Waiting for the final

Hello again!

I’m sorry but yesterday I arrived in Sant’Arsenio very late and so I wasn’t able to write and send my post. My train arrived with more then three hours of delay. That’s simply ashamed! However this isn’t the right place to complain about bad services of “Ferrovie dello Stato” (the Italian railway company).

Here we all look forward to the World Cup final and in Sant’Arsenio all the windows are decorated with Italian flags. I will watch the match with my friends and if Italy wins we will….mmm… what will we do? I don’t know, maybe it’s better to talk about that in Monday’s post. I’m not superstitious but I prefer to wait for the match in silence!

It’s interesting, Rachel, to find out that sometimes English and Italian are very similar. Firstly, the English ending ‘-ean’ is used in the same way of the Italian ending ‘-iano’. A Shakespeare’s work is ‘un lavoro Shakespeareiano’ (a Shakespearean work). We also use this ending minus the first letter ‘i’ when the person’s name ends with it. For example a Manzoni’s work is a Manzoniano work. Secondly, we very often use the author’s name to mean ‘his work’. ‘Gassman legge Dante’ (Gassman reads Dante) was a TV programme in which the Italian actor Vittorio Gassman read the Dante’s ‘Divina Commedia’.

I slept for sixteen hours last night (like Woody Allen in Manhattan). It’s really relaxing to be on holiday. Now I’m going to watch the final for third place. I’ll watch it in ‘pizzeria’ eating a pizza ‘Margherita’, which is my favourite one. I don’t have a favourite team tonight and so I’ll enjoy the show totally relaxed. I guess tomorrow it will be quite different…

Can I wish good luck to Italian footballers saying ‘break a leg!’? If I was a footballer, probably I would prefer ‘good luck’ … ehehe

See you soon

Antonio

P.S. ‘In bocca al lupo’ to your son for his part in Macb… ops sorry… in ‘the Scottish play’!

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