Domande in Italiano

Italian is spoken throughout the Italian peninsula and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. It also is spoken in Italy's neighbors: Albania, Austria, France, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

It's spoken, too, in nearby Monaco, the island of Malta, and the Greek islands of Rhodes and the Dodecanese ['the Twelve']. Additionally, it's spoken in such former Italian colonies of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Somalia, and Tianjin/Tientsin, China. Moreover, it's spoken throughout the countries of the European Union, of which Italy is a member.

Furthermore, it's spoken in international businesses and organizations, and indeed wherever there are Italian communities worldwide. And, of course, it's spoken wherever the language is taught, such as international schools, private schools, and universities.

Answer

There are 4 countries that speak Italian:

1. Italy
2. Switzerland
3. San Marino
4. Vatican City

It is also spoken by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, Canada, the U.S., and Somalia.

Italy
Italian is officially spoken in some areas of Switzerland and Slovenia, and in the country of San Marino.

Dante Alighieri (between May 22 and June 13, 1265 - September 14, 1321) wrote the masterpiece "Divina Commedia" ("The Divine Comedy") in the Italian vernacular.

Specifically, Dante's complete name is Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri. The Italian poet is considered the "Father of the Italian language" because his poetic masterpiece was written in the Florentine form of Italian that he grew up speaking. At the time, literature still was being written in Latin.

O is an Italian cognate.

Specifically, the exclamation is the same in Italian and English. It may be used as the first word in phrases expressing a range of emotions in both languages. But whether to begin a phrase of negativity or positivity, the pronunciation always remains the same: "oh."

The Italian heather (Erica ventricosa) does well in pots. It is picky about its living conditions. Containers may allow more control to keep conditions the way the plant prefers them. They also allow the plant to be moved in and out of the house since the plant is frost intolerant. In fact, it is only cold tolerant to around -1 degrees C/30 degrees F.

It likewise is strong sun and wind intolerant. It likes a sunny location. But it prefers to miss the hotter afternoon sun. Hot sun tends to evaporate moisture faster than Italian heather likes. The plant absolutely does not like its soil to dry out.

In fact, Italian heather wants a more acidic, free draining, slightly moist soil. So it prefers a pH in the 5.5-6.5 range. It does not like clay. It prefers loam. But it handles growing in potting soil that is mixed with good compost.

During the growing season, Italian heather responds well to fertilizer. But it prefers a controlled release fertilizer. It is a plant that likes to keep its nitrogen intake in check. Otherwise, too much nitrogen in the plant definitely shows up in lush, uncontrollable growth and little or none of the pink flowers that are the plant's pride and joy.

Flower, you never remember me or Flower, don't you ever remember me may be English equivalents of 'Il fiore, non ti scordar mai di me'. The masculine definite article 'il'means 'the'. The masculine noun 'fiore' means 'flower'. The adverb 'non' means 'not'. The reflexive pronoun 'ti'means 'yourself'. The infinitive 'scordare'* means 'to remember'. The adverb 'mai' means 'ever'. The preposition 'di' means 'of'. The personal pronoun 'me' means 'me'. All together, they're pronounced 'eel FYOH-reh nohn tee SKOHR-dahr meye** Dee meh'.

*The vowel 'e' of 'scordare' may drop for prose, poetic, musical or conversational reasons.

**The sound 'eye' is similar to the sound in the English noun 'eye'.

Yes, Italians tend to be good looking. There's a saying about the best of the best from various cultures in the world. For example, a dream wife would be Japanese. A dream meal would be in France. A dream home would be in the United States of America. And a dream husband would be in Italy.

But it isn't just Italian men who tend to be good looking. Italian women tend to be so too. In fact, it's difficult for the people not to be beautiful when they're surrounded by the beauty of ancient civilizations, healthy foods, modern and traditional cultures, and nature on the islands and throughout the peninsula.