It is Summer in Italy....some useful terms
  • Max2013 July 2012
    Your Living Langage material covers most of your Summer needs, however here are some useful terms (nouns and verbs) that can help you indeed. 

    Estate     = Summer

    Caldo = Hot (false friend...not cold)

    Spaggia = beach

    Mare = sea

    Nuotare = to swim

    Prendere il sole = to sunbathe

    Insalata di riso = rice salad (very popular in the summer)

    Costume = bathing suit 

    Bagnino = the Bay Watch thing, lifeguard


  • Christopher July 2012
    Maybe some other topical vocabulary... how do you say "It's sweltering" or "this is quite a heatwave we're having?"
  • Max2013 July 2012
    Those are idiomatic expressions...I was pallning a post later on those. IN the meantime, they can be translated, not literally, in this way:

     "It's sweltering" = "Si crepa dal caldo" less polite "E' un caldo boia"

    "this is quite a heatwave we're having? = "Un'ondata di caldo"
  • Christopher July 2012
    Boia is executioner, right? (I think I remember that from Turandot!) That's a pretty colorful idiom! "It's an executioner's heat??"
  • Max2013 July 2012
    Chris, sorry for the late reply but I was cooling off from the heat and traveling. E' un caldo boia. Yes, boia is the executioner. 
  • Max2013 September 2012
    L'estate e' finita = Summer is over.

    By the way, I do not know whether "estate" in Italian has anything to do with "estate" in English. One connection can be that big family estates usually include summer houses, but that is just a wild guess. 
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