Becoming Italian Word by Word

LA BELLA LINGUA and MONA LISA in New York City

Launching New Classes and a New Book

I was in my thirties when I began studying Italian—far too old, I realized, to achieve the easy fluency of a youngster. But my goal wasn’t absolute mastery of a foreign tongue. During my first journey to Italy, I had been so intrigued by the vivacious Italians chatting around me that I longed to communicate with them—not perfectly, but well enough to understand and be understood.

On my slow trek to comprehension, something unexpected happened: I fell madly, gladly, giddily in love with Italian -- its innate musicality, its rich history, its playful expressions, its poetic depths. Although I was repeatedly humbled by all that I did not know, I was enthralled by what I was discovering.

The culmination of years of study was LA BELLA LINGUA, my best-selling biography of the world’s most enchanting language—a book that has changed my life and touched the lives of many others. Even five years after its publication, I continue to hear from readers who say it inspired them to learn Italian, travel to Italy, trace their Italian roots or even write books of their own.

Why study  Italian?  Consider these reasons:

*Italian is “beautiful, fun and sexy,” according to a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who adds, “I can’t see anything wrong with that.” Neither can I.

*No other language is more romantic. All the Romance languages evolved from the volgare (vernacular) of ancient Rome, yet none has so many seductive ways of expressing amore. 

*Everything sounds better in Italian. An ordinary towel becomes an asciugamano; a handkerchief, a fazzoletto; a dog leash, a guinzaglio; mere garbage, spazzatura.

*You’ll keep your brain young. Groping for words in a different language sparks new clusters of neurons and synapses—which may help stave off dementia..

*You never know where Italian may lead you. In my case, it led me to the dark, dank lane in Florence where the real woman we know as Mona Lisa was born. Startled by the contrast between this fetid street and the iconic symbol of Western civilization that Leonardo’s portrait has become, I set out to learn everything I could about this daughter of the Renaissance,  merchant’s wife,  loving mother, artist’s muse and, in her husband’s words, “noble spirit.” Somehow it seemed only natural to go from a passion for la bella lingua to a quest for una bella donna. Once again, along the way, I lost my heart to an Italian treasure--and wrote a book about it.

This fall the Italian Cultural Institute of New York and the Italian American Committee on Education (IACE) have chosen the name “La Bella Lingua” for a new program of morning courses for adult learners of all levels—from complete beginners to advanced students. I am honored to participate in introducing two new enterprises in New York: the La Bella Lingua program and my new book, MONA LISA: A Life Discovered.

Please join us for a lecture and reception:

Saturday, September 13

5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Italian Cultural Institute

686 Park Avenue

New York City

(RSVP at [email protected])

Come celebrate la bella lingua and la bella donna with us on September 13! I look forward to seeing you nella Grande Mela (in the Big Apple)!

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA:  My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language and MONA LISA: A Life Discovered.

Related articles

Top Ten Tips for Learning the Italian Language

Italian Becomes the Fourth Most Studied Language in the World

See Florence through the Eyes of Mona Lisa

A New Book from the Author of LA BELLA LINGUA

MONA LISA in the Daily Beast

See Florence through the Eyes of Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa's Florence

I thought I knew Florence. As a tourist, I returned again and again to explore its treasures. As a student, I learned the history of its language. While researching La Bella Lingua, my biography of Italian, I interviewed its scholars. But it wasn't until I found myself in the palazzo where Mona Lisa's mother grew up that I became intrigued by the real woman in Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic portrait. While tracing her life story, I got to know a different Florence: Mona Lisa's hometown.

Yes, hers was the architectural marvel that thrills us still, the city of Brunelleschi’s sky-skimming Cupolone (big dome), Giotto’s graceful Campanile, the sacred spaces of Santa Croce and Orsanmichele. But Mona (Madame, spelled Monna in modern Italian) Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo lived her life in neighborhoods where tourists seldom tread.

From the day I first ventured onto Via Sguazzo, the squalid lane where she was born in 1479, I wanted to travel back in time to the city where Mona Lisa grew up, married, gave birth to six children, inspired a genius and survived some of the most tumultuous decades in Florence’s history. In MONA LISA: A Life Discovered, I take readers with me on this quest. I describe the noisy streets, bustling markets, hushed cloisters and clattering wool mills of her time. But even as I was taking notes and photographs, I realized that nothing could compare with the actual experience of exploring Florence com’era (as it was).

