by DHales | Jan 16, 2017 | Books, Health, Italy, Language, Romance, Sayings and expressions, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
Crepacuore Heartbreak In English a heart “breaks” just like a dropped glass. Italian gives il cuore (the heart) a word of its own—spezzare—when it shatters into bits. The pain is like no other. “Mi piange il cuore,” a rejected or dejected lover may say. My heart...
by DHales | Sep 15, 2016 | Books, Italy, Language, Romance, Sayings and expressions, Social behavior, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
Fare la civettaTo flirt (literally to make like an owl) An American novelist writing dialogue for a character quoting his Italian grandmother recently asked a question: What is the Italian word for flirting? I replied that there is none, even...
by DHales | Feb 14, 2016 | Books, Italy, Language, Romance, Sayings and expressions, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
Ti amo I love you “How do I love thee?” Elizabeth Barrett Browning asked. She counted the ways in English, but the passionate Italophile may well have chosen Italian when she whispered words of love. The most romantic lovers often do. Why not? Like love itself, a...
by DHales | Jun 10, 2009 | Books, Italy, Language, Music, Romance, Sayings and expressions, Travel
Ti amo, ti voglio beneI love you. Love truly is lovelier in Italy. “Anywhere else,” the nineteenth-century French writer known as Stendhal observed, “it is only a bad copy.” Only in...
