Baracca sounds somewhat similar to "barrack." Barracks (a plural word often expressed in the singular) refer to a building or group of buildings that house large groups of people, often military personnel. It comes from the 17th-century French word "baraque," which in turn comes from the Catalan "barraca" (hut), of uncertain origin. The Italian word is baracca. It's a humble word about a humble place, but Italians use the word to mean a variety of things and not always humble ones.

banner PLACEHOLDER

It's hard to know what uses came before others, but let's first look at a very common Italian expression that might not make sense to a non-native.

Baracca e burattini

We can imagine, perhaps, street performers who set up a little theater (baracca) with puppets or marionettes (burattini). Then the police come their way and they have to fold it up quickly and skedaddle. Or, perhaps the audience is booing. The puppeteers grab their things and hightail it. So in this case, la baracca is another word for teatro di burattini (marionette theater).

So when you up and leave with your stuff, you can say:

Chiudo baracca e burattini e me ne vado. I'm closing up shop and leaving. 

Note that some people use the verb piantare, which aside from meaning "to plant," can also mean "to abandon."

Pia, la mia colf, mi ha piantato. Dice che non vuole vivere in campagna.

Pia, my nanny, ditched me. She says that she doesn't want to live in the country.

Caption 21, Un medico in famiglia Stagione 1 EP1 - Casa nuova - Part 5

 Play Caption

Piantare baracca e burattini. Using the verb piantare really gives the idea of just up and leaving: abandoning ship. 

If we look at some Italian dictionaries they mention that the expression chiudere/piantare baracca e burattini implies a brusque interruption of whatever the status quo is, for example, leaving a job all of a sudden, quitting school, or leaving one's family. On a broader, figurative level, it can mean completely changing the horizons of one's existence. 

Baracca e burattini e si torna a casa, hai capito?

Theater and puppets [leave the whole shebang] and you go home, you get it?

Caption 54, Moscati, l'amore che guarisce EP1 - Part 6

 Play Caption

The nurse left off the first word of the expression, which would have been either chiudi or pianta. In English, we might even say, "You take your toys and go home..."

La baracca

With this common and beloved expression out of the way, let's look at situations where the word baracca is used on its own. 

In the following example, we're talking about a state-run health center:

Intanto questa baracca ha un responsabile e si dà il caso che sia io.

In any case this shack has a person in charge and it happens to be me.

Caption 33, Un medico in famiglia Stagione 1 EP1 - Casa nuova - Part 6

 Play Caption

In this example, la baracca represents a business:

Poi Bianciardi muore, viene ammazzato, e Lei diventa proprietario di tutta la baracca, che dice?

Then Bianciardi dies, he gets killed, and you become owner of the whole shebang, what do you say?

Captions 16-17, Il Commissario Manara S1EP9 - Morte in paradiso - Part 10

 Play Caption

Here, it's a household: 

Come farà Libero con i piccoli? Eh, hai fatto bene a pensarlo, perché non è facile qua, la baracca...

How will Libero manage with the little ones? Uh, you were right to think about that, because it's not easy here, the shack...

Captions 25-27, Un medico in famiglia Stagione 3 S3 EP1: Ciao famiglia - Part 8

 Play Caption

Here, it is another business:

Melody non ha la responsabilità di mandare avanti la baracca.

Melody isn't responsible for keeping the shack [things] going.

Caption 31, Sposami EP 4 - Part 6

 Play Caption

The expression mandare avanti la baracca is a very common expression with the word baracca, meaning "to keep the show going." Literally, "to send it along."

Keep your eyes and ears open for more expressions with baracca. Now you know what it means!

banner PLACEHOLDER

The useful expression fare a meno (to do without) comes up in a recent installment of L'Arte della Cucina:

L'armonia non può fare a meno dei contrasti,

Harmony can't do without contrasts,

che possono essere numerosi.

which may be numerous.

Caption 14, L'arte della cucina - La Prima Identitá

 Play Caption

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Let's take a look at each separate word.

Fare means "to make" or "to do" (see this lesson about fare).
A is a preposition meaning any number of things, mostly "at," "to," or "in," but not specifically "with," so we need to stretch our imaginations a bit, and accept the fact that prepositions don't always correspond. 
Meno has a couple of different meanings, including "minus," which in this case, makes sense.

At the same time, let's not forget that the most common translation for meno is "less," or, when there's an article in front of it, "least":

a meno che (unless)
almeno (at least)

See WordReference, for more about fare a meno.

In a recent episode of Dixiland, there's an interesting expression: tale e quale.

O forse l'autoritratto di Lolalù?

Or maybe the self-portrait by Lolalù?

"Tale e quale, Lolalù."

"Exactly like Lolalù."

Captions 43-44, Dixiland - Coppa di cioccolato

 Play Caption

If we take the expression apart, we have two principal words. Tale has a long list of definitions and translations. It can mean, as a noun, "that person," or as an adjective, "certain," "similar," "aforementioned," and more. Quale (which) has some different sfumature (nuances), but it mostly means "which," or "which one."

In English, we might also say "the spitting image of Lolalù." "To spit" in Italian is sputare, and in fact, sputare is also used to say pretty much the same thing: sputato a Lolalù. Tale e quale is probably easier to remember and easier to say!

Merely connecting these words together with e (and) doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so it's best to think of tale e quale as an idiomatic expression, a compound adjective, you might call it, meaning "exactly the same." 

E a noi napoletani ci fa diventare tali e quali ai milanesi.

And she makes us Neapolitans become exactly like Milanese.

Caption 58, Moscati, l'amore che guarisce EP1 - Part 6

 Play Caption

Attenzione! In buying and selling, you might find this (without the conjunction): tale quale, which means "as is." 

BANNER PLACEHOLDER

Just for fun:

Non potevo fare a meno di andare dal parrucchiere. I miei capelli erano troppo disordinati. Appena sono entrata, il parrucchiere m’ha detto: “siediti pure, ho quasi finito.” Poi ha preso in mano un phon per asciugare i capelli di un altro cliente. Devo dire che quell' asciugacapelli era tale e quale al mio. Uguale uguale!... A meno che non fosse proprio il mio, rubato da lui. Sto scherzando... figuriamoci! Avrei fatto a meno della musica che era troppo forte, ma almeno mi ha pettinato molto bene, e in fretta. Dopo, non potevo fare a meno di mangiare un bel gelato.

I couldn't do without going to the hairdresser's. My hair was too messy. As soon as I went in, the hairdresser said, "Go ahead and have a seat. I'm almost finished." Then he took the blow dryer to dry another client's hair. I have to say that that hair dryer was exactly like mine. The same, identical!... Unless it really was mine, stolen by him. I'm kidding... no way! I could have done without the music, which was too loud, but at least he styled my hair nicely, and quickly. Afterwards, I couldn't have done without having a nice ice cream cone.