This is why I am working with art historians and professional guides to develop walks and workshops that will provide a unique journey to and through Renaissance Florence. From October 1 to 9, we will be offering a limited number of previews. Our tours of Mona Lisa’s Florence will formally launch in 2015.

For more information, please write me at [email protected]. Additional details will be posted on  my website and at Mona Lisa's Florence.

If you're planning a trip to Italy, I hope that you will join us and discover Florence as you've never seen it before: through the Mona Lisa's eyes.

Words and Expressions

Firenze -- Florence

fiorentino -- native of Florence, Florentine speech

fiorentineggiare -- to use Florentine idioms, to affect the Florentine way of speaking

fiorentinamente -- in the Florentine manner

fiorentinesco -- Florentine

Dianne Hales is the author of MONA LISA: A Life Discovered and LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.

Related articles

A New Website and Blog for a New Book on Mona Lisa

Tuscan Traveler's Pick: MONA LISA

Florence Celebrates Mona Lisa's Birthday

A New Book from the Author of LA BELLA LINGUA

Mona Lisa: In Memoriam

The Sweetness of Doing Nothing in the Italian Language

 

il dolce far niente

the sweetness of doing nothing 

 by Jody Paglia Goode

This guest blog by  a fellow Italophile in Des Moines is one of the most popular posts I've ever run. I'm re-publishing it to savor as the end of summer approaches.   Buona lettura!  (Enjoy the read!) 

 

A few years ago while I was sitting on a beach in Southern Italy, I noticed a man kicking a soccer ball down the shoreline. He kicked it a few feet at a time, nothing too strenuous, just a nice bit of play in the middle of a glorious sunny afternoon. It struck me as unusual that this man would take the time to do this. It was as if he had all the time in the world at his disposal and the only thing he cared about at that moment was kicking that soccer ball. 

The explanation for his behaviour then occurred to me. He had developed the abilty to practice l’arte di non fare niente. This is an Italian expression which translates as the art of doing nothing. Ah, dolce far niente! It is also known as the sweetness of doing nothing. Now let's ponder this for a moment or two. 

Such poetic phrases aren't they? In the United States we refer to this as killing time, a crude and brutal term that implies wastefulness. Yes, we are a nation of overachievers and multi-taskers. Now don’t get me wrong, I can multi- task with the best of them, but every so often I think of that man, kicking that soccer ball, and I yearn for a little down time of my own. 

A term such as "the art of doing nothing" implies something more than sitting in a Lazyboy in front of a television set. It demands more from us. The art of doing nothing and doing it well could be realized in many ways. 

For some it may be reached by drinking wine on the deck while listening to the cicadas or by lingering over several cups of coffee with an old friend. No box wine or instant coffee will do. For some it may be accomplished by sipping tea by the fire, with a cat softly purring nearby, or by watching a baby sleep. For others the art is practiced by taking the time to share a story or two with the locals at the market. People-watching at the piazza, a swing at the park, and making animal creatures from play dough would all qualify. 

I know what you are thinking. None of the above mentioned things are nothing, and they are indeed something. L’arte di non fare niente implies spontaneity and doing a thing for nothing more than the pleasure of doing it. The man on the beach was not out to refine his technique, burn carbs, or impress the ladies. He was kicking that ball for no other reason that the sheer enjoyment of his solitary movement along the water’s edge, and that, my friends, is a beautiful thing.

Words and Expressions 

stare/starsene in panciolle -- to idle, to lounge (in panciolle means literally “con la pancia all’aria” or with your belly to the air) 

oziare -- to idle away, to lie about 

ciondolare -- to hang about, to loaf about, to sit around (doing nothing) 

bighellonare -- same as ciondolare but also wander about, as in bighellonare per la citta’ (to wander around the city doing nothing in particular) 

Dianne Hales is the author of Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered and La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.  Click here to read the latest post in her other blog, Discovering Mona Lisa.    

