I have been struggling with the Italian language for over 26 years
now. At first I found nearly everything difficult to pronounce but now I have
become quite good at most words. The great thing about Italian is that, if you
know how to pronounce the letters, you can say the whole word - unlike in
English! So, the way to go about reading a long and complicated Italian word is
to go very slowly and enunciate each letter. Easy, isn't it?
Recently I had a delightful visit from a couple of friends who live near
Rome. I adore Romans as they do not mind so much when I forget to use double
letters. They are notorious for making the same mistake, so I can relax a bit.
With Tuscans I sometimes get so uptight about doubles that I end up making it
sound as if there are 3 or 4 of the tricky little things. Beer, for example, is birra. Easy, really easy, unless I am
trying too hard and end up saying birrrra, which makes me seem like a drunken
Scot or as if I have already imbibed too much!
As to place names, well it is harder to know how to pronounce most
English village names unless you were born there. With Italian you just have to
slow down and have a go.
So, one of my favourite places to visit and take my guests is Loro
Chiuffenna. The ch in Italian is pronounced as a hard
sound, like key. So our surname Parronchi is parronkey. However, if
followed by an i it gets tricky again and is pronounced
like ch in chips. Have I lost you yet?
Fortunately us locals cut the village name short by removing the name of
the River Chiuffenna and it is really VERY easy to say Loro :)
Another wonderful place, nestling in the Apennine mountains above Loro
C, is the hamlet of Chiassaia - ready? A hard ch like key, ass as in you are an ..., ai as in i and a final a!!!
Told you it was easy.
Anyway, once you find "the
hamlet that should not be named", you can relax and devour the best picnic
ever. I have been going up there for lunch ever since I met Guido and he has
been going there for over 50 years. I have photos from every summer taken up
there with the children as they grew up. I tried to find at least one photo as
proof but they were evasive and all I ended up with were very grimy fingers and
a new resolution to dust better. However, the little bottega has not changed at
all over the years. The tables seem like the same old uncomfortable ones and
have certainly seen much better days. The food cannot be faulted though. The sciacchiata bread (go on, have a go - you know the
rules now!!) is made on site and the cheeses and cold meats are all local. Wash
it all down with enough of the fantastic local wine or birrra and you will have
no more problems pronouncing anything!
2016
photo by Annie Spratt at Unsplash
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