June 27, 2025 • 37 mins
Want to learn a little Italian for your trip? Enjoy this favorite episode featuring Michele Frolla from Intrepid Italian while we take a short mid year break.
Read the full episode show notes here > untolditaly.com/279
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The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke - yes there are two of us!
Support the show
Editorial Information
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke
Read the full episode show notes here > untolditaly.com/279
NEW! - the Untold Italy app - DOWNLOAD FOR iOS • DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID
The app is FREE to download and check out our Milan guide and general travel content. Upgrade to PREMIUM for a one time fee to access Rome, Florence, Venice, Sorrento, Cinque Terre, Amalfi Coast, Capri, Ischia, Tuscany, Lake Como, Lake Garda, Veneto, Lombardy, Campania, Lazio, Puglia, Abruzzo, Calabria with much more to come
Support the show
Join our mailing list and get our FREE Italy trip planning checklist - subscribe here | Join us on tour: Trip schedule | Discover our Trip Planning Services | Visit our online store | Follow: Instagram • Facebook • YouTube • Italy Travel Planning Community • Online travel assistant
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke - yes there are two of us!
Support the show
- Subscribe to our mailing list and get our FREE Italy trip planning toolkit - subscribe here
- Need help with your trip? Check out our Trip Planning Services
- Join us on tour. Browse our Trip schedule
Editorial Information
The Untold Italy travel podcast is an independent production. Podcast Editing, Audio Production and Website Development by Mark Hatter. Production Assistance and Content Writing by the other Katie Clarke
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're heading to Italy and a feeling nervous about
a language barrier, this episode is for you. We're covering simple,
useful Italian places that will help you feel more confident
and connected as you travel.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Tawatuti and Benvenuti Tuan Told Italy the travel podcast to
where you go to the towns and villages, mountains and lakes,
hills and coastlines of Bella, Italia. Each week, your host
Katie Clark takes you on a journey in a search
of magical landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course,
(00:38):
a whole lot of pasta. If you're dreaming of Italy
and planning future adventures there, you've come to the right place.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Dreaming of arriving in Italy is strolling into a gelatia
and ordering your gelato with confidence. If you've been learning
Italian with language apps but still can't string a sentence together,
it might be time to try another approach. My friend
Michelle from Intrepid Italian offers a practical way to learn
travel ready Italian. Thanks to her unique eighty twenty method,
(01:16):
Michelle teaches you exactly what you need to know to
connect with locals and have more authentic travel experiences. There's
no getting bogged down in awkward phrases and unnecessary grammar.
As an adult learner herself with Italian heritage, Michelle really
knows how to bridge the gap between English and Italian.
As Roma from London said, the learning methodology is great.
(01:39):
I progressed much faster in the last four weeks than
I ever did on my own or using other language apps.
To find out more and claim your free Italian travel
phrase guide, visit untold Italy dot com, forward slash Italian
or visit the link in the show notes. As a bonus,
you'll also get an exclusive twenty dollars coupon code to
use on any of Michelle's online self paced courses. So
(02:02):
visit untold Italy dot com, forward slash Italian and accelerate
your Italian language your journey today. Joo everyone, Katie here,
I'm heading to beautiful Italy to meet with the team
our local partners, do some research for our tours, and yes,
I will definitely squeeze in a few spritzers and gelato.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So over the next few weeks.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
We'll be replaying some of our most popular podcast episodes.
These are the ones that have had many thousands of
listeners and are popular for good reason. This week's is
especially helpful. It's all about the Italian phrases you actually
need to know when you travel.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
These aren't textbook stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
But real everyday words and expressions that will help you
order food, ask for directions, and connect with the people
you meet.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
If you're worried.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
About the language barrier, this episode will give you a
confidence boost before you go, and a quick reminder. If
you're planning a trip to Italy and need a little help,
we've got two great resources. The Untold Italy app is
packed with curated recommendations for plas is to eat, stay
and explore, all based on years of experience and local knowledge.
And if you'd like one on one help, our trip
(03:07):
consultation services are perfect for turning your ideas into a
solid plan. Check the links in your podcast app for
more details. All right, let's jump into the episode. Ben Venuta, Michelle,
Welcome back to the Untold Italy podcast.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Chuck Katies, good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Oh it's always always a pleasure. Now, Michelle, how have
you been? I know you've been somewhere exciting lately.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I just come back from three weeks in Florence.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Was there spending a lot of time going to see
all the sites but also things that.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Had caught my eye along the way.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Yeah, I took lots of photos, lots of videos, so
all that stuff would be up on the Intrepid Guide
and Intrepid Italian as well, which is where I teach Italian.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
So lots of exciting things to come.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Was there anything particularly favorite in you that you found
in Florence this time.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Well, it definitely gave me time to go and see
not just like r. Fitzi and Palazzo ve Cure, but
other sort of smaller museums. So I had time to
go to the Galilean Museum. But also I was able
to catch up with a few locals, which was nice.
I mean, it would take two time for me to
go into details now, but I made the short stories.
I made friends with the lady at the post office,
(04:22):
and I have a photo to prove it. She basically
bent over backwards to get me this stamp collection, because
growing up I collected coins and stamps. But she was
an absolute gem, and it was just it just reminded
me about the whole reason why I really want to
help people learn Italians because our whole exchange was in Italian.
She recognized the passion of me for stamps. She worked
(04:44):
at the post office. So it was those experiences. It
wasn't so much the sight scene that you know, obviously
I enjoyed, but it was these interactions with people that
I just love. And this is the whole reason of
why I love teaching Italian is to have these inter
actions with people that come out of nowhere, anytime, anywhere
that you just they just stay with you forever.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I love that made a connection with the stamp lady
from the post of Us.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, yeah, I met her husband and her friend Francesco,
and it was I couldn't believe it was happening. I
had to pinch myself. But that's why I got photos
because I'm like, no one's going to believe when I
tell them what has just happened.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And so you were there in February. So how was
it busy? Was there a lot of people? There's a
lot of visitors.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
I mean, Florence is kind of you know, it's a
smallish historical center, so it does feel naturally, you know,
when there are people there, you can feel it. It's
also during the time leading up to Carnevale. So it's
nowhere near as chaotic as Venice. Venice I saw at
the time when social media was just start Piano, which
is just overfall, like just overflowing the people Florence. It
(05:54):
didn't have that same sort of festive vibe obviously there's
Venice does. But you know, there are a few people,
and there were cues, but the queues were mainly on
the weekend. So I always organized all my like museums
and you know, any sort of day trips during the
week because it was naturally quieter. But I noticed I
went to the Bargello Museum during the week and it
(06:16):
was almost you know, in quotation marks dead. But then
on the weekend, on the say, there was this massive
queue around the building down the road, and like, is
something is there like a special a bit happening.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I don't know about, but it was because I.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Was there for three weekends, I could see how like
the flux of people would change. So yeah, I definitely
sort of time your museum trips for you know, during
the week if you can, just to take the edge
of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, I think, well, you know, probably maybe locals that
were having you know, going for the weekend. Maybe who knows,
But like it's so true about this timing and all
these little tips can really add up. All right, Michelle,
can you do your favor because.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Maybe he's some of our listeners.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I haven't met you yet, so maybe we'll give them
a quick introduction and I will later direct people to
the big long introduction. But if you could just introduce
yourself quickly and let everyone know how you came to
be teaching Italian.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Sure, well, very quickly if I can. From Melbourne, Australia,
just like you. My dad is Italian. I grew up
not speaking the language. I was named after my grandfather,
my non non, so my name is actually Nikai Lef
if you want to say it with the Italian pronunciation.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
He didn't speak English, I don't speak.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Italian, so when he passed away, it was sort of
like the final straw for me.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I felt really proud to carry.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
His name, but also guilty and disappointed in myself that
I never took the time to learn Italian. So thus
began my journey to learning Italian into my early twenties.
Then I eventually I moved to Rome. I lived there
for three or wonder four years, don't have a European
passport unfortunately, even though my dad was born in Italy.
So I decided to stay as close as I could
(07:57):
to Europe in Italy, and I came to London, which
is where I'm base now, and I started the Intrepid Guide,
which is basically a way for me to help others
learn languages, specifically for travel. And then in more recent years,
I've decided to focus more on Italy and Italian because
it's my heritage, my passion.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
My love in life.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
So now I run the website, the Intrepid Guide, but
I also have different channels either for general language learning
but also specifically for learning Italian. So Intrepid Italian is
where I teach daily lessons on Instagram, I have language
courses that use my eighty twenty method, and there's a
separate YouTube channel as well to teach Italian. So yeah,
(08:37):
this is also to stem from my passion for Italy
Italian and wanting to help others have these connections like
I was talking about before, in the post office in Italy,
the post office in the Vizzi Gallery in Florence.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Oh, that's exactly where we were, and I'm sure Maria
meets a lot of people every day, and you know,
I think it's really special when some one's probably dealing
with a lot of foot traffic to make a connection
like that, it sounds really special.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
And it turns out that she's from a neighboring Well,
she's from the same region as my dad.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
So my dad's from.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Pullia, but he's in the area of Fodger so in
a little village there. She's also from there. It turns out,
because I'm like, your accent isn't Florentine, Like you don't
have like that Tuscan twang, that I be recognized, and
she's like, no, I'm from Bouvio, you know, from this
little town in Pullia. Turns out it's right near where
my dad is from.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So it was meant to be. It was meant to be.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So Michelle, I thought i'd ask you back again onto
the podcast because as we know, a lot of people
are heading off to Italy in the next few months
and maybe they want to brush up on their Italian
and I know that you're all about quick results, which
this is what I love, because you know, I think
everyone wants to make a bit of progress. So I
thought maybe we could focus on a few key phrases
(09:56):
that will be useful for anyone traveling Italy.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
What do you think, Yes, let's do it. Absolutely, I
love this.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I'll be your student.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Okay, okay, So we'll go through about eight phrases. Now
I'm going to assume, and I don't like to assume,
but for the purpose of this is the second time
that we've been chatting about this sort of thing. I'm
going to assume that people know the word chao choo
can mean hello and goodbye. Are you familiar with this term?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I hope because I.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Always sign off with chao for now, so hopefully they yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
So I'm going to skip the ones because these are
the ones that I'm going to assume that you already know.
You've heard it through yourself or through movies or whatever.
So chao you can use for hello and goodbye, you
can also use it, you know, like chao grazia.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So grazzia is.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Also another one, which you know it means thank you.
But the pronunciation I'm just going to to touch on
here for a moment. It's not gratzi, it's grasier grasier.
So every letter in a time needs to be sounded.
So know that Grasier has an I E ending, so
it's not like in English where we can just sort
(11:06):
of roll these letters together.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
They need to be sounded. So Grazia is a really.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Nice one, so you can combine Chao Grazier is a
way to say goodbye when you're leaving a restaurant or
a shop, especially if the shop is small and there's
only maybe you and a couple of other clients in there.
It's a nice way to say goodbye, and it's an
easy one to remember.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So we've got cho, We've got.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Gra and then C and no is yes and no
so C it's got an accent, so it's a hard
sort of it's not C, it's C and then not,
so it's not like.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
No like an Aussie Oh.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
It's an oh sound, so it's C and not so Chao, cn,
not and grasier. I'm going to assume that these are
somewhat familiar to you, so I'm not going to include
these and the eight phrases that we're going to look
at the ones that I want to focus on. These
are basically like sentence starters. These are ways that you
can ask questions, you can use gestures, you can use
(12:08):
the English word to fill in the rest of the sentence.
This is just to sort of let the other person
know what you're talking about, and also just to be
able to play around with the language a little bit
and have a little bit of fun. So a lot
of these are quite short, so I'll give you a
couple examples with each of them where I can.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Okay, So the first one is.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
When keeping in mind this is in the context of
traveling to Italy, so we're focusing ones that you're going
to be using a lot.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You're going to be asking for things.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
You're going to be asking for tickets, for food, for directions,
all these sorts of things. So with that in mind,
the first word, which is a sentence starter, is oray voray.
This is I would like.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
So do you want to have a girl saying.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Foray oraay beautiful? Now this I'm just going to touch
on this for a moment.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Some people are a little bit shy.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
They may not be able to roll their ars, just
like we both have just done. Now that's okay. It's
some Italians can a lot of Italians can't do it either.
It's called the eremusha, which means it's like a soft r.
If you have trouble with your as, that's okay. You
can practice it by saying the letters T l A
really quickly, and you can practice that you get you know,
(13:25):
you can progressively start slow and then going faster, or
you can just linger a little bit longer on your
natural as sound just so it.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Hits the syllables.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
So vora means I would like so to follow this up,
you can say things like unjelato.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
What did I just say it, Katie.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I would like a gelato, which I say exactly so
you can start to use this.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
You can say this, but allose sorts of viewd items.
If you're in a restaurant, you may want to remember that.
You can say ill conto, ill conto soy il konto,
and that means the bill ilto.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So good, so good.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
If you forget the word for il konto, you can
use the International Sign language for writing something in the air.
You can just say and then you know, write something
in the air with your imaginary pen.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
That's okay.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
But if you want that extra vokave, I've just given
it to you, so it's foray ill conto then you've
got things like you know, obviously your food items unjelato
on cafe so which is just a standard espresso coffee,
So you can start to play with it. So in
your own time, you may want to write these phrases
down as well, just to sort of practice. You can
(14:43):
also when you go into your museum, you can say
how many tickets you want or that you need, and
the word for tickets.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Is bilietti bilieti.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
So you can have a go that. You can say
one or two tickets, so one is un in this context,
or do it for two? So how many tickets would
you like, Katie, So yeah, you can you can say
that way too. You can say ray, do it bilietti,
(15:15):
or you can just say do it bilietti. And then
you can add something on the end, which is another
phrase pair pere, which literally means for a favor, favor
favor pair four, So you can say please. This is
how Italians say please for a favor, you know, will
(15:36):
you do this for me peti or you can put
the p.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
At the end.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, it's nice. It's it's like we do in English.
We mix things around me and just for everyone that's listening,
we will actually write all these phrases down for you
into the show notes so that you've got a little
cheat cheek there so you can practice yourself.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Absolutely, okay, so let's go on to the next one.
The next one is when you're asking for the location
of something, either for a monumental museum or if you're
in the restaurant, where are the toilets?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Where is the water closet?
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Where is the bathroom?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
So this word is dovert dovert?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
This is literally where is and it's written it's got
a couple of accents. It's got an accent, and it's
got an apostrophe, which visually, once you see it written
down in the show notes, it'll make more sense. But
if you remember sort of the word of dove do ov,
this is the spelling, but dovert is how it's pronounced,
So you can think of where is the dove? If
(16:39):
you're trying to remember, how do you ask you know,
where is something?
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Oh dove? Where is the dove?
Speaker 4 (16:43):
You can say dovet ill bagno, that's for the bathroom,
the toilet, dovet ilbagno. Or if you're asking for you know,
where is the drmal dovet ill dormal. So do you
want to have a saying those.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Two dove.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Dovet dorm Yes, because I've just come from Florence.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So dorm where is it?
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Dorvet is when you're asking for the location of something,
so it could be lastason it the station, you know,
where is that? So Forrey, I would like and dolvert
where is? These are like the two sentence starters that
you can think of. Okay, the next one is when
you're shopping. This is going to happen a lot. Either
(17:30):
you're shopping or you're paying for something in some capacity.
You want to know how much something costs. So this
one is a complete sentence. It's quanto costa quant door
costa quanto in the sense of quantity and costa sounds
like cost, right, so quantity cost you can think about
it that way. I'm trying to create these little memory hooks,
(17:51):
which is important way for you to help you to
remember these things. You can create your own memory hooks.
I've just sort of come up with some little you know,
off the cuff one is here to help. But yeah,
quant costa as a question, how much does it cost?
Speaker 3 (18:05):
So this is what you would ask quant costa, quant costa.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Yeah, quant do costa exactly. And then if you I said,
this one a lot, And this is why I've included it.
It's if you want to pay by card, not necessarily
in cash, use card because I can get points. This
is easier to track my finances. So this one's a
little bit longer, so I'm going to break it down
for you. So this is can I pay by card?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Posso? So? Can i?
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Pagare is to pay, pagare to pay, so the p
pay pagare con which is with and cartaca is card
so posso pagare con carta?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Can I or may I pay with card?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Do you want to have a saying that posso posso
pagare bagati con cone carta carta so.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Can I pay? Or may I pay? By card? So?
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Yeah, Posso is also a nice one just to use
on its own. Posso on its own you can ask
if you want to sit down somewhere, You say your
point to the seat and say possa like can I sit?
That's what you're applying. So it's a really good one
to remember.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Oh I like this one, and I think this is
a really good one. If you want to.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Take a taxi yes, you want to check first because
sometimes they don't like it, even though legally they do
need to take card conkata before you get in that taxi.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Otherwise it's a really good one. You might not have cash.
I don't carry a lot of cash when I travel.
I don't know about you, Michelle, but I definitely don't.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So yeah, I'm more of a card person these days
where I can. Yeah, and if you want to be specific,
this is another level. If you have an American Express
that don't always accept it, you can say American Express.
You just sort of put in an Italian twang around
the American Express because it's the same name. They just
(20:12):
pronounce it, so you have to adjust it to their pronunciation.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So yeah, you can't say that too.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
I would definitely check American Express. And Diners.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Yeah, oh Diners.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, yeah, I know, blast from the past, but some
people still use it.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I haven't heard that name in years.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I think I had one in my corporate days. I
had of diners.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Let's do a quick recap of what we've got so far. Okay,
so the first one we had was Ray, which means
I would like very good, I would like. The next
one we had was dovet What does dovett mean?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Where is?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Where? Is? So good?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
The next one we had, which I kind of included there,
But the third one was per favor?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Please?
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Literally for a favor, So for a favor please? Yeah,
that helps you to remember it. And then we had
quant da costa? How much quant costa?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah? How much is it? How much does it cost?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
And then we just had poss or pagat con character?
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Can I pay by card?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Excellent? So good?
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Okay, so we've got three more. The next one, I'm
giving you two here because they mean two different things,
even though we sort of have like the same word
in English, so we would say excuse me to get attention,
excuse me to get past someone. In Italian, they have
different ways of doing this. Now I'll give you the
formal version, which is something that Italians use a lot.
(21:43):
They use the formal for speaking to people that are
strangers or people of authority such as policemen, doctors, and
so on.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
So this is misschoosy.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Misscoosy is just like saying it sounds like saying excuse
me in English. So this is why it's a good
one to learn. Misschoosie, is the formal version. You may
have also heard the schools are me, which is the
informal version. If you can only remember one, then try
and remember Misschoozie to be more polite. But if you
use schools on me, nothing bad is going to happen.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
They're not going to walk away.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
The times are very forgiving. They just appreciate any effort
that you make. Okay, So yeah, Miss Schoosie, you can
use this to get someone's attention, you know, if you
want to get attention, if you want to maybe apologize,
like oh, Misschoozie, you know, if you're in someone's way
or you're bumped into someone. So that's a good one,
so Miss Schoosie. And the next one is when we
(22:41):
say we want to get past someone. You might be
on the bus, or you're in a line, or you
want to get in front of someone.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
You need to ask permission.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Per mess or permiss or is how you ask to
get past someone. And it's a polite way to say,
you know, may I get past? Permission is basically what
you're saying. So do you want to have a go
at saying these two?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
So we've got.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Miss Woozy, Miss guzzi yeah, and then we've got parameso permesso,
p yeah, permesso, just like a question, parmeo may I
get past? This is a good one to use on
like busy transportation. I've used it quite a lot, but
also on busy streets. You know, if you're visiting Italy
(23:26):
and it's very crowded, you might need to say this
a lot. You can't always assume that they're English speakers,
but you have a mixture of all different nationalities.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I had to use it in the coliseum because my
daughter really needed to go to the bathroom, and luckily
and they were very I mean there were a lot
of Italians, and in particular the guides. They pricked their
ears up and could hear that someone needed some help.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
So you just put to know that word yeah absolutely.
And then you can start to combine these phrases. Once
you have them, when you download them from your show notes,
you can start to play around with them and form sentences.
So then you can start to say misschoolzi dolvet elbago,
so you can start to join them together. Misschoozie quanto costa.
(24:13):
Like if you're at a market and you're pointing to something.
You know, you're looking at the leather bags in Florence,
and you know you're looking at something, you can say, oh, Misschoolzie,
you know, can I get their attention?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Quanto costa and then you can point at the item.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
So you can start to play around with these these
phrases in these words, which is why I've chosen them.
So yeah, it can start having a bit of fun
with them.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
So the next one is prego. Prego is a really wonderful,
versatile Italian word, and I've included this because it's something
that you will may not say as much as you
will hear a lot, and you'll hear it in lots
of different contexts. It means literally, it means I pray, prego,
(24:54):
I pray. It means come in like please, come in
like prego. You also mean next please. If you're waiting
in a queue and they'll say, oh next, you know,
pray go like, and it'll say, like, you know, it's usually.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Like a high pitch pray go like, comeover.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
And it's also you're welcome, which is the one that
you're probably most familiar with if you've heard it. You're welcome.
So if you say grass to someone thank you. They'll
say pray go like you're welcome. So this is a
really nice versatile word that my students have sort of
I've heard prego are used in this way, but I
know what does it mean? Well, these are all the
(25:30):
meanings that it has. If you hear it, generally know
that it's a positive thing. It's either come in or
come over, or you're welcome. You'll hear it in restaurants
they'll be like, pray I go, like tell me what
you want to eat and they'll take your order. So
one way to remember this is this is something that
we used to say in like very British Old English,
(25:50):
not old Old English, but like seventeen eighteen hundreds English,
where if you think of Jane Austin, they would say
things like pray tell, you know, like that sort of
where they say pray tell. It's the same use in Italian,
like they'll say prayer God dim me. They'll say like,
pray tell, like it's the same pray in English as
(26:11):
they use it in Italian. It's to get your attention,
like please come in or next please, or you're welcome.
So try and think of the prayer God the same
way that we used pray in English if you're thinking
of Jane Austen and English from the seventeen hundreds.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah, that's a good one. Pray go, pray good.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
And then the last one is a simplified version of
how you can introduce yourself. So say like you've had
an exchange like I did the post office with Maria,
or you're just having it, got a conversation with someone
anywhere really, and you want to introduce yourself or they
are they'll ask you, you know, call me tikiami. Now
this is one that you'll hear, call me tikiami is
(26:52):
how do.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
You call yourself?
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Is literally what they're saying, call me, how tea you
or yourself? Kiam How do you call yourself? Now, I'm
gonna say this one. You don't need to remember how
to say it, but just remember what it sounds like,
because if you hear it, then you know how to
respond and you can just say me chiamo, I call myself,
(27:15):
or a shorter version is and then you can say
your name, so son no Michelle, I am Michelle. If
you're familiar with Spanish, it's soy s o y. In Italian,
it's a very similar version it's son or s O
N S. So this is the way that you can
introduce yourself. You can use it when you show up
(27:35):
to your accommodation. You can say Chao son Michelle. So
you can start to mix these all right. So this
is just something I wanted to include for any sort
of interactions that you have. So you may hear someone
ask you, you know, call me Tami, what is your name,
and you can say either me Kiamo, I call myself Michelle,
(27:59):
Mikiamo Michelle or Michelle.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
I am Michelle.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Do you want to have a go at saying either
of those?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah, Mikia so no gy perfect, so good.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
It's so funny though, because Italians really struggle with Katie
because it's a that a is not a real sound
in Italian.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Ah, yeah, I find.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
So I get called CUTI a lot catti.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Yeah, it's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But it's just like, you know, just as we struggle
with the rolling the r's sometimes that they had those
sounds that they haven't grown up with actually, so it's
hard to you know, expect them to be able to
say that when it's not a natural sound to speak.
And I appreciate that. So my ayes are rolling so well.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
You know what, we all have our insecurities, and I
don't want anyone to feel insecure about, you know, your
accent or any sort of what stage.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
You're at in your journey to learning Italian.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
You know, we judge ourselves more than others judge us,
So it's important to remember that if you make the effort,
it's always going to be appreciated.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
I love that it's so true because I think that's,
if I'm honest with myself, the number one thing that's
holding me back from speaking Italian. So I can understand
a lot of Italian, but speaking is a whole another matter.
And I think, you know, I'm very hard on myself
because of my accent and what I perceive to be
(29:31):
my accent and I don't even know because I don't
have that.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Audible lens at all.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
So yeah, it's really it's a really thing that you've
got to let go of, I think, and just have
a go and try. Hey, Michelle, I've got a question.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
There is one word.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It's actually my favorite word in Italian, but you hear
it all the time and it's just so funny because
you're just like, oh, what are they talking about and
they go, oh, Laura, how.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Do I know you're going to say that? Oh Laura.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Yeah, Laura is very versatile, just like ago is a lorda.
It literally just means so, so it's sort of like,
you know, moving on a Laura. You know, oh well,
So it depends on the context again, what it means.
It can mean, oh well, a Lura or a lorda
like let's go sort of a thing, you know, sort
of changing topic of conversation, let's go, well, let's go
(30:22):
and do this, So a lort I can also mean
at the time, at that time, yadda YadA. So yeah,
it's a it's a good versatile one. But nothing bad
is happening, so it's okay.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Especially if your name is Laura. They're going, oh Laura.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
But I feel like they say it a lot when
they're thinking or they're just trying to work out what
to say next.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yeah Laura be like oh.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
It's like how we sort of drag out saying so
in English, so you know, like let's go a lotta
andam like you know what I mean. Like it's a
very similar use in that sense.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah, I do think that's so is very Australian. So
so yeah, oh, Michelle, thank you so much. I think
this has been so fun and just I love the
way you teach and all your little tips and you
know what, I for our listeners, what I really love
about Michelle's approach is not only does she focus on
(31:24):
those quick results and the relevant info that you need,
because you know, I find some of these Italian courses
they're giving you stuff that you don't really need to
know when you're traveling, and so Michelle keeps everything super relevant.
But she's also so much fun, which is exactly the
way it should be, I think. Anyway, So Michelle, people
want to like they've been having fun with our little
(31:46):
language lesson. Here a little Italian lesson. How can they
brush up a little bit more on their Italian?
Speaker 5 (31:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:54):
So I have different online language courses for learning Italians.
So depending on what your goal is, I have one
of my courses is specifically designed for those that are
traveling to Italy quite soon. So this is my intrepid
time for a travel course, and it's something that can
be completed and as little as two weeks. Basically you
can take you know, you can take longer, you can
(32:15):
take a short amount of time to complete it.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
It's totally up to you.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Everything is self paced their video lessons, so you can,
you know, allow yourself at least two weeks to go
through that content and to practice it, or if you've
got months.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
You know you can.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
You can also spread it out over that time, give
you some time to revise or review that content. But
if you are a bit more serious about learning, your
time and you want to get to that sort of
more confident conversations where you can bounce off the other person,
that's when I have my more in depth language courses.
So Interpreted Time for Beginners A one, Interpreted Time for
(32:51):
Advanced beginners A two, and Interpreted Time for.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Intermediates B one.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
So if you're not familiar with the A one, A two,
B one, it's basically how the European languages are broken
down into six levels. So it's A one, A two,
B one, B two C one C two C two.
Being you know you're fluent, you're a very confident, confident speaker,
you can probably do translation at that point. A one
(33:16):
is you know your beginning. B one is a really
good level. It means that you can have a lot
of flexibility with your conversations that you're having with people.
You can understand what's being said. If you're not quite sure,
you can ask for clarification. It's the level that you
need if you want to apply for university or if
your partner or spouse is going for a partnership visa,
(33:37):
they need to pass a level test to get that visa.
So yeah, it's B one is the level I had
when I moved to Italy, So it's a really good
level to reach. And then after that it's more about
just like polishing your your grammar and your vocabulary and
all of that. So if that's something that you want
to aim for, that's the other level I that I
go up to. So yeah, from travel to proficient speakers,
(34:00):
there's this course for everyone. They're all self paced to
get lifetime access. You get support from me and other
students in the community. We're over a thousand students now,
which is really exciting. Yeah, and there's lots of people,
you know, similar to me with the Italian heritage, lots
of people that just love Italy, and that's what it's
all about.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
If you love.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
Italy, if you have any sort of interest in you know,
learning it for your partner, for travel, for yourself. It
would be wonderful to welcome you into the Interrepid Italian community. Yeah,
you can find out more on my Instagram account. I
have daily lessons that I post there at Intrepid Italian
and my website, the Intrepid Guides Intrepid Italian dot com,
(34:40):
to me my YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
It never ends.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, she's everywhere any good way. Yeah, it's amazing, Michelle.
Congratulations on everything that you're doing to bring the Italian
language to the people of world. And it's just such
a beautiful language, I think, and as Michelle mentioned, the
appreciation that you actually trying, even if you're stumbling over
(35:04):
a few people just think it's amazing that you're trying,
and they really really appreciate it. So do you have
a go and practice.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Your d'orvease and your voras.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
And rolling your eyes your gon thorpe out the water
and it always gives something back when you're learning your language.
And so Michelle, I really appreciate you sharing those tips
with us today and those phrases. It's been really great
and I can't wait to have you back on the
show another time.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Wonderful. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Oppresto chao teut Michelle.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
How did you go with that little lesson? Were you
rolling your eys like a pro? It doesn't matter if
you can't do it just yet, everyone in Italy appreciates
that you have a go and at least have made
an effort to learn their beautiful language. As Michelle mentioned,
she has a specific course especially for travelers to help
get you up to speed before your trip. All it
(36:00):
takes is as little as two weeks of practice to
get you travel ready with Italian. We put a link
to the travel course into your podcast app and our
show notes at untold Italy dot com Forward slash one
sixty four for episode number one hundred and sixty four.
As well, we've also added Michelle's social channels where you
can follow along with her fun daily classes. Thanks for
(36:22):
your ongoing support of Untold Italy. We truly appreciate all
of you, our listeners joining us from around the world,
and our special Untold Italy AMCHI members. We'd love it
if you help spread the words so we can reach
more Italy loving travelers just like you, and the best
way that you can do this is by leaving us
a five star rating or review on your favorite podcast app,
(36:44):
or forwarding this episode onto a friend who also loves
colorful towns, delightful local customs, and the magic of regional Italy.