 

 

Related articles

Traveling in the Italian Language: Six Secrets of an Italophile

Welcoming Spring in the Italian Language

A Book Brahmin Interview: The Other Books in my Life

An Interview in Shelf-Awareness

Shelf Awareness is an online newsletter that reports news about titles getting buzz in the media. I was delighted to be interviewed as one of its "book brahmins."

 On your nightstand now:

A few months ago, my editor at Simon & Schuster pressed the galley of We Are Called to Rise, Laura McBride's terrific debut novel, into my hands--and I'm so glad she did. I'm also savoring Frances Mayes's Under Magnolia, a poetic memoir about her Southern childhood. I always keep something about Italy at hand; right now it's Susan Cahill's The Smiles of Rome, an anthology of evocative pieces about the Eternal City. 

Favorite book when you were a child:

We lived just outside the city limits, so I couldn't check books out of the library. Instead, I'd spend entire afternoons reading at a little wooden table. The librarian would bring me wonderful illustrated volumes of Grimms' fairy tales, which I never tired of. My home library mainly consisted of Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene. I remember reading Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell when I was 11 and thinking, "Wow, that's a book!"

Your top five authors:

When I was a young journalist, everything Joan Didion wrote electrified me. I long considered E.L. Doctorow the best possible travel companion. Ross King's books on Italian art and architecture inspired as well as informed me. I owe my love of history to Doris Kearns Goodwin and my love of biography to Stacy Schiff.

Book you've faked reading:

Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. I devoured the part about Italy, but at the time I was so xenophobic that I didn't keep going. You can't say, "I just read the first third...." I still have the book, however, and I intend to finish it, especially after deeply enjoying The Signature of All Things.

Book you're an evangelist for:

The Inferno--Dante Alighieri's, not Dan Brown's. I resisted reading it until a professor introduced me to an Italian comic-book version. Once I could follow the Harry Potter-esque plot, I got John Ciardi's translation and lost myself in the language and imagery. Italian friends say everyone should read The Divine Comedy at least three times: once in school to learn, once as a young adult to appreciate and once in old age to understand.

Book you've bought for the cover:

Anything with Italian food on it. I own at least a dozen Italian cookbooks with covers that made me drool. I've never tried a recipe from any of them.

Book that changed your life:

I started The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing when I was 21 and working at my first job. I became so engrossed that I called in sick because nothing seemed more important than what I was reading. Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue made me want to write the story of the language I loved--Italian--and that changed my professional life.

Favorite line from a book:

It's a line from Dante: "amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona," which roughly translates as a love so strong that it permits "no loved one not to love." Isn't that what we all want to feel?

Which character you most relate to:

When I was growing up in Scranton, Pa., girls became teachers or nurses (and, of course, wives and mothers). Then I met Jo March in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and found a kindred spirit. She made me believe that I, too, could become a writer.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Ann Patchett's Bel Canto. There were passages that made my heart soar as if I were listening to an aria from La Traviata. I don't know if I could ever recapture that magical sense of transcendence.

 

Dianne Hales is the author of MONA LISA: A Life Discovered and LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language. Click here for the latest post from her other blog, "Discovering Mona Lisa."

 

Related articles

"N" Is for Naso in the Italian Language

Getting Emotional in the Italian Language

The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri - tr. John Ciardi

Italian Becomes the Fourth Most Studied Language in the World

Romantic Words in the Italian Language

The Father of the Italian Language

A Year of Italian Language and Culture: Dante's Inferno

MONA LISA's "History in 5"

MONA LISA is the BBC's Book of the Week.

Click here to listen to daily episodes!

5 Facts You May Not Have Known about the Real Mona Lisa

Simon & Schuster asked me to put together a video for its popular "History in 5" series. Here are five things you'll learn about Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo:

1. She was a real woman. 

Lisa Gherardini was born in 1479 and died in 1542.  Yet although she lived her entire life in Florence, she is almost invisible in her home town. There are no streets or monuments that bear her name. To find Florence's most famous daughter, you have to go looking for her.

2. Lisa came from an ancient and noble clan--the Gherardini.

Legend traces the Gherardini as far back as ancient Rome. By the tenth century, they were living in Tuscany, lording over a wide swath of Chianti. Some became knights--although they were not like the gallant knights of Camelot. These robber barons would demand a high fee from merchants transporting goods to Florence across their lands. If the ransom wasn't paid, they would slice the donkeys' tendons and confiscate the merchandise.

