’ll LOVE Visiting Florence in September

Note from Cher: Okay, we’ll admit it. We’re biased about the whole visiting Florence in September thing because we host a retreat during it every year called the Not Your Typical Tourist Retreat. 6 people who are obsessed with learning Italian come with Rachel & I to eat fresh pasta, make incredible friends, and become…

Tips for Navigating the Train System in Italy

Taking the train in Italy is a reliable, easy, and fast way to get around and explore new places. However, it can also present challenges to those who are unfamiliar with how it works or come from a non-train taking culture. Fear not! It’s actually really easy, once you break it down. Ready for un…

Books to Read for the Beginner Italian Student

We get a lot of readers who check out Cher’s top 10 books she loves in Italian and many who read about how to discuss these beloved (or hated) libri but both of these articles are for the more advanced learner. After seeing emails come through asking for beginner books, we thought it would…

75 Vocabulary Words for Talking About Sports in Italian

When you think about sports in Italy, I’ll bet the first one that comes to mind is the infamous calcio, or soccer. And if you have spent any length of time obsessing about Italian culture or in Italy–or both–team names like Juventus and Gli Azzurri will come to mind. But beyond calcio, there are lots…

What It’s Like to Move Houses in Italy

Before Friday, 16 March, I will have moved 23 times since I was 17 years old. After March 16, I will have moved 24 times. At this point, I consider myself a bit of an expert in this matter. I pack quickly, unpack quickly, throw away or donate anything even remotely useless to me, and…

Worksheet: Phrases to Talk About Your Italian Lessons

We snaked our way through the streets of Florence as we made our way to il mercato di Sant’Ambrogio. I turned toward Mary, “Com’è andata la tua lezione? – How’d your lesson go?” She responded, raising her voice slightly so I could hear her above the clamor, “È andata benissimo, Beatrice è un’insegnante fantastica. –…

Differences in Dating Between Americans and Italians

Ok…First things first…Big shout out to any of my cross cultural couples out there reading this. YOU GUYS ARE ROCK STARS! I know this, because I too am part of a cross-cultural coupling, and while it is AMAZING it also presents its unique challenges. And it can be hard, really hard, to overcome some of…

10 Italian Love Songs

I LOVE LOVE. I’m really good at falling in and out of it, talking about it, and looking for more of it. 🙂 That’s why we’ve written articles about love every Valentine’s Day since The Iceberg Project has started. Turns out, you love love as much as we do — especially when it helps you…

Dialogue: Differences Between American & Italian Culture, Pt. II

At The Iceberg Project,e believe the only way you can truly learn a language is by using it in real life. (We also believe that Italian is the best foreign language to learn.) To help you get that real-life experience, we put together this dialogue for you. It’s about two friends — one Italian and…

Dialogue: Differences Between American & Italian Culture, Pt. I

At The Iceberg Project, we believe the only way you can truly learn a language is by using it in real life. (We also believe that Italian is the best foreign language to learn.) To help you get that real-life experience, we put together this dialogue for you. It’s about two friends — one Italian…

Love Florence? Make Sure to Do This First.

Every time I tell someone I live in Florence, I’m met with the same reaction. “Oh my gosh, you live there!? I LOVE FLORENCE!” And I’m never surprised to hear it, in fact, I totally get it. I too am absolutely smitten with my city and take a lot of pride in being a Fiorentina….