That's all for this week. Next time, I'm getting some
specific trip advice for our upcoming travels in South Tyrol
and the Dollar Mites with our friend kitin BNN from
Thrown and Vine. But until then, it's chow for now.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
The Untold Italy podcast is an independent production podcast editing,
audio production and website development by Mark Hatter, Production assistance
and content writing by the Are they kJ Clark?
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Yes, there are two of us.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
For more information about Untold Italy, please visit Untold Italy
dot com.
If you're heading to Italy and a feeling nervous about
a language barrier, this episode is for you. We're covering simple,
useful Italian places that will help you feel more confident
and connected as you travel.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Tawatuti and Benvenuti Tuan Told Italy the travel podcast to
where you go to the towns and villages, mountains and lakes,
hills and coastlines of Bella, Italia. Each week, your host
Katie Clark takes you on a journey in a search
of magical landscapes, history, culture, wine, gelato, and of course,
(00:38):
a whole lot of pasta. If you're dreaming of Italy
and planning future adventures there, you've come to the right place.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Dreaming of arriving in Italy is strolling into a gelatia
and ordering your gelato with confidence. If you've been learning
Italian with language apps but still can't string a sentence together,
it might be time to try another approach. My friend
Michelle from Intrepid Italian offers a practical way to learn
travel ready Italian. Thanks to her unique eighty twenty method,
(01:16):
Michelle teaches you exactly what you need to know to
connect with locals and have more authentic travel experiences. There's
no getting bogged down in awkward phrases and unnecessary grammar.
As an adult learner herself with Italian heritage, Michelle really
knows how to bridge the gap between English and Italian.
As Roma from London said, the learning methodology is great.
(01:39):
I progressed much faster in the last four weeks than
I ever did on my own or using other language apps.
To find out more and claim your free Italian travel
phrase guide, visit untold Italy dot com, forward slash Italian
or visit the link in the show notes. As a bonus,
you'll also get an exclusive twenty dollars coupon code to
use on any of Michelle's online self paced courses. So
(02:02):
visit untold Italy dot com, forward slash Italian and accelerate
your Italian language your journey today. Joo everyone, Katie here,
I'm heading to beautiful Italy to meet with the team
our local partners, do some research for our tours, and yes,
I will definitely squeeze in a few spritzers and gelato.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So over the next few weeks.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
We'll be replaying some of our most popular podcast episodes.
These are the ones that have had many thousands of
listeners and are popular for good reason. This week's is
especially helpful. It's all about the Italian phrases you actually
need to know when you travel.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
These aren't textbook stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
But real everyday words and expressions that will help you
order food, ask for directions, and connect with the people
you meet.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
If you're worried.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
About the language barrier, this episode will give you a
confidence boost before you go, and a quick reminder. If
you're planning a trip to Italy and need a little help,
we've got two great resources. The Untold Italy app is
packed with curated recommendations for plas is to eat, stay
and explore, all based on years of experience and local knowledge.
And if you'd like one on one help, our trip
(03:07):
consultation services are perfect for turning your ideas into a
solid plan. Check the links in your podcast app for
more details. All right, let's jump into the episode. Ben Venuta, Michelle,
Welcome back to the Untold Italy podcast.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
Chuck Katies, good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Oh it's always always a pleasure. Now, Michelle, how have
you been? I know you've been somewhere exciting lately.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
I just come back from three weeks in Florence.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Was there spending a lot of time going to see
all the sites but also things that.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Had caught my eye along the way.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Yeah, I took lots of photos, lots of videos, so
all that stuff would be up on the Intrepid Guide
and Intrepid Italian as well, which is where I teach Italian.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
So lots of exciting things to come.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Was there anything particularly favorite in you that you found
in Florence this time.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Well, it definitely gave me time to go and see
not just like r. Fitzi and Palazzo ve Cure, but
other sort of smaller museums. So I had time to
go to the Galilean Museum. But also I was able
to catch up with a few locals, which was nice.
I mean, it would take two time for me to
go into details now, but I made the short stories.
I made friends with the lady at the post office,
(04:22):
and I have a photo to prove it. She basically
bent over backwards to get me this stamp collection, because
growing up I collected coins and stamps. But she was
an absolute gem, and it was just it just reminded
me about the whole reason why I really want to
help people learn Italians because our whole exchange was in Italian.
She recognized the passion of me for stamps. She worked
(04:44):
at the post office. So it was those experiences. It
wasn't so much the sight scene that you know, obviously
I enjoyed, but it was these interactions with people that
I just love. And this is the whole reason of
why I love teaching Italian is to have these inter
actions with people that come out of nowhere, anytime, anywhere
that you just they just stay with you forever.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
I love that made a connection with the stamp lady
from the post of Us.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Yeah, yeah, I met her husband and her friend Francesco,
and it was I couldn't believe it was happening. I
had to pinch myself. But that's why I got photos
because I'm like, no one's going to believe when I
tell them what has just happened.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
And so you were there in February. So how was
it busy? Was there a lot of people? There's a
lot of visitors.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
I mean, Florence is kind of you know, it's a
smallish historical center, so it does feel naturally, you know,
when there are people there, you can feel it. It's
also during the time leading up to Carnevale. So it's
nowhere near as chaotic as Venice. Venice I saw at
the time when social media was just start Piano, which
is just overfall, like just overflowing the people Florence. It
(05:54):
didn't have that same sort of festive vibe obviously there's
Venice does. But you know, there are a few people,
and there were cues, but the queues were mainly on
the weekend. So I always organized all my like museums
and you know, any sort of day trips during the
week because it was naturally quieter. But I noticed I
went to the Bargello Museum during the week and it
(06:16):
was almost you know, in quotation marks dead. But then
on the weekend, on the say, there was this massive
queue around the building down the road, and like, is
something is there like a special a bit happening.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I don't know about, but it was because I.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
Was there for three weekends, I could see how like
the flux of people would change. So yeah, I definitely
sort of time your museum trips for you know, during
the week if you can, just to take the edge
of Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, I think, well, you know, probably maybe locals that
were having you know, going for the weekend. Maybe who knows,
But like it's so true about this timing and all
these little tips can really add up. All right, Michelle,
can you do your favor because.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Maybe he's some of our listeners.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I haven't met you yet, so maybe we'll give them
a quick introduction and I will later direct people to
the big long introduction. But if you could just introduce
yourself quickly and let everyone know how you came to
be teaching Italian.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Sure, well, very quickly if I can. From Melbourne, Australia,
just like you. My dad is Italian. I grew up
not speaking the language. I was named after my grandfather,
my non non, so my name is actually Nikai Lef
if you want to say it with the Italian pronunciation.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
He didn't speak English, I don't speak.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Italian, so when he passed away, it was sort of
like the final straw for me.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
I felt really proud to carry.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
His name, but also guilty and disappointed in myself that
I never took the time to learn Italian. So thus
began my journey to learning Italian into my early twenties.
Then I eventually I moved to Rome. I lived there
for three or wonder four years, don't have a European
passport unfortunately, even though my dad was born in Italy.