The Gherardini were known for their fierce  bravery and independence.  Even after they lost their power and wealth, they never lost what they called their "Gherardini-ness."  Mona Lisa may well have inherited this strong sense of family pride and spirit.

3. She was a wife.

This may not sound remarkable, but there weren't many choices available to women in the Renaissance. A girl either married or entered a nunnery. In order to win a suitor, her family had to offer a dowry. The Gherardini had lost much of the family fortune, but Lisa had another asset that may have attracted a merchant named Francesco del Giocondo: her beauty.

Women of Lisa's times were certainly not liberated. They had no legal rights. They could not own property or work outside the home. Historians have described Renaissance Florence as one of the unluckiest places to be born female. Yet women inspired some of the greatest works of art ever produced. You can see the nobility and strengh of their spirits in their portraits.  When you look at the Mona Lisa, you behold a woman who is strong, confident and competent.

4. She was a mother.

Mona Lisa gave birth to six children--three boys and three girls--and was the stepmother of a son from her husband's first marriage. Two died in childhood, a son at the age of one month and a daughter at age two. Yet her two surviving daughters were not offered to suitors as potential brides.  Both were placed in convents.

We do not know the reasons why -- probably a combination of factors. I visited the convent that Mona Lisa's oldest daughter entered. Even though it is now a military institute, it retains a sense of timeless tranquility. Perhaps in perilous times, a nunnery seemed a safer place for a girl. But  Mona Lisa's own religious faith may also have motivated her.  Many Florentine women expressed great piety and devotion and, when possible, made the same choice that she ultimately did: to be buried in a convent.

There's a certain irony in the fact that Mona Lisa, who would be adored by millions of men, chose to spend eternity in the company of women.

5. Leonardo da Vinci became attached to the portrait and kept it with him all of his life.

We know that Mona Lisa's  life intersected with Leonardo's in Florence around 1503. She was 24 at the time and had just given birth to a second son. Leonardo was 51 and a venerated artist who had to flee from Milan, where he had been working for eighteen years, after the French invaded. 

Leonardo may have initially taken the commission to paint the portrait solely for the money. He had lost his patronage and needed income. However, I think something in Mona Lisa--perhaps her Gherardini spirit--must have intrigued him. We know that he kept the portrait with him until his death in the Loire Valley in France in 1519.

Click below to view the video:

Dianne Hales is the author of MONA LISA: A Life Discovered and LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair for Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.   Read more at her blog "Discovering Mona Lisa."

Related articles

Who Was Mona Lisa?

Mona Lisa: Still Smiling at 535

Tuscan Traveler's Pick: MONA LISA

The Five Worst Things That Happened to MONA LISA

 

The Misadventures of MONA LISA

(originally published in the Huffington Post)

French monarchs hung "her" in their baths and bedrooms. A thief snatched her from the Louvre. Nazi art looters pursued her. Vandals attacked her. Advertisers exploited her. Through five centuries of revolutions, wars, botched restorations and bizarre imitations, Mona Lisa has proven to be more than a mere masterpiece: She's a survivor.

Few art works have experienced more adventures -- and misadventures -- in and out of the frame. The Florentine matron has shed her stately robes and appeared in sunglasses, hair curlers, burka, kimono, sari, a nose ring, Mickey Mouse ears, black boots, a Santa hat, a see-through blouse and nothing at all. She's straddled a motorcycle and a mule, flashed her underwear, skateboarded, skied, smoked a joint and engaged in a kinky array of X-rated activities.

Last year NASA even bounced Mona Lisa's image off the moon. Why not? She's been everywhere else. Leonardo's model -- Mona (Madame) Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo -- could never have anticipated such an extraordinary afterlife for her portrait. The highs have been high indeed. And the lows?

1. She spent decades in a steamy bathing salon.

 

 

The French King Francis I, who paid the equivalent of $10 million for the portrait, installed Mona Lisa at the Palace of Fontainebleau in a six-room “bathing” suite, where he and his guests soaked, smoked and sweated. Decades of high humidity took a toll on the painted lady. Attempting to repair the damage, a restorer applied a thick coat of lacquer, which fractured into a web of threadlike fissures. Mona Lisa has never since appeared without the veil.

