untitled design (1)

Learn Italian online

Search

Good Old Murphy’s Law

Well, the law of Murphy hit yours truly good and proper on Wednesday evening. Not sure what I ate, and even if it was something I ate, but whatever it was was worse than a punch in the belly by Superman.
Waves of pain, coming more or less when they felt like, and often in twos or threes, just for good effect, just about folded me in two. And I won’t mention the other, er, let’s call it ‘bottom effect’.

The Economist Beats Berlusconi

Many moons back in 2001, the Economist magazine displayed a picture of a pensive Berlusconi on its front cover, along with the question: ‘Is Silvio Berlusconi unfit to Lead Italy’.

Mr Berlusconi took umbrage to the undertone of this heinous insinuation, and promptly took the revered publication to court on accusations of defamation, and lost!

Rampaging Football Hooligans and Mafia

Last weekend rampaging football hooligans caused some half a million Euros worth of damage to a Rome bound Italian train. Some Italians, when they find out you are English, joking mention that you must be a football hooligan, such is the infamy of English football fans. Sadly though, Italian fans have taken to hooliganism too, […]

Alitalia’s Never Ending Story

After having fallen through back in July last year, talks concerning saving Italy’s ailing national airline have been resurrected.

Free Camping in Italy

The incidents concerning attacks on German and Dutch tourists in Italy are sweeping the world, and these appalling happenings have been handled rather insensitively by the Italian authorities, as a read of the post on Beppe Grillo’s blog will tell you.

Sleeping with the Enemy?

Italy’s two main political parties are often shortened by the media to the PD and the PDL. At times it is difficult to understand which political party is being referred to. Recently, things have become much more confusing. At the best of times Italian politics is a confused muddled affair. Indeed, things are becoming so […]

An Unhealthy Italian Brand

Oddly enough, since I started writing about life in Italy, I’ve only really brushed over the subject of an Italian ‘brand’ which is as well known to those outside Italy as pizza. This brand, is of course, the Mafia. It is perhaps more correct to say ‘mafias’ because in Italy there are many, but the […]

Silvio Must Be Fuming!

Mr B, Italy’s charismatic prime minister is probably not a very happy chappy.  A recent article in Italian news magazine L’Espresso concerned, amongst other things, telephone conversations which took place between Italy’s current prime minister and a RAI TV executive last year. Apparently, these conversations involve, it is alleged, Berlusconi, who wanted to help out […]

Buy Il Sole 24 Ore this Saturday!

If you would like to know about another big Italian scandal which is brewing, then purchasing a copy of this Saturday’s edition of Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper is a must. It will obviously help if you can read Italian. I can’t say any more, because I don’t want to land someone I know in […]