Italy Beyond the Obvious

3 Tips for learning Italian (or any language)

I've shared my top 3 tips for learning languages on Dianne Hales' wonderful blog, Becoming Italian Word by Word. If you've learned a language, do you agree with any of these tips? 

The best Italian songs according to Guido: Part III

Here's part three of four of my friend Guido's picks for best Italian songs of all time. You can see whether you agree with his other picks in Part I and Part II.

 

A Te by Jovanotti

Slow and romantic, the lyrics of this song are absolute poetry. I'm sure he's melted many hearts with this one. Until the English lyrics of this one are up on Italyrics, here are the Italian lyrics.

 

 

Solo tre minuti by Negramaro

Also a slow song but with a little beat, this is about "solo tre minuti", or "only having three minutes to be able to tell you..." 

 

 

Solo per te by Negramaro

This is a beautiful but sad song about losing a loved one, and even if you don't understand the Italian, you can hear the anguish in his voice. 

 

 

Ho Messo Via by Ligabue

"Mettere via" in Italian is to put away, and Ligabue sings about all the things he's been able to put away - except for one.

 

Tra Palco e Realta' by Ligabue

This song will get you moving - dancing, and singing along, and you'll have the "da da da da da" in your head after listening.

 

 

The last 5 songs Guido picked are coming in Part IV... stay tuned and let me know what you think!

 

 

Let Italy Beyond the Obvious plan your trip or coach you to do it yourself. If you like what you read, subscribe to this blog for free.

The best Italian songs according to Guido: Part II

My friend Guido put together his list of the 10 best Italian songs of all time - except he couldn't narrow it down further than 19 :-)  Part I was Battisti and De Andre'. Part II is swing and jazz.

Estate by Bruno Martino

This Italian classic is about being happy that summer is over, and it's the kind of song you'd expect to hear live in a good Italian restaurant, maybe even as a tasteful rose-seller was making the rounds. Pretty jazzy, and he enunciates well, making it ideal material for Italian language learners.

La Notte by Mina

This song is typical of the '60s, when Italy was influenced by American swing music.

Che Coss'e' L'amor by Vinicio Capossela

Another one in the swing genre, this song is somewhat well-known abroad because it's on the Putamayo Italian Cafe' CD

All'una e trentacinque circa by Vinicio Capossela

This one is more jazz, with some great piano at the beginning.

So that's it for the best jazz and swing on the list - did we miss any of your favorites?

Let Italy Beyond the Obvious plan your trip or coach you to do it yourself. If you like what you read, subscribe to this blog for free.

Three favorite Italian songs

When an Italian classmate asked about the lyrics to a Bob Marley song, it was a lightbulb moment for me. We were on a field trip from Milan to Assisi, and the song was playing on the bus. Even though I'd heard it many times, beyond the refrain I had no idea what Bob Marley was singing. More significantly, I knew that just listening to it again would not help. And yet my Italian classmate thought his English must be terrible because he couldn't understand the lyrics. 

So English-speakers-learning-Italian rejoice: you can (eventually) understand the lyrics to most Italian songs just by listening. Below are three of my favorite songs, each picked not only for the music and the lyrics but for a language-learning milestone. And coming soon: a few posts on my friend Guido's picks for the best Italian songs, ever.

 

1) Il Gatto e La Volpe, Edoardo Bennato

I learned this song my very first week in Italy - when I spoke absolutely no Italian - as an AFS exchange student during orientation week. Our Italian hosts played the guitar, and we sang this over and over, sitting around a campfire on Lake Como. We foreigners could only sing a few words from the refrain, but I'll never forget them.

2) Non l'hai mica capito, by Vasco Rossi

Apart from the fact that I just like this song (and Vasco Rossi is just, well, Vasco), at the time I heard it, I was trying to figure out how the Italian expressions "ti voglio bene" and "ti amo" were different. In English they both translate as "I love you", though the former is used for family and friends, and the latter is what we'd associate with "in love". As a linguist, I find it fascinating that certain cultures and languages express this nuance with different words, while others, like English, rely on context. 

3) Le Cose in Comune by Daniele Silvestri

I don't remember where I first heard this song, but I'd already learned Italian, and the tongue-in-cheek lyrics about relationships made me smile. The lyrics are about everything the two people have in "common", including both being born in the '60s, ordering the same potatoes at the same restaurant, and even having the same bones. And not only that. Silvestri sings: "when I sleep, you sleep. When I cry, you cry. When I laugh, you laugh....". And if you listen carefully, you'll hear my favorite line: "when I cry, you laugh...."

While I was writing this post, I found out about a brand new website dedicated to learning Italian through music, and submitted my 3 songs. So if you're interested in the full lyrics in Italian or their English translation, head over to Italyrics!

Are there any Italian songs that have helped you learn the language? Write them in the comments, or go submit them to Italyrics!

Let Italy Beyond the Obvious plan your trip or coach you to do it yourself. If you like what you read, subscribe to this blog for free.

Le Gattare: Caretakers of Italy's stray cats

 

If you've been to Rome, you may have noticed the stray cats hanging out in the Colosseum or the Forum. Maybe you even visited the cat sanctuary located in Largo di Torre Argentina (photo above), where cats have called home since its excavation in 1929. Look for the cats, however, and you may spot a gattara, or volunteer cat caretaker. Historically older women, the gattare have been around as long as the stray cats, and I've noticed that recently they seem to be getting more positive attention, and not just in Rome. 

In the city of Monza, outside of Milan, a new course is being offered starting May 12th, to teach potential new gattare - or "feline colony tutors" - what and when to feed stray cats, how to treat an illness, and who to contact if the cats get sick, among other things.

The city of Genoa actually does a cat census, and estimates that there are tens of thousands of stray cats in the city, and 700 volunteer gattare. This article explains (in Italian) that the city thinks it's important to care for stray cats since their health or illness affects that of both animals and people in the city.

