lagazzettaitaliana.com

For the astronomer Niccolò Copernico, the sun is like a king sitting on a regal throne governing the family of the celestial stars that surround it. San Francis of Assisi, in his poem “Canticle of the Sun,” honors it as one of the most amazing...

Besides their birthday, many Italians also celebrate their onomastico. This term, which in English translates to “name-day,” derives from the Greek verb onomázein - chiamare per nome (to call by name). The onomastico has a strong religious...

In Italian, we salute family and friends with the casual greeting “ciao”. We express this four-letter word interchangeably to indicate both “hello” and “goodbye.” Many times, we also use it as a parting salutation with the echoing version “ciao,...

Love is all around us. We share this love with our family, our friends and our significant others. In English, we normally express this affection with the standard “I love you.” We use these same three words with a sister, a husband or a close...

When I was young, I didn’t get along very well with my older sister who was a neat freak. From her perspective, whatever I did was not good enough. The bedroom we shared was never thoroughly tidy. If I were to leave the slightest bit of dust on the...

During one of my last visits to Italy, as I was about to eat lunch with a friend, I picked up my fork and wished her “buon appetito!” Surprisingly, she didn’t respond “grazie, altrettanto” (“thank you, same to you!”) as I had expected, but rather...

Have you ever tried to learn a language and felt bewildered, confused, and discouraged no matter which method you tried? Have you ever felt inadequate when speaking with natives, not being able to construct sentences, forgetting the vocabulary? If...

For the past few years, I have had the pleasure to teach Italian to people from the Cleveland community at the Alta House in the heart of Little Italy. The diligent students attending the classes vary in age, gender and cultural background....

Quando il sole comincia a tramontare ed una gentile brezza soffia per spazzare via il caldo torrido, in molte città italiane inizia la consuetudine serale della passeggiata, un rituale particolarmente popolare la domenica sera, dopo un...

In English, we use adjectives like small and big to modify the size of a word. For example, to downsize the word spoon, we say small spoon. On the other hand, in Italian, we express the concept of smallness or largeness by dropping the last vowel...