One of my favorite pastimes in Italy is going to a soccer game. This is from a girl who never really played soccer and who never watched a World Cup until she moved to Italy. I went from completely uninterested to pretty obsessed, and for good reason. Soccer in Italy is amazing! The atmosphere at…
How to Talk About that Book You Loved or Hated in Italian
One of my favorite things to talk about with people is reading, and, in fact, one of the first things I learned to say in Italian was mi piace leggere, I like to read. Similar to talking about music and movies, talking about books is a great way to connect with new friends that might also…
Italian Word Speed Dates: Finché & Affinché
“Finché” and “affinché” are two words in Italian that look strikingly similar, but do they have similar meanings? While they don’t mean similar things, they DO have a similar function, and that’s to connect sentences together, much like “quindi” or “dunque”. Here are two rounds of speed dates to help you figure out how to use…
The Past Conditional Tense (or How to Say “Would Have, Could Have, Should Have”)
Say hello to the tense in an Italian that will make you stop + think about how to say it EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. For example, “I WOULD HAVE TOLD Marco why I didn’t go to the party, but I couldn’t figure out how to say it in Italian. The past conditional tense is too challenging.”…
Diminutive, Pejorative and Augmentative Nouns (or how Italians indicate something is really small, really big, or really ugly)
When I first started speaking Italian, my speech was peppered with a lot of “moltos.” Things were molto grande, molto piccolo, molto brutto. And while molto is a great way to express that something is really big or small or ugly, it isn’t the only way. In Italian, you can add suffixes to nouns to…
How to Use “Sia + Sia” in Italian (or How to say “BOTH pasta AND pizza sound good”)
I use BOTH Learn Italian with Lucrezia AND The Iceberg Project to help me learn Italian. How do you say that sentence in Italian? This is BOTH a simple AND useful piece of grammar. (See what I did there? Yeah, I’m being extra cheesy today.) When you want to stress that there are two options,…
Italian Word Speed Dates: Siccome, Dato che, and Poiché
Click play on the player at the bottom to listen to this podcast or find it on Apple Podcasts. Have you ever wondered how to say “Since (this), I’ll do (that)” in Italian? There are a handful of phrases that you can use, and the three we’re talking about in this round of speed dates…
How to Argue Like an Italian (and Which Topics to Avoid)
Just like in English, conversations among Italian friends can quickly turn to “hot” topics, such as politics or current events. In this situation, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and out of your element, but it’s actually a great opportunity to get to know people better and stretch your Italian skills. Below are some guidelines…
Le Sagre in Italia
Click play on the player at the bottom to listen to this podcast or find it on Apple Podcasts. Hai mai sentito parlare delle sagre in Italia? Allora, questo è il tema di oggi, nel nostro primo episodio dove parlo completamente in italiano. È un metodo di fare pratica per mi stessa, ma spero, sia…
What the Heck is a Gram of Mortadella? (or How to Use the Metric System)
Besides having to learn a foreign language when I moved to Italy, I also had to adjust to using a completely foreign system of measurement. In fact, my unfamiliarity with the metric system coupled with my overwhelming fear of speaking Italian with strangers (or anyone, really) prevented me from experiencing some of the best foods in Italy….
The Present Tense Gerund in Italian (or how to talk about something that’s happening or going to happen)
Click play on the player at the bottom to listen to this podcast or find it on Apple Podcasts. “Che cosa stai facendo in questo momento?” – What are you doing (right now)? I remember asking this question to my Italian ex-ragazzo multiple times on the nights when we would both be out with our…
How to Get a Haircut in Italy
When I first moved to Italy, I was 19 and fearless. One of the things I did during my six months in Italy that had the other girls in my program shaking in their new leather boots was the oh-so-simple act of getting my hair cut. You see, the early 2000s were an awkward time…
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