So I decided to stay as close as I could
(07:57):
to Europe in Italy, and I came to London, which
is where I'm base now, and I started the Intrepid Guide,
which is basically a way for me to help others
learn languages, specifically for travel. And then in more recent years,
I've decided to focus more on Italy and Italian because
it's my heritage, my passion.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
My love in life.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
So now I run the website, the Intrepid Guide, but
I also have different channels either for general language learning
but also specifically for learning Italian. So Intrepid Italian is
where I teach daily lessons on Instagram, I have language
courses that use my eighty twenty method, and there's a
separate YouTube channel as well to teach Italian. So yeah,
(08:37):
this is also to stem from my passion for Italy
Italian and wanting to help others have these connections like
I was talking about before, in the post office in Italy,
the post office in the Vizzi Gallery in Florence.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Oh, that's exactly where we were, and I'm sure Maria
meets a lot of people every day, and you know,
I think it's really special when some one's probably dealing
with a lot of foot traffic to make a connection
like that, it sounds really special.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
And it turns out that she's from a neighboring Well,
she's from the same region as my dad.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
So my dad's from.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
Pullia, but he's in the area of Fodger so in
a little village there. She's also from there. It turns out,
because I'm like, your accent isn't Florentine, Like you don't
have like that Tuscan twang, that I be recognized, and
she's like, no, I'm from Bouvio, you know, from this
little town in Pullia. Turns out it's right near where
my dad is from.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
So it was meant to be. It was meant to be.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
So Michelle, I thought i'd ask you back again onto
the podcast because as we know, a lot of people
are heading off to Italy in the next few months
and maybe they want to brush up on their Italian
and I know that you're all about quick results, which
this is what I love, because you know, I think
everyone wants to make a bit of progress. So I
thought maybe we could focus on a few key phrases
(09:56):
that will be useful for anyone traveling Italy.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
What do you think, Yes, let's do it. Absolutely, I
love this.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I'll be your student.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Okay, okay, So we'll go through about eight phrases. Now
I'm going to assume, and I don't like to assume,
but for the purpose of this is the second time
that we've been chatting about this sort of thing. I'm
going to assume that people know the word chao choo
can mean hello and goodbye. Are you familiar with this term?
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I hope because I.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Always sign off with chao for now, so hopefully they yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
So I'm going to skip the ones because these are
the ones that I'm going to assume that you already know.
You've heard it through yourself or through movies or whatever.
So chao you can use for hello and goodbye, you
can also use it, you know, like chao grazia.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
So grazzia is.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Also another one, which you know it means thank you.
But the pronunciation I'm just going to to touch on
here for a moment. It's not gratzi, it's grasier grasier.
So every letter in a time needs to be sounded.
So know that Grasier has an I E ending, so
it's not like in English where we can just sort
(11:06):
of roll these letters together.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
They need to be sounded. So Grazia is a really.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Nice one, so you can combine Chao Grazier is a
way to say goodbye when you're leaving a restaurant or
a shop, especially if the shop is small and there's
only maybe you and a couple of other clients in there.
It's a nice way to say goodbye, and it's an
easy one to remember.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
So we've got cho, We've got.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Gra and then C and no is yes and no
so C it's got an accent, so it's a hard
sort of it's not C, it's C and then not,
so it's not like.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
No like an Aussie Oh.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
It's an oh sound, so it's C and not so Chao, cn,
not and grasier. I'm going to assume that these are
somewhat familiar to you, so I'm not going to include
these and the eight phrases that we're going to look
at the ones that I want to focus on. These
are basically like sentence starters. These are ways that you
can ask questions, you can use gestures, you can use
(12:08):
the English word to fill in the rest of the sentence.
This is just to sort of let the other person
know what you're talking about, and also just to be
able to play around with the language a little bit
and have a little bit of fun. So a lot
of these are quite short, so I'll give you a
couple examples with each of them where I can.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Okay, So the first one is.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
When keeping in mind this is in the context of
traveling to Italy, so we're focusing ones that you're going
to be using a lot.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You're going to be asking for things.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
You're going to be asking for tickets, for food, for directions,
all these sorts of things. So with that in mind,
the first word, which is a sentence starter, is oray voray.
This is I would like.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
So do you want to have a girl saying.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Foray oraay beautiful? Now this I'm just going to touch
on this for a moment.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Some people are a little bit shy.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
They may not be able to roll their ars, just
like we both have just done. Now that's okay. It's
some Italians can a lot of Italians can't do it either.
It's called the eremusha, which means it's like a soft r.
If you have trouble with your as, that's okay. You
can practice it by saying the letters T l A
really quickly, and you can practice that you get you know,
(13:25):
you can progressively start slow and then going faster, or
you can just linger a little bit longer on your
natural as sound just so it.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Hits the syllables.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
So vora means I would like so to follow this up,
you can say things like unjelato.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
What did I just say it, Katie.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I would like a gelato, which I say exactly so
you can start to use this.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
You can say this, but allose sorts of viewd items.
If you're in a restaurant, you may want to remember that.
You can say ill conto, ill conto soy il konto,
and that means the bill ilto.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So good, so good.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
If you forget the word for il konto, you can
use the International Sign language for writing something in the air.
You can just say and then you know, write something
in the air with your imaginary pen.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
That's okay.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
But if you want that extra vokave, I've just given
it to you, so it's foray ill conto then you've
got things like you know, obviously your food items unjelato
on cafe so which is just a standard espresso coffee,
So you can start to play with it. So in
your own time, you may want to write these phrases
down as well, just to sort of practice. You can
(14:43):
also when you go into your museum, you can say
how many tickets you want or that you need, and
the word for tickets.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Is bilietti bilieti.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
So you can have a go that. You can say
one or two tickets, so one is un in this context,
or do it for two? So how many tickets would
you like, Katie, So yeah, you can you can say
that way too. You can say ray, do it bilietti,
(15:15):
or you can just say do it bilietti. And then
you can add something on the end, which is another
phrase pair pere, which literally means for a favor, favor
favor pair four, So you can say please. This is
how Italians say please for a favor, you know, will
(15:36):
you do this for me peti or you can put
the p.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
At the end.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, it's nice. It's it's like we do in English.
We mix things around me and just for everyone that's listening,
we will actually write all these phrases down for you
into the show notes so that you've got a little
cheat cheek there so you can practice yourself.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Absolutely, okay, so let's go on to the next one.
The next one is when you're asking for the location
of something, either for a monumental museum or if you're
in the restaurant, where are the toilets?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Where is the water closet?
Speaker 4 (16:13):
Where is the bathroom?
Speaker 3 (16:14):
So this word is dovert dovert?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
This is literally where is and it's written it's got
a couple of accents. It's got an accent, and it's
got an apostrophe, which visually, once you see it written
down in the show notes, it'll make more sense. But
if you remember sort of the word of dove do ov,
this is the spelling, but dovert is how it's pronounced,
So you can think of where is the dove? If
(16:39):
you're trying to remember, how do you ask you know,
where is something?
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Oh dove? Where is the dove?
Speaker 4 (16:43):
You can say dovet ill bagno, that's for the bathroom,
the toilet, dovet ilbagno. Or if you're asking for you know,
where is the drmal dovet ill dormal. So do you
want to have a saying those.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Two dove.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
Dovet dorm Yes, because I've just come from Florence.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
So dorm where is it?
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Dorvet is when you're asking for the location of something,
so it could be lastason it the station, you know,
where is that? So Forrey, I would like and dolvert
where is? These are like the two sentence starters that
you can think of. Okay, the next one is when
you're shopping. This is going to happen a lot. Either
(17:30):
you're shopping or you're paying for something in some capacity.
You want to know how much something costs. So this
one is a complete sentence. It's quanto costa quant door
costa quanto in the sense of quantity and costa sounds
like cost, right, so quantity cost you can think about
it that way. I'm trying to create these little memory hooks,
(17:51):
which is important way for you to help you to
remember these things. You can create your own memory hooks.
I've just sort of come up with some little you know,
off the cuff one is here to help. But yeah,
quant costa as a question, how much does it cost?
Speaker 3 (18:05):
So this is what you would ask quant costa, quant costa.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Yeah, quant do costa exactly. And then if you I said,
this one a lot, And this is why I've included it.
