As promised, Marika talks about the verb tenere (to keep, to hold), beginning with its conjugation. Let's keep in mind that Italian tenses don't always correspond to the English ones. For example, the passato prossimo is conjugated like the English present perfect tense, but is used differently in expressing events in time. The imperfetto is translated various ways in English. See this lesson about the imperfetto.

People often wonder where the name ferragosto comes from, as well as the holiday itself. Marika fills us in with its fascinating history and evolution.

In Italy, August is the warmest month, and most Italians try to go on vacation for at least part of the month. The most important vacation day is August 15th, called Ferragosto.

Let's learn some numbers and colors in Italian.

In August of 2014, the European Space Agency Rosetta probe reached the comet 67/P. This mission allowed for the collection of a great deal of data about comets. In fact, in this episode, a comet will be fashioned out of fairly common ingredients in a normal kitchen. That's pretty exciting.

This segment talks about the difference between an asteroid and a comet. Important work is being done with the Hera and Dart missions to study how to deviate an asteroid, thus avoiding possible great damage to our beloved planet

This segment is all about so-called "Near-Earth Objects," called "NEOs" for short. They are comets, asteroids, metors and man-made objects, as well. What have they done in the past, and what might they do in the future?

Here are some more expressions featuring the verb vedere (to see). For non-native speakers, a few of them might be a little tricky to understand, but others might be very useful to learn and use.

Are you ready for plenty of expressions using the verb vedere (to see)? Andiamo a vedere (let's go see)!

Our final stop in the Baroque south of Italy is the church of San Giorgio, a masterpiece of architecture, admired by the entire world. The cathedral appears in the opening credits of the Italian TV series "Inspector Montalbano," and it also features in some episodes.

We take a deep dive into the common and very useful verb vedere (to see). First of all, we look at how it is conjugated. Then we go on to its meaning, as well as some expressions.

By observing the damage wrought by earthquakes, architects were able to figure out the best way to build churches to withstand future seismic events. So, in addition to the Baroque style present in cities like Ragusa, in Sicily, practical considerations were also at the source of certain architectural choices.

Omonimi (homonyms) look and sound the same but have different meanings, sometimes wildly different meanings!

Astronaut Luca Parmitano talks to us from the Columbus European Space Laboratory. He explains why tadpoles can help us learn a lot about the weightless conditions of outer space.

Our journey takes us to Modica, in Sicily, where the historic center of the city had to be rebuilt entirely because of an earthquake in 1693. There was also a great flood in the twentieth century, resulting in some other major changes in the layout of the city. It remains a beautiful Baroque city, full of wonders.