Italian

Last night we decided to treat ourselves to an evening of Pizza and Italian music, and to make it molto authentico we set a small table with a red and white check tablecloth, a small vase with a single red rose, a bottle of chianti and a couple of candles.

I remember the last time I was in Rome eating Pizza outside a small cafe down a small side street not too far from the Piazza Navona and I wanted to try and recreate that moment.

We put on our favorite Andrea Bocelli album, Romanza, and settled down to a home-made pizza with loads of salami and mozzarella, and on her half, loads of vegetables - yuck!

Afterwards came the surprise, she didn't know I'd managed to buy the collectors edition of Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn, her second favorite film of all time. Luckier still the soundtrack could be played in English or Italian, needless to say we chose Italian to complete the evening. I wonder if any of my basic Italian phrases will be in the movie. Buonanenotte.

Last night we found ourselves sitting glued to the TV eagerly waiting for Jamie Oliver's travels around Italy, and I'm really glad we didn't miss it. The island of Marettimo looks absolutely stunning, actually reminded me of a small greek island (Simi) I visited many years ago. It's hard to believe a small rock in the ocean can be so beautiful.

A friend from Italy had been telling me about these little three wheeler vehicles that are apparently as ubiquitous as the trusty vespa but I'd never seen one, and I couldn't really imagine what it would look like, well, seeing the little three wheeler parked outside Giovanni’s Bar La Scaletti, and then the watching Jamie push start it and unceremoniously hop onto the back with the dog as Giovanni speeds down to the harbour to collect the fish was just priceless. You know Jamie was right about one thing, most English chef's wouldn't have the balls to do what he did. Now I can't wait to visit Sicily! Read More

I was watching Jamie Oliver touring Italy last night in his Kombi, actually this was the first episode so we only saw him arrive in Palermo, and cook some fish at a street grill.

What really made an impression on me however wasn't Palermo, although that was interesting. The thing that really impressed me was the farmland and hillsides around Palermo.

Every other time we've seen pictures of Sicily it has looked very rugged and rocky, but the scenery Jamie drove through was different. Altogether very green. Made me realise that touring Sicily could end up being one of the highlights of our time in Italy. But on the other hand, we've also heard wonderful things about Sardinia, and I still remember travelling through the boot of Italy and it was all gorgeous - maybe Italy is just all beautiful.

Another funny thing occurred to us as we listened to Jamie talking to people on the street in Palermo. We understood their accents more clearly than when we watch something filmed in Rome. We haven't been able to work out the difference because we didn't record the show, but if any native English speakers have an opinion on Italian accents we would be interested in hearing from you. Actually when we think of it, we understood many of the characters in Montalbano more than other shows we're watched recently like "Commesse 2", the shop girls, which was also filmed in Rome.

I'm confused, I need help from an Italian speaker. My partner and I tend to call each other darling even in public. Personally I feel awkard when she calls me by my name, it seems to lack the intimacy that we have being a couple.

So in English I would preface many conversations with "darling, what..." or "darling, have you...", you get the picture, and even when we're around friends and family we still call each other darling.

And that leads to the question, what is the equivalent Italian? The dictionary gives two translations for darling, caro and tesoro, but you hear Italians saying/singing amore or bambino. As I mentioned in another post, we want to speak Italian to each other as much as possible because when we eventually get to Italy we are quite likely to try out total immersion in the language.

So, opinions please, what is better?
"caro, ...", "tesoro, ...", "amore, ....", or "bambino, ..."

Thanks to Richard's comment below I can point interested readers to 'E niente, � niente, carissima!' and 'My dear ...'.