 

2. She inspired fatal obsessions.

 

 

As Romanticism inflamed passions in the nineteenth century, Mona Lisa became the face that launched a thousand fantasies. “Lovers, poets, dreamers go and die at her feet,” a French curator wrote in 1861. He wasn’t exaggerating. The artist Luc Maspero threw himself from the fourth-floor window of his Paris hotel, leaving a farewell note that said, "For years I have grappled desperately with her smile. I prefer to die."

 

3. She was kidnapped.

 

On August 21, 1911, Mona Lisa disappeared. Only four iron hooks framed by a ghostly rectangular shape hung in her place. Tabloids churned out reams of copy on the “heist of the century,” and millions mourned as if a person, not a painting, had gone missing. The unlikely thief was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman who hid Mona Lisa in his cheap rooms in Paris for more than two years. He toted the portrait to Florence in 1913 in hopes of a reward. Instead he was arrested. Peruggia's defense: He was enchanted by her smile.

4. Artists monkeyed with her.

In 1919 Marcel Duchamp painted a mustache and a goatee on a postcard of Mona Lisa and called it L.H.O.O.Q. (letters that sound like French slang for “she’s got a hot ass”). Dali, Magritte, Warhol and other modern masters couldn’t resist toying with the iconic image. Contemporary artists have pushed the visual jokes to extremes, transforming Mona Lisa into wild animals and fanciful creatures, including a Conehead, dinosaur and unicorn (with a horn in the middle of her forehead).

5. She had to flee Nazi treasure hunters.

In 1939, bracing for a German invasion, the French spirited the painting out of the Louvre. During World War II Mona Lisa was shuttled to a series of safe houses. One hideout was the royal château at Amboise, adjacent to the house where Leonardo spent his final years -- Lisa’s portrait with him to the end.

Click here to find five more of Mona Lisa's misfortunes in the complete article at the Huffington Post. Dianne Hales is the author of MONA LISA: A Life Discovered  and LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.  To follow Dianne's blog on "Discovering Mona Lisa," click here.

Related articles

Who Was Mona Lisa?

Mona Lisa: Still Smiling at 535

Tuscan Traveler's Pick: MONA LISA

Mona Lisa is missing

A New Book from the Author of LA BELLA LINGUA

MONA LISA: A Life Discovered

La Gioconda: Una Vita Svelata

It's true! Sto per rivelare la storia e i segreti  (I am about to reveal the story and the secrets) of Mona Lisa.  (My thanks to artist Melissa Muldoon, la studentessa matta, for the clever graphic.)

My quest for the real Mona Lisa began in Florence when I was doing research for LA BELLA LINGUA. An art historian who befriended me casually mentioned during a dinner at her home that the mother of La Gioconda, as Italians call Leonardo da Vinci's portrait, grew up in the very same building on Via Ghibellina.

I then came across newspaper reports about the discovery of documents from Mona Lisa's family--the Gherardini--by an archival sleuth named Giuseppe Pallanti. When we met on a rooftop terrace overlooking Lisa's childhood neighborhood, he marked an "X" on a tourist map to indicate the street  where she was born.

The moment I ventured onto squalid Via Sguazza, the journalist in me sensed a story just waiting to be told. I never guessed how many miles I’d trudge, how many experts I’d interview, how many tomes I’d read, how many drafts I’d write and rewrite and polish. Through it all I was inspired by Mona Lisa—a woman who became more real to me with every clue, every archival record, every insight. 

As an Italian friend noted, through my book Mona Lisa avrà una nuova vita (will have a new life).  It looks like it will be an exciting one.  Here are some early milestones, courtesy of my wonderful publicist Sarah Reidy at Simon & Schuster:

Amog the headlines that Mona is making:

*"How Mona Lisa's Smile Led to Love Affairs and Suicides," New York Post

*"A New Book on the Life of Mona Lisa," Tuscan Traveler 

*"MONA LISA: Behind the art world's most famous face,"BookPage

*"Leonardo da Vinci and Mona Lisa in Florence," About.com Italy Travel

*"Mona Lisa: Bay Area Author Finds the Woman Behind the Smile,"  L’Italo-Americano 

Reviewers have called Mona's story "a rich tapestry" (BookPage) "entertaining" (Publishers Weekly), "engaging" (Library Journal) "lyrical" (Booklist),"flawless...written with passion and intensity" (Readful Things) USA Today gave 3.5 of 4 stars to an "affectionate my-search-for story" for lovers of art, Florence and history. I smiled at the Charlotte Observer's description of me as "a tenacious, curiosity-fueld prize-winning journalist who sweeps us up...in a fascinating read."

