Why I fell in love with Italia #1: LA LINGUA

It’s the Final Countdown serving as a volunteer for Europe. It’s my last month in questo maledetto paese that made me fall in love since the very beginning. So I’ll start new posts trying to explain why I have this grande amore for Italia. Starting with… La lingua! [ Italian and english sound so great mixed ]

First let me say this. As a portuguese I always thought that learning and understanding italiano would be much easier. And... it was not so difficult (let's say comparing to someone who comes from Russia for example). In the end italiano it's so similar to portuguese in terms of writing but at the same time sooooooo different in the way it sounds. 

Italiano is in fact one of the most beautiful languages in the world… if not the most beautiful of all! I realized that during my life here.

When Italians talk, they don’t speak, they sing. For real! We portuguese speak with closed sounds, but they really use all of the mouth… really open! Like… amazing! At the beginning it’s strange for you, but then you start to see how they articulate every sound, doing some pauses in the same word just to highlight a letter. For example when they say “Morena” (with only one N) they say it quick, but when they say “Ravenna” (with two N) they say it slower… almost with a musical pace. I think they don’t even think about these things. But imagine me discovering a new language and paying attention to every little detail.

Mariano Di Vaio... because... he speaks italiano. :P

Another thing. Everyone knows that the ragazzi italiani have a great fame abroad. But let me say this. Obviously they don’t look all like Mariano Di Vaio, so how do they manage to have this notorious fame? It’s in the way they speak, for sure. How can you end a relationship with a ragazzo that calls you amore mio with all that swing? How can you not fall in love when a ragazzo comes and calls you bella (or bello!) with such passionate sounds involving such simple words?

I’m not joking. One day, after a first kind of a date, a ragazzo said this to me “Sei molto carino!” (like: You are really cute) and he’s voice was so powerful and musical that I thought he wanted to marry me. I got so scared that we never talked again. Oh yeah… so it’s possible to resist it. I’m the proof. I'm always the proof when things go the wrong way.

Anyway… I’m talking about the “general” italiano, because they have so many variations, so many dialects, that it would be impossible to cover all of them (Thank you Dante!!). Believe me. They have a dialect for every region, every city, every neighborhood. I’m pretty sure that only in my street there are 2 or 3 different versions of italiano. Starting with my Italiano - the Portuguese remix feat. Giusy Ferreri.

To end this.

Italians sound lovely even when they are angry. Arrabbiati!

When they're sad they sound even more touching. Tristezza!

They sound lovely in every sound. That’s it. E basta!