Salumi
Salumi is not a term often heard outside of Italy, yet many of these products are found in specialty shops or Italian delicatessens and are used by cooks all over the world. Some, like prosciutto, need no introduction while others are not usually seen outside their motherland.
Hello folk! Are you up for a little Italian challenge? See how many of these you can get right!
Beware these are false friends and are here to catch you out!
1) Caldo means:
A) Roast B) Cold C) Hot
2) Camera means:
A) Sunroom B) Room C) Camera
3) Casino means:
A) Casino B) Small house C) Mess
4) Preservativo means:
A) Embankment B) Preservative
C) Condom
5) Confetti means:
A) Confetti B) Chickpeas C) Sugar coated almonds
Literature in Italy is often associated with different colours depending on the genre. The most striking example is that of the "Libri Gialli" or "Yellow Books". When, in 1929, the publishing house Mondadori started turning out mystery stories, the books had a striking yellow cover. Thereon, the term "Giallo" or "Yellow" became widely used to describe detective novels and later expanded to also mean thrillers and suspense literature.
Then we have the "romanzi neri" or "noir novels" a subcategory of the above, which is a darker story, usually more violent and sometimes narrated from the point of view of the killer.
The colour pink was linked to romantic novels and white was connected to science fiction when in 1952 Mondadori published its first science fiction series, Urania. Then we often have Brown for historical novels, green for the adventure genre and blue for travel books.
How To Say: Words of Endearment in Italian
Italians are warm and friendly people who like to express their affection and often use terms of endearment when talking to their family and friends and to children; often, they will use affectionate nicknames, like caro/a or bello/a, even with someone they don’t know well.
Here are some of the most common:
Caro/cara - dear
Tesoro – darling (translates literally to ‘treasure’)
Amore – love
Stella/stellina – literally, ‘star’
Gioia – literally, ‘joy’
Angelo – angel, to express gratitude, i.e. grazie per l’aiuto, sei un angelo – thanks for your help, you’re an angel.
Note that most of the following are especially used with children and between boyfriend and girlfriend:
Piccolo/a - Piccolino/a – little one
Tato/a – no meaning
Cucciolo/a – literally, ‘puppy’
Passerotto/a – literally, 'sparrow chick', used especially with and to refer to children, i.e. come stanno i passerotti? How are the kids?
Patatino/a – little potato
Topolino/a - little mouse