To all of you about to “meet” the real Mona Lisa: Buona lettura! Happy reading!

Words and Expressions

monna -- correct Italian spelling for "Madame" Lisa;  mona is a parolaccia (naughty or bad word) in some parts of Italy  

giocondo -- joyous, mirthful, cheery

giocondità -- joy, cheerfulness, gaiety

Gherardiname -- Gherardini-ness, the word Lisa's family used for their proud, feisty spirit

Dianne Hales is the author of MONA LISA: A Life Discovered and LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language.

Related articles

A New Website and Blog for a New Book on Mona Lisa

Who Was Mona Lisa?

Tuscan Traveler's Pick: MONA LISA

MONA LISA Makes Headlines in the New York Post

Florence Celebrates Mona Lisa's Birthday

RIP, Mona Lisa

Italian Phrases You Won't Learn in Class: The Sea

In our continuing series of posts, Riccardo Cristiani, the head Italian teacher at Dante Learning,  talks about the ways Italians, who  love to spend their summer holidays on the beach with their friends and family, talk about the sea.

il mare

the sea

a guest post by Riccardo Cristiani

Italians are a  popolo di navigatori (nation of sailors), and idiomatic expressions about il mare are quite common. Please read the following explanations,  and take some time to listen to the podcast on Dante Learning. I won’t translate the examples. Use your imagination and try to understand the meaning. Cominciamo!

*Essere in alto mare: to be in open sea, surrounded by water without any reference point. We say this when we have no clue of what is going on or when the solution of a complicated matter seems far off. 

               Non riesco a studiare per l’esame, sono in alto mare.

*In un mare di guai: in a sea of trouble.We usually combine this idiom with the reflexive verbs “cacciarsi” or “ficcarsi,” meaning to “put oneself into” un mare di guai. Both verbs also imply that it’s difficult to get out of a place where ti sei cacciato (you have put yourself).

               Mi sono cacciato in un mare di guai!  

*Promettere mari e monti: To promise sea and mountains. This expression is used ironically for someone who promises great things and doesn’t deliver. Another conversational expression -- fare promesse da marinai (to make sailors' promises) - -carries the same meaning.

            I politici promettono solo mari e monti

*Tra il dire e il fare c’è di mezzo il mare: Between saying and doing is half a sea. This proverb means that saying you will do something and actually doing it are totally different.  There is a "sea" between intentions and acts.

              Vorrei cambiare vita, ma tra il dire e il fare…

*C’è maretta: choppy sea. We use this description when there is tension between people and a storm could come pretty soon

              In ufficio c’è maretta, sta succedendo qualcosa.

*Una goccia nel mare: a drop in the ocean, an insignificant quantity. No need to explain this one!

              Ho donato dei soldi per i bambini bisognosi, ma è una goccia nel mare

*Buttare a mare: to waste something, to dump something in the sea. We usually say this when people lose a great chance by doing something stupid or silly.  Grammatically, this sentence is weird because we rarely use the simple preposition “a” in front of “mare.”  A good way to remember it is with this example:

              Ho buttato a mare un’occasione d’oro. 

A note from Dianne:  I  don't want to miss this "golden opportunity" to add some of my favorite colorful "sea words," such as: 

acqua di mare -- sea water 

lupo di mare -- sea wolf, or expert mariner 

mal di mare -- seasickness

frutti di mare -– seafood

i cavalloni -- white horses, a wonderful description for foam-topped giant swells          

                                Buone ferie estive!  (Happy summer holidays!)

Dante-Learning is an online Italian language school based in Milan and Tokyo, with students from many countries, including the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan.

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language and MONA LISA: A Life Discovered.  Click here to read her other blog, "Discovering Mona Lisa." 

Related articles

The Little Words that Spice Up the Italian Language

Italian for Travelers: Swimming in a Sea of Words