And, for Italians living near stray cats but not near a course offered on how to care for them, they can buy a Manual for Gattare (in Italian). 

It's noticing details like this that I think adds a level of richness to a visit to Italy, so keep your eye out and see if you can spot a gattara on your next trip!

Photo of Torre Argentina by Xiquinhosilva

Let Italy Beyond the Obvious plan your trip or coach you to do it yourself. If you like what you read, subscribe to this blog for free.

Five favorite Italian words

I was tagged by Melanie at the Italofile blog to write a post about five of my favorite Italian words, which I thought would be a lot of fun. So here they are, plus the reasons I picked them: 

 

Via!

Pronounced: VEE|ah

Via means "street" and several other things, but the "via" I love always has an exclamation mark at the end, and means "let's go!" or "we're off!". It's simple and short yet signifies the beginning of an adventure. One of my closest friends is Italian, and whenever we head off together somewhere, whether it be out for aperitivi or off for a weekend at the Ice Hotel in Sweden, we start with "via!".

Gnocchi

Pronounced: n~|OH|kee

Apart from the fact that gnocchi are yummy and a gnocchi board is one of the best Italian souvenirs, ever, the successful pronunciation of the "gn" sound in gnocchi represents an accomplishment with the Italian language. When I taught Italian, the correct pronunciation of this word accompanied students' happy faces, which is the reason I picked it. (Runners up in the same category: correctly pronouncing the rolling 'r' as in "arrivederci", the double vs single 'p' as in capello and cappello).

 

Campanilismo

Pronounced: kum|pun|eel|EEZ|moh

When I first moved to Italy, I naively thought that everyone in Italy must be cultured, sophisticated, and international - for the simple fact that they lived in Italy. (Okay, I was 17.) But many Italians don't see themselves as from Italy, rather they are from the town their family is from, and have an enormous pride and belonging to that place first and foremost -- even if they moved away when they were 1 year old. This is an important concept in Italy, and I understood it much better when I learned the word "campanilismo", which is from the word "campanile", meaning bell tower. So it sort of means loyal to your original bell tower.

Sciopero/i

Pronounced: SHOH|per|oh

The only Polish word I remember from my 10 day trip to Poland in 1994 is the word "brak", or "empty", which I figured out after about the 5th time I saw it written on a sign at a gas station. I was introduced to "scioperi", or strikes, in much the same way in Italy, and now when planning a trip to Italy for a client, I always check the dates of Italian strikes.

Umingacapí

Pronounced: oo|minga|cup|EE

This is actually Milanese dialect more or less meaning "I don't understand", and it's the only word of Milanese dialect (or any Italian dialect) that I know. Dialect is more commonly spoken in older generations, and most of my Milanese friends don't know much of it - but they all know this word. It translates into Italian as "non ho mica capito" which I need to point out is not quite the same as "I don't understand" ("non ho capito"). The "mica" adds a bit of attitude, so the speaker is often frustrated or annoyed while saying it, with accompanying hand gestures. But I love that this word is dialect, and it's amusing to see the look on people's faces when they hear a foreigner using it. I've never seen it written, so I wrote it above the way I think it would be written.

And I'm tagging Roberta K of Thinking Allowed and Sergio (who I don't think has a blog - leave your words in the comments please) for their five favorites!

Photo of bell tower in Bologna by Sanjay

Italy Beyond the Obvious can plan your trip to Italy or coach you to do it yourself. If you like what you read, subscribe to this blog for free.

Five Italian words with unsatisfying English equivalents

If I'm speaking English with someone who I know speaks or understands Italian, I tend to inject the words below into conversation rather than use the English approximation. The Italian version is just better! Have a look at the five words below (in no particular order) and let me know if you agree, and whether there are others you'd add.

 

Anzi

AHN|zee

Anzi can be translated as "on the contrary". Simple, right? Except in English it's a mouthful. In Italian it's a one-word zinger, ideal for the end of a sentence. For example, "It's not that I don't want to.... anzi". Meaning: I want to very much. Saying "It's not that I don't want to...on the contrary" just doesn't cut it. 

Magari

mah|GAH|ree

One definition of this word is "maybe", but a more interesting use of the word is to mean "I wish!", or "If only!", as in "Come with me on vacation!" ("Dai vieni con me in vacanza!"), and the response: "Eh... magari!". This one goes well with the hand signal that means what the heck are you talking about ....as if I could.

Sveglia/o

sv|EH|lyah

Sveglia means "awake", and it means "alarm clock", but the "sveglia" I like is an adjective defined in the dictionary as "clever", which isn't a perfect translation. It's a big compliment to be called "sveglia" or "sveglio", and personally I'd prefer to be "sveglia" than clever. Someone who is "sveglia/o" may not be brilliant or have lots of degrees or have solved some complex problem, anzi (none of those may apply). More likely it means that they are with it, they get it, they're quick, they're perceptive. 

Pazienza

pah|tzee|EN|zah

"Pazienza" is also a one-word zinger that does translate as "patience", but in the same situation in English we'd say "don't worry about it" or "go with the flow", with a shrug. The thing about "pazienza", is that in Italy you need quite a lot of it, so what makes the Italian word so different from the English, for me, is its cultural weight.

Auguri

ow|GOO|ree

If it's someone's birthday, you say "auguri!". If it's New Year's Day, you say "auguri!". It's the equivalent of the English "happy" in "happy birthday" or "happy new year", except just saying "happy!" in English would get you odd looks, of course.  
 

Got any to add or any other examples of how you use the words above? Please post in the comments!

Need help planning a trip to Italy? Italy Beyond the Obvious does custom trip planning. If you like what you read, subscribe to this blog for free.