Little Tastes of Austria in Italy: A Two-Day Adventure in Trentino, Italian Alps

A trip to Italy in the winter to visit my partner’s family made for an interesting experience to see how il natale (Christmas) is celebrated there. The first couple days were spent in his home city of Reggio Emilia to visit his sister then the latter days were spent in Ravenna visiting his mum. We had a couple of days between destinations to go somewhere different and while lots of Italian locations are better suited to the summer, it seemed apt to go to a wintery place this time.

I’d never been to the Alps and having not long seen the movie House of Gucci (where some scenes of the film were shot), I was intrigued to see some of the region and another part of Italy.

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Viva Venice! Exploring Venice and Burano in Just Two Days

Going to Italy on holiday but don’t know the language? Wanting to know just enough Italian to use on your holiday without having to learn the grammar and tons of pointless vocabulary and phrases? 

Download my simple, easy and colourful guide to Italian for your holiday in Italy which will give you exactly the word and brief phrases you will need for chatting to the locals in Italian here!

Venice

On a recent trip to the north of Italy, after completing five days of quarantine in Quattro Castella in the Emilia-Romagna region, we had a couple of days to visit somewhere before heading on to the second part of our trip to Ravenna on the northeast coast.

Friends who had visited Venice had always spoken so well of the unique canal city and photographs always looked stunning, like a glimpse back in time to a golden era of opera, elegant dress, ornate balconies and orchestras. I’d always thought of it as a place I must visit in my lifetime but had never really made any plans to do so, with other trips and destinations occurring first.

Venice was a mere two-hour train journey from Reggio Emilia with a quick switch at Bologna, so this was the prime opportunity to go!

I liked the idea of travelling to Venice by train, and when we got off at Venice Santa-Lucia station, I was delighted to see that you step off and step out into the street and you are immediately there in the middle of the city, boats sailing along the grand canal, past even grander buildings, people milling round in a watercolour blend of blues, whites, lilacs and golds. It looked like a still-life on a giant canvas, despite all the movement.

Continue reading “Viva Venice! Exploring Venice and Burano in Just Two Days”

Portmeirion: Experience a Slice of Italy in the Heart of Wales

It’s been 18 months since I last left the country, when I visited Reykjavik, Iceland. It had long been one of my bucket-list destinations and I loved every minute but I haven’t been on a sunny holiday for 22 months and even that was visiting Córdoba, Spain, where I used to live anyway. So, technically, I haven’t been on a proper holiday since August 2018- a 3 day trip to Lake Como and Milan. That was 35 months ago.

It’s safe to say that I, like everyone else, am dying for an escape from the same scene of my home country to experience again the joys of a holiday abroad. Britain has some very beautiful places and the Covid-19 pandemic and not being able to travel internationally has had the pleasant advantage of spending more time visiting places here and discovering new corners of the country which had long been overlooked.

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Learning Italian: An 8-Month Journey – Tips, Progress, and Insights

[You can read the second installment of my Italian learning progress diary at 20 months here.]

[Looking for natural-sounding Italian expressions? Click here for my blog post with 25 expressions]

Going to Italy on holiday but don’t know the language? Wanting to know just enough Italian to use on your holiday without having to learn the grammar and tons of pointless vocabulary and phrases? 

Download my simple, easy and colourful guide to Italian for your holiday in Italy which will give you exactly the word and brief phrases you will need for chatting to the locals in Italian here!

Background

I have been learning Italian for approximately 8-10 months now since I met my partner who is from Italy, with varying rates of study. Sometimes I’m able to study intensively, sometimes I learn casually/passively and when work gets busy I can go weeks without much learning at all. He speaks fluent English but I firmly believe that learning his native language too is only fair! Learning a language is also interwoven with learning about a culture and vice versa so that’s another important reason for me.

I’ve been off work for the last 2 weeks for the Easter break so have had much more time to focus on learning Italian. In the UK we have been in a third national lockdown for the last four months due to the Covid-19 pandemic which means there hasn’t been much else to do during this time off! I feel I’ve made a noticeable amount of progress over the last fortnight so thought I would write a blog entry tracking where I am after 8-10 months and what I have done so far. The idea is that I will write another entry in around 3-4 months so I can look back and track how I’ve progressed as it is often hard to gauge. My hope is that international travel will resume this summer and that we will be able to get over to Italy in August (4 months from now) and that I will be able to converse on a basic level with locals in Italian.

One thing I knew from previous language learning was that whatever your learning style, it needs to be multi-sensory, frequent and as immersive as you can make it even when not in a country where your target language is commonly spoken.

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Essential Guide to Visiting Reykjavik, Iceland: Top Attractions and Tips

“The sand is so black and smooth which contrasts with the white foam of the sea and the greyish sky overhead. The tide was out but the waves were quite angry as they came roaring and crashing on to the shore.”

I watched a documentary on Iceland in 2008 and my sister went there in 2009. Ever since then, I had waited and waited for the chance to visit the land of fire and ice for myself.

The opportunity didn’t present itself for a while with so many other things over the years, so many other countries. When my cousins told me they would be visiting Reykjavik before flying on to New York, I booked on to the first part of their trip in a heartbeat! While I would have loved to have gone to New York, I’m in the middle of buying my first house alone so this time it was not to be…

There was SO much preparation to do for those 3 days in Reykjavik and the internet was a goldmine for research. I had to buy so much cold weather gear that will probably sit in my wardrobe unused for a long time but at least it’s there for any future trips.

In this blog post, I’m going to pass on what I did, what you need for a trip there and key information for getting the most out of three days.

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