It's if you want to pay by card, not necessarily
in cash, use card because I can get points. This
is easier to track my finances. So this one's a
little bit longer, so I'm going to break it down
for you. So this is can I pay by card?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Posso? So? Can i?
Speaker 5 (18:35):
Pagare is to pay, pagare to pay, so the p
pay pagare con which is with and cartaca is card
so posso pagare con carta?
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Can I or may I pay with card?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Do you want to have a saying that posso posso
pagare bagati con cone carta carta so.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Can I pay? Or may I pay? By card? So?
Speaker 4 (19:09):
Yeah, Posso is also a nice one just to use
on its own. Posso on its own you can ask
if you want to sit down somewhere, You say your
point to the seat and say possa like can I sit?
That's what you're applying. So it's a really good one
to remember.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Oh I like this one, and I think this is
a really good one. If you want to.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
Take a taxi yes, you want to check first because
sometimes they don't like it, even though legally they do
need to take card conkata before you get in that taxi.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Otherwise it's a really good one. You might not have cash.
I don't carry a lot of cash when I travel.
I don't know about you, Michelle, but I definitely don't.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So yeah, I'm more of a card person these days
where I can. Yeah, and if you want to be specific,
this is another level. If you have an American Express
that don't always accept it, you can say American Express.
You just sort of put in an Italian twang around
the American Express because it's the same name. They just
(20:12):
pronounce it, so you have to adjust it to their pronunciation.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
So yeah, you can't say that too.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
I would definitely check American Express. And Diners.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Yeah, oh Diners.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, yeah, I know, blast from the past, but some
people still use it.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I haven't heard that name in years.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
I think I had one in my corporate days. I
had of diners.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Let's do a quick recap of what we've got so far. Okay,
so the first one we had was Ray, which means
I would like very good, I would like. The next
one we had was dovet What does dovett mean?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Where is?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Where? Is? So good?
Speaker 4 (20:53):
The next one we had, which I kind of included there,
But the third one was per favor?
Speaker 3 (20:58):
What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Please?
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Literally for a favor, So for a favor please? Yeah,
that helps you to remember it. And then we had
quant da costa? How much quant costa?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah? How much is it? How much does it cost?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
And then we just had poss or pagat con character?
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Can I pay by card?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Excellent? So good?
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Okay, so we've got three more. The next one, I'm
giving you two here because they mean two different things,
even though we sort of have like the same word
in English, so we would say excuse me to get attention,
excuse me to get past someone. In Italian, they have
different ways of doing this. Now I'll give you the
formal version, which is something that Italians use a lot.
(21:43):
They use the formal for speaking to people that are
strangers or people of authority such as policemen, doctors, and
so on.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
So this is misschoosy.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Misscoosy is just like saying it sounds like saying excuse
me in English. So this is why it's a good
one to learn. Misschoosie, is the formal version. You may
have also heard the schools are me, which is the
informal version. If you can only remember one, then try
and remember Misschoozie to be more polite. But if you
use schools on me, nothing bad is going to happen.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
They're not going to walk away.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
The times are very forgiving. They just appreciate any effort
that you make. Okay, So yeah, Miss Schoosie, you can
use this to get someone's attention, you know, if you
want to get attention, if you want to maybe apologize,
like oh, Misschoozie, you know, if you're in someone's way
or you're bumped into someone. So that's a good one,
so Miss Schoosie. And the next one is when we
(22:41):
say we want to get past someone. You might be
on the bus, or you're in a line, or you
want to get in front of someone.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
You need to ask permission.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Per mess or permiss or is how you ask to
get past someone. And it's a polite way to say,
you know, may I get past? Permission is basically what
you're saying. So do you want to have a go
at saying these two?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
So we've got.
Speaker 4 (23:05):
Miss Woozy, Miss guzzi yeah, and then we've got parameso permesso,
p yeah, permesso, just like a question, parmeo may I
get past? This is a good one to use on
like busy transportation. I've used it quite a lot, but
also on busy streets. You know, if you're visiting Italy
(23:26):
and it's very crowded, you might need to say this
a lot. You can't always assume that they're English speakers,
but you have a mixture of all different nationalities.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
I had to use it in the coliseum because my
daughter really needed to go to the bathroom, and luckily
and they were very I mean there were a lot
of Italians, and in particular the guides. They pricked their
ears up and could hear that someone needed some help.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
So you just put to know that word yeah absolutely.
And then you can start to combine these phrases. Once
you have them, when you download them from your show notes,
you can start to play around with them and form sentences.
So then you can start to say misschoolzi dolvet elbago,
so you can start to join them together. Misschoozie quanto costa.
(24:13):
Like if you're at a market and you're pointing to something.
You know, you're looking at the leather bags in Florence,
and you know you're looking at something, you can say, oh, Misschoolzie,
you know, can I get their attention?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Quanto costa and then you can point at the item.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
So you can start to play around with these these
phrases in these words, which is why I've chosen them.
So yeah, it can start having a bit of fun
with them.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
So the next one is prego. Prego is a really wonderful,
versatile Italian word, and I've included this because it's something
that you will may not say as much as you
will hear a lot, and you'll hear it in lots
of different contexts. It means literally, it means I pray, prego,
(24:54):
I pray. It means come in like please, come in
like prego. You also mean next please. If you're waiting
in a queue and they'll say, oh next, you know,
pray go like, and it'll say, like, you know, it's usually.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Like a high pitch pray go like, comeover.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
And it's also you're welcome, which is the one that
you're probably most familiar with if you've heard it. You're welcome.
So if you say grass to someone thank you. They'll
say pray go like you're welcome. So this is a
really nice versatile word that my students have sort of
I've heard prego are used in this way, but I
know what does it mean? Well, these are all the
(25:30):
meanings that it has. If you hear it, generally know
that it's a positive thing. It's either come in or
come over, or you're welcome. You'll hear it in restaurants
they'll be like, pray I go, like tell me what
you want to eat and they'll take your order. So
one way to remember this is this is something that
we used to say in like very British Old English,
(25:50):
not old Old English, but like seventeen eighteen hundreds English,
where if you think of Jane Austin, they would say
things like pray tell, you know, like that sort of
where they say pray tell. It's the same use in Italian,
like they'll say prayer God dim me. They'll say like,
pray tell, like it's the same pray in English as
(26:11):
they use it in Italian. It's to get your attention,
like please come in or next please, or you're welcome.
So try and think of the prayer God the same
way that we used pray in English if you're thinking
of Jane Austen and English from the seventeen hundreds.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah, that's a good one. Pray go, pray good.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
And then the last one is a simplified version of
how you can introduce yourself. So say like you've had
an exchange like I did the post office with Maria,
or you're just having it, got a conversation with someone
anywhere really, and you want to introduce yourself or they
are they'll ask you, you know, call me tikiami. Now
this is one that you'll hear, call me tikiami is
(26:52):
how do.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
You call yourself?
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Is literally what they're saying, call me, how tea you
or yourself? Kiam How do you call yourself? Now, I'm
gonna say this one. You don't need to remember how
to say it, but just remember what it sounds like,
because if you hear it, then you know how to
respond and you can just say me chiamo, I call myself,
(27:15):
or a shorter version is and then you can say
your name, so son no Michelle, I am Michelle. If
you're familiar with Spanish, it's soy s o y. In Italian,
it's a very similar version it's son or s O
N S. So this is the way that you can
introduce yourself. You can use it when you show up
(27:35):
to your accommodation. You can say Chao son Michelle. So
you can start to mix these all right. So this
is just something I wanted to include for any sort
of interactions that you have. So you may hear someone
ask you, you know, call me Tami, what is your name,
and you can say either me Kiamo, I call myself Michelle,
(27:59):
Mikiamo Michelle or Michelle.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
I am Michelle.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Do you want to have a go at saying either
of those?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah, Mikia so no gy perfect, so good.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
It's so funny though, because Italians really struggle with Katie
because it's a that a is not a real sound
in Italian.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
Ah, yeah, I find.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
So I get called CUTI a lot catti.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
Yeah, it's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But it's just like, you know, just as we struggle
with the rolling the r's sometimes that they had those
sounds that they haven't grown up with actually, so it's
hard to you know, expect them to be able to
say that when it's not a natural sound to speak.
