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The Florentine
Useful resources about life in Florence, Italy, focusing on the international community.
My mother says that if you really hate something, the best thing to do is spend time with it. Once enough hours have passed, it will become your friend. Spend time with your enemies and you will develop empathy for them. Spend time with your detestable list of conditional verbs
Lunch at Lola’s is a true taste of Tuscan theatre. Everyday, my colleagues and I squeeze in the door at half past twelve in efforts to beat our neighbours to the corner table. The menu is written on a paper place-mat and hung on the wall weekly,
In Italy, a best friend is known as a ‘heart friend’ and my amico del cuore is called Giorgio Moro. Although this is not top secret information, I do have some qualms about using his full name in this article. Any writer will tell you that it is
The summer I turned seven, my cousin taught me an Italian children’s chant about a king who begged his jester to tell him a tale. ‘Once upon a time there was a king who sat on his sofa and said to his servant, “Tell me a
The origin of polo remains uncertain. The sport probably originated in the Middle East, where it was played on a barren field by nomadic warriors as early as 2500 years ...
I have a good friend who assigns animals to everyone she meets. I, on the other hand, am partial to fictitious characters. I currently work with four Italian men. In my mind’s eye, they are the Wizard, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. &
Italy’s normally salty prices get torn to shreds when sales season comes. From prezzi salati to prezzi stracciati, when prices are shredded, it’s time to go shopping. The country waits on bated breath as the stores mark down and the people line up. It was a
I think I have a rare language disease. My symptoms most often show themselves at fancy dinner parties where everyone is wearing black. Somehow, understated elegance brings out all of my quirky linguistic hang-ups. At the very first lull in conversation, I find myself proposing language games and organising
Just relax. Take a deep breath. Abandon Plan A. Leave it at the bus stop before you mount bus 14. It’s already too crowded in there. Leave Plan A at the bottom of the stairs before you brave the five flights up to your room with a view.
It starts with the usual Thursday afternoon phone call. Supposedly, there’s an urgent manuscript waiting for me at the translation studio. Can I pick it up? Stay up all night to do it? Bring it by in the morning? My boss Niccolò grovels, and I agree
During university I had the great fortune of living right above a Venetian canal. The apartment’s floor was uneven in places and its mosaics rippled as if someone were slowly pulling them from under your feet. There were high gothic windows and the sound of boats knocking together
When my up-stairs neighbour finds an article she thinks I can’t live without reading, she tapes it to a packaged merendina snack and throws it at my head as I pass under her window. Not a photocopy, the original. Signora Norma never worries about keeping information for
If you want to have many birthdays, live in Italy. Together with Japan, Italy boasts the longest life span in the world. Thirty-six paid vacation days a year and the Mediterranean diet are probably partly responsible. Frequent art-filled walks and friendly piazza talks may also have something to
English speakers follow a straight line; Italians talk in circles. If you engage in intercultural communication on a daily basis, this is something you probably already know, but possibly have never thought about. So let’s think about it now, shall we? I’ll start by saying
I'd been recently hired by a Tuscan regional association whose goal was to provide youth services and career training to young Italians who wanted to become more desirable candidates for the international job market. During a workshop on writing resumes my student, Claudio, raised his hand to adamantly proclaim
It is no secret that Italians are leaving bigger cities in search of a slower paced rural lifestyle. The current revival of small towns throughout Italy is allowing people to rediscover the beauty and benefits of a more simple and traditional way of living. Tourism is also following the
Sitting on the terrace in Chianti, happy as a clam, I was enjoying my first meal al fresco in eight months. It was my friend Edoardo’s birthday, and the spring air was crisp and the company warm. Then suddenly the winds changed. “So, the government has
Italians, as a race, are fairly relaxed. They will not obsess about politically correct word choice or nit-pick about pseudo moral dilemmas. They have great capacity to put things in perspective and avoid unnecessary fuss. But there are some things that you cannot do in Italy. Some things that
