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      • Book Club Vocabulary: Io Non Ho Paura
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      • 2021 Italian Words of Week
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      • 2026 June Matta Arezzo City Language Program
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  • BookClubExpand
    • About BookClub
    • Commissario Ricciardi: Il posto di ognuno
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    • La Libreria dei Gatti Neri
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      • Buy Dreaming Sophia
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Studentessa Matta

Cultural Anecdotes & Current Affairs

  • amici italiani
  • Amici, Friends
  • Curiosities & Current Affairs
  • Guest Posts & Interviews
  • Italian Culture
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  • Italiano con Amore: Il Podcast di Eleonora Silanus

    Italiano con Amore: Il Podcast di Eleonora Silanus

  • From Inferno to Paradiso: Italian Expressions That Span Hell to Heaven

    From Inferno to Paradiso: Italian Expressions That Span Hell to Heaven

  • Chat with Serena Capilli: Teacher and Author of Due Amiche

    Chat with Serena Capilli: Teacher and Author of Due Amiche

  • Sarah Stevenson: Why I’m Learning Italian — A Matta Reader’s Journey

    Sarah Stevenson: Why I’m Learning Italian — A Matta Reader’s Journey

  • After 2 long years Matta programs have returned to Italy… we are jousting again!

    After 2 long years Matta programs have returned to Italy… we are jousting again!

  • 2021 Hallelujah! I’m traveling again after COVID and on my way to Italy!

    2021 Hallelujah! I’m traveling again after COVID and on my way to Italy!

  • Bruce Katz: artist makes art out of a peanut butter sandwich!

    Bruce Katz: artist makes art out of a peanut butter sandwich!

  • Love Italian? Then You Will Love, Love, Love Bologna!

    Love Italian? Then You Will Love, Love, Love Bologna!

  • Tutti i modi per salutare in italiano! All the ways to say hello in Italian!

    Tutti i modi per salutare in italiano! All the ways to say hello in Italian!

  • Living the Bella Vita: The Art of Slowing Down

    Living the Bella Vita: The Art of Slowing Down

  • How Italian Women Shaped Society and Family After 1945

    How Italian Women Shaped Society and Family After 1945

  • Transforming a Medieval Church into a Tuscan Home: Kyle Ball’s Inspiring Journey

    Transforming a Medieval Church into a Tuscan Home: Kyle Ball’s Inspiring Journey

  • Tutti a tavola! Italians and the Magic of Food

    Tutti a tavola! Italians and the Magic of Food

  • Macchiaioli vs. French Impressionists

    Macchiaioli vs. French Impressionists

  • The Ox Head on Florence’s Duomo

    The Ox Head on Florence’s Duomo

  • CareBonara — The legend of Carbonara (according to Barilla)

    CareBonara — The legend of Carbonara (according to Barilla)

  • How to Make Knife-Cut Tagliatelle: Recipe with Sausage and Thyme

    How to Make Knife-Cut Tagliatelle: Recipe with Sausage and Thyme

  • Austin, Texas. Dove abito io (quando non sono in italia)

    Austin, Texas. Dove abito io (quando non sono in italia)

  • Le vere voci: Things the Aretini Like Best About Arezzo

    Le vere voci: Things the Aretini Like Best About Arezzo

  • Trentino una zona tranquilla nel cuore delle dolomiti piena di leggende

    Trentino una zona tranquilla nel cuore delle dolomiti piena di leggende

  • Stanley Tucci is Searching for Italy… even speaking the language!

    Stanley Tucci is Searching for Italy… even speaking the language!

  • Heroes of the Resistance — The Seven Cervi Brothers

    Heroes of the Resistance — The Seven Cervi Brothers

  • Discover the Wonders of Ravenna: Art, Literature, and Beyond

    Discover the Wonders of Ravenna: Art, Literature, and Beyond

  • 2021 — Brindo a un nuovo anno! Toasting in a brand new year!

    2021 — Brindo a un nuovo anno! Toasting in a brand new year!

  • Sofonisba Anguissola: A Name to Remember and a New Novel to Read!

    Sofonisba Anguissola: A Name to Remember and a New Novel to Read!

  • Let’s Go to the Market in Arezzo! Andiamo!

    Let’s Go to the Market in Arezzo! Andiamo!

  • