Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Sardi and Toscani are nervous about choosing the godparents for little Valeria's baptism. Later, Toscani gets lucky about finding some evidence. When speaking to Raimondi about it, he almost comes out with a colloquial expression but thinks better of it. The complete idiomatic expression would have been una botta di culo [a stroke of the butt]. Culo [ass] is often used to mean "luck," either good or bad. So he had a stroke of luck, or, in modern language, "he got lucky."
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The popular TV series Commissioner Manara takes place in Tuscany, so in this video, Marika explains some of the peculiarities of Tuscan speech. She also gives some important tips about using articles when referring to family members.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
In the last lesson we learned to place non (not) before the verb in a negative sentence, but when there are other words involved, it gets a bit more complicated, especially when we have object pronouns in the mix.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We see the inside of house built into the rock. It is fascinating to learn how families coped with the problems of water, humidity, and cramped quarters.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Adriano decides to leave running the factory to Marcello and goes off on his own to work on his other projects. But country roads are dangerous in the pouring rain...
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Eva hides at the beauty center in order to spy on Biagini. In the meantime, Lorenzo and Dante have a man-to-man talk.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
They still don't really have a lead, but Manara is convinced the two murders — Viazzi and Ponti — are connected. They have to look into Ponti's past.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Daniela explains how to turn a positive statement into a negative one, and how to form a negative question and its negative answer. The magic word is non (not).
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We enter a fascinating church carved right into the rock: the Church of the Madonna di Idris. There are some surprising discoveries awaiting us.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Adriano is very happy with how things have been going for the new Olivetti portable typewriter, but his siblings and partners in the business are not so happy. For one thing, they don't like not seeing any of the profits.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Eva's friends can see right away that she is feeling different. It's written all over her face. But she also has an idea for their next caper. At the restaurant, Eva and Dante talk about the previous night, and about whether Lorenzo knows or not.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The episode revolves around little Valeria's coming baptism. Sardi is able to change Luca's dark mood with a DVD. Ada tries to figure out who sent her flowers, and she also reveals some information obtained while shopping for a baptism gift.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Here are some more idiomatic expressions from La Ladra. They involve music, horses, and sweets.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Matera is all about caves and grottoes. There were many natural caves that were expanded to be used as dwellings and churches, and other man-made grottoes as well.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
To finish up about relative pronouns, Daniela illustrates how we can use the adverb dove (where) to replace the relative pronoun in cui or nel quale, both of which mean "in which."
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Teresa and Libero go to the movies together, and things seem great. But Libero has something important to tell her, something she had no idea about.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Eva wakes up happier than Lorenzo does. Later, the girls discuss their plans for Biagini, but Eva seems distracted, somehow.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Manara is being closely watched, but that doesn't stop him from doing things his way. Actually, there are two cases to solve.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Idiomatic expressions are often difficult to translate or to find in a dictionary. Marika helps us out, using clips from La Ladra already present in Yabla's library.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Alberto Angela us takes back in time, to a city that came about in a totally different way: splendid Matera in Basilicata. It's definitely worth a trip.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
These relative pronouns can be very tricky for English speakers. Daniela gives us some good reasons (with examples) to prefer the more difficult, but more specific il quale, la quale, i quali and le quali, which can all mean "that, "which," "who," or "whom," depending on the context.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Anna tells us about the different varieties of rice found in Italy, and Marika completes the cooking of the risotto.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The "Lettera 22" portable typewriter is selling well, although Mauro isn't in complete agreement about the price. Libero and Teresa make some plans, and Mister Dalmasso comes around again.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Two romantic situations. One goes better than expected. The other, a bit less.
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