And I appreciate that. So my ayes are rolling so well.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
You know what, we all have our insecurities, and I
don't want anyone to feel insecure about, you know, your
accent or any sort of what stage.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
You're at in your journey to learning Italian.
Speaker 4 (29:03):
You know, we judge ourselves more than others judge us,
So it's important to remember that if you make the effort,
it's always going to be appreciated.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
I love that it's so true because I think that's,
if I'm honest with myself, the number one thing that's
holding me back from speaking Italian. So I can understand
a lot of Italian, but speaking is a whole another matter.
And I think, you know, I'm very hard on myself
because of my accent and what I perceive to be
(29:31):
my accent and I don't even know because I don't
have that.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Audible lens at all.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
So yeah, it's really it's a really thing that you've
got to let go of, I think, and just have
a go and try. Hey, Michelle, I've got a question.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
There is one word.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It's actually my favorite word in Italian, but you hear
it all the time and it's just so funny because
you're just like, oh, what are they talking about and
they go, oh, Laura, how.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Do I know you're going to say that? Oh Laura.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Yeah, Laura is very versatile, just like ago is a lorda.
It literally just means so, so it's sort of like,
you know, moving on a Laura. You know, oh well,
So it depends on the context again, what it means.
It can mean, oh well, a Lura or a lorda
like let's go sort of a thing, you know, sort
of changing topic of conversation, let's go, well, let's go
(30:22):
and do this, So a lort I can also mean
at the time, at that time, yadda YadA. So yeah,
it's a it's a good versatile one. But nothing bad
is happening, so it's okay.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Especially if your name is Laura. They're going, oh Laura.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
But I feel like they say it a lot when
they're thinking or they're just trying to work out what
to say next.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yeah Laura be like oh.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
It's like how we sort of drag out saying so
in English, so you know, like let's go a lotta
andam like you know what I mean. Like it's a
very similar use in that sense.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah, I do think that's so is very Australian. So
so yeah, oh, Michelle, thank you so much. I think
this has been so fun and just I love the
way you teach and all your little tips and you
know what, I for our listeners, what I really love
about Michelle's approach is not only does she focus on
(31:24):
those quick results and the relevant info that you need,
because you know, I find some of these Italian courses
they're giving you stuff that you don't really need to
know when you're traveling, and so Michelle keeps everything super relevant.
But she's also so much fun, which is exactly the
way it should be, I think. Anyway, So Michelle, people
want to like they've been having fun with our little
(31:46):
language lesson. Here a little Italian lesson. How can they
brush up a little bit more on their Italian?
Speaker 5 (31:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (31:54):
So I have different online language courses for learning Italians.
So depending on what your goal is, I have one
of my courses is specifically designed for those that are
traveling to Italy quite soon. So this is my intrepid
time for a travel course, and it's something that can
be completed and as little as two weeks. Basically you
can take you know, you can take longer, you can
(32:15):
take a short amount of time to complete it.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
It's totally up to you.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Everything is self paced their video lessons, so you can,
you know, allow yourself at least two weeks to go
through that content and to practice it, or if you've
got months.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
You know you can.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
You can also spread it out over that time, give
you some time to revise or review that content. But
if you are a bit more serious about learning, your
time and you want to get to that sort of
more confident conversations where you can bounce off the other person,
that's when I have my more in depth language courses.
So Interpreted Time for Beginners A one, Interpreted Time for
(32:51):
Advanced beginners A two, and Interpreted Time for.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Intermediates B one.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
So if you're not familiar with the A one, A two,
B one, it's basically how the European languages are broken
down into six levels. So it's A one, A two,
B one, B two C one C two C two.
Being you know you're fluent, you're a very confident, confident speaker,
you can probably do translation at that point. A one
(33:16):
is you know your beginning. B one is a really
good level. It means that you can have a lot
of flexibility with your conversations that you're having with people.
You can understand what's being said. If you're not quite sure,
you can ask for clarification. It's the level that you
need if you want to apply for university or if
your partner or spouse is going for a partnership visa,
(33:37):
they need to pass a level test to get that visa.
So yeah, it's B one is the level I had
when I moved to Italy, So it's a really good
level to reach. And then after that it's more about
just like polishing your your grammar and your vocabulary and
all of that. So if that's something that you want
to aim for, that's the other level I that I
go up to. So yeah, from travel to proficient speakers,
(34:00):
there's this course for everyone. They're all self paced to
get lifetime access. You get support from me and other
students in the community. We're over a thousand students now,
which is really exciting. Yeah, and there's lots of people,
you know, similar to me with the Italian heritage, lots
of people that just love Italy, and that's what it's
all about.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
If you love.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
Italy, if you have any sort of interest in you know,
learning it for your partner, for travel, for yourself. It
would be wonderful to welcome you into the Interrepid Italian community. Yeah,
you can find out more on my Instagram account. I
have daily lessons that I post there at Intrepid Italian
and my website, the Intrepid Guides Intrepid Italian dot com,
(34:40):
to me my YouTube channel.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
It never ends.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, she's everywhere any good way. Yeah, it's amazing, Michelle.
Congratulations on everything that you're doing to bring the Italian
language to the people of world. And it's just such
a beautiful language, I think, and as Michelle mentioned, the
appreciation that you actually trying, even if you're stumbling over
(35:04):
a few people just think it's amazing that you're trying,
and they really really appreciate it. So do you have
a go and practice.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
Your d'orvease and your voras.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
And rolling your eyes your gon thorpe out the water
and it always gives something back when you're learning your language.
And so Michelle, I really appreciate you sharing those tips
with us today and those phrases. It's been really great
and I can't wait to have you back on the
show another time.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Wonderful. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (35:35):
Oppresto chao teut Michelle.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
How did you go with that little lesson? Were you
rolling your eys like a pro? It doesn't matter if
you can't do it just yet, everyone in Italy appreciates
that you have a go and at least have made
an effort to learn their beautiful language. As Michelle mentioned,
she has a specific course especially for travelers to help
get you up to speed before your trip. All it
(36:00):
takes is as little as two weeks of practice to
get you travel ready with Italian. We put a link
to the travel course into your podcast app and our
show notes at untold Italy dot com Forward slash one
sixty four for episode number one hundred and sixty four.
As well, we've also added Michelle's social channels where you
can follow along with her fun daily classes. Thanks for
(36:22):
your ongoing support of Untold Italy. We truly appreciate all
of you, our listeners joining us from around the world,
and our special Untold Italy AMCHI members. We'd love it
if you help spread the words so we can reach
more Italy loving travelers just like you, and the best
way that you can do this is by leaving us
a five star rating or review on your favorite podcast app,
(36:44):
or forwarding this episode onto a friend who also loves
colorful towns, delightful local customs, and the magic of regional Italy.
That's all for this week. Next time, I'm getting some
specific trip advice for our upcoming travels in South Tyrol
and the Dollar Mites with our friend kitin BNN from
Thrown and Vine. But until then, it's chow for now.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
The Untold Italy podcast is an independent production podcast editing,
audio production and website development by Mark Hatter, Production assistance
and content writing by the Are they kJ Clark?
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Yes, there are two of us.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
For more information about Untold Italy, please visit Untold Italy
dot com.
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