Buongiorno a tutti and welcome to this week’s On Location Italian. It’s Nicole here writing to you all once again from the Italian city of Verona. I am now into the final straight with only a few weeks left until I am home for Christmas. I have therefore decided that it is all hands on decks in terms of speaking, reading, listening and watching all things Italian before my return to bonny Scotland.
I have been fairly successful in my resolution to immerse myself in the Italian culture. Nevertheless, this week I managed to fit in a little International dinner party with some fellow Erasmus students. We each cooked a dish typical of our nation and brought it along for the others to taste. Seated around the table was a whole host of different nationalities each sharing one common interest: our desire to continually improve our Italian. We therefore spent the evening sharing stories of our various cultures, speaking solely in Italian. Thanks to the evening, I was able to add some new words to my Italian vocabulary list. For example, one friend spoke of an acquazzone, which is Italian for “heavy shower” or “downpour”. He also used the reflexive verb inzupparsi meaning “to get soaked”, with the verb inzuppare being translated as “to soak”. Inzuppare can also mean “to dunk/dip”. Just imagine dipping bread in soup (la zuppa is the Italian word for “soup”).
Another phrase I heard was mi hanno preso in giro (“they teased me”). The word giro can have various meanings, including “turn” or “round”. To give an example of its use, the phrase fare il giro del mondo means “to travel the world”. My friend however used it in the phrase prendere in giro (“to make fun of”).
It just goes to show that with each social event comes the opportunity to further improve my Italian. And whilst I love getting involved in the Italian culture, there is still time to learn about other countries before I head back to Glasgow. I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog post for this week and I will be back soon with more On Location Italian. A presto!
