ItalianPod101.com Blog

Palm Sunday in Italy is a major occasion around the country, with many unique religious celebrations. In this article, you’ll learn the basics about Palm Sunday, Italian traditions for this holiday, and some relevant Italian vocabulary. Let’s get started! 1. What is Palm Sunday? On Palm Sunday, Italian Christians celebrate Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem as described in the Bible. According to the Bible, he entered riding a donkey and people from the city welcomed him by throwing down palm branches in his path. This took place exactly one week before his Resurrection from the dead, which is celebrated as Easter one week after Palm Sunday. In Italy, Palm Sunday is also largely associated with plants, particularly the palm... Show more

Adjectives, in any language, are what we use to better describe what we’re talking about. They give color and meaning to our words. So, learning the top 100 Italian adjectives right away will help you quickly improve your conversation skills. If you check an Italian grammar book or website, you’ll find out that there are many types of them: Demonstratives: questo; quello — "this; that" Qualificatives: bello; brutto — "nice; ugly" Possessives: mio; tuo — "my; your" And there are many others! Try and memorize a big list of Italian adjectives and their opposites. Let's have fun with easy grammar lessons and exercises on how to use Italian adjectives with ItalianPod101.com. Andiamo! (Let’s go!) Table of Contents Italian... Show more

Giornata Internazionale della Donna, or International Women’s Day in Italy, is a major holiday celebrated throughout the country. In this article, you’ll learn how Italians honor the women in their lives and about the most common traditions for Women’s Day. Let’s get started. 1. What is International Women’s Day? In Italy, International Women’s Day may not be a public holiday, but that doesn’t keep people from finding ways to honor the women in their lives. Essentially, International Women’s Day is a reminder of the "discrimination" (discriminazione) and "violence" (violenza) women have faced in the past, and a day to celebrate the higher social position women have today. This festival was first celebrated in 1909 in the... Show more

Maybe you don’t know, but Netflix can be very effective for things other than binge-watching your favorite TV series until late at night or entertaining your kids on a rainy Sunday. You can learn new things with its hundreds of documentaries, discover the history of cinema thanks to the many great old movies in its catalogue, or even improve your Italian language skills. You heard us right: Learn Italian with Netflix! And as always, we at ItalianPod101 have got your back! Check out our guide to the best Italian movies on Netflix and Netflix Italian series, and discover how, while you learn Italian, Netflix can be right there to help! Table of Contents Italy and Netflix: A Love Story Why Watching Italian Movies on Netflix Will... Show more

Without conjunctions, we would be talking like robots, putting together a sequence of detached sentences. You might not realize this, but conjunctions are a very important part of our language. They have the important job of coordinating and linking phrases. So, let’s discover and practice the most commonly used conjunctions in Italian (including coordinating conjunctions in Italian), because these little bricks in your sentences will help you connect your Italian phrases and make your Italian conversation flow. And this is exactly what you’ll need to speak Italian like a pro! (See how I used conjunctions to link the last three sentences?) :) As you can see, even the most simple Italian conjunctions can make a huge difference. But... Show more

Every culture in the world have their own customs and etiquette regarding the most important aspects of social life: from dining to celebrations, from greetings to traveling, and so on. For someone coming from a different culture, they can be hard to understand and adopt, but they’re indeed an important element in communicating with the local population and learning their culture. In order to help you with this, ItalianPod101 has written a guide to the Italian customs and etiquette. With our Italian etiquette tips under your belt, you have no reason to be nervous when an Italian friend invites you to dinner or when you’re going to travel to Italy for business reasons. Everyone will remember you as the educated, nice foreigner who... Show more

Italians celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany each year to celebrate the Magi’s visitation to Baby Jesus. However, the celebrations of Epiphany in Italy may surprise you—did you know that Epiphany isn’t what most Italians call this holiday? In this article, you’ll learn about the origins of the Epiphany holiday and how the Italians observe it. At ItalianPod101.com, it’s our goal to ensure that every aspect of your language-learning journey is both fun and informative—starting with this article! Ready? Let’s dive in. 1. What is Epiphany in Italy? Epiphany, like Christmas, is a Christian religious festival. It celebrates the visit made by the Magi—the three great kings of the East—to Christ twelve days after his birth.... Show more

Do you need to plan a date with an Italian friend? Or do you simply need to confirm the day of your next Italian lesson? Maybe you’re reading an important letter or document, but don’t know how to read dates in Italian. You’ll need to be able to talk about time and dates in Italian to communicate on a daily basis. Days, weeks, months, years. They go so fast...but don’t worry! You’ll learn how to say the days of the week in Italian, the months of the year, and all the other tricks of the Italian calendar with this simple guide on how to talk about dates in Italian. You’ll be saying dates in Italian and making appointments before you know it! Table of Contents How to Write and Read Dates in Italian How to Say the Years in Italian ... Show more

Family is a vital institution everywhere in the world, but particularly in Italy. It’s not a cliche: Italians love their family, A LOT. And even if things have changed over the last few decades and huge, extended families aren’t as common as before, Italians still feel a connection toward their family members that’s hard to find in other Western countries. But then, who doesn’t love their mom and dad, their grannies or little children, and doesn’t feel the need to talk about them with friends? As stated before, Italian extended families are greatly valued in Italian society, so knowing how to talk about them is essential. That’s why we’ve written this guide on how to talk about family in Italian. Here at ItalianPod101, you’ll learn the... Show more

Traveling is wonderful. You get to know new places and ways of life, meet different people, and relax—far from your usual routine. Regular contact with a new language is another huge plus. And when you travel, you can learn that language in the most fun and interesting way. Nevertheless, you should still know a few important phrases before jumping on a plane and heading for a new country. If that country is Italy, there’s even more reason to learn some phrases in advance; we’ll explain why in a bit. Ready to learn Italian travel phrases, and other Italian phrases about travel? Welcome to ItalianPod101’s guide to Italian phrases for travel! Table of Contents Why it’s Important to Know a Few Phrases when Traveling Do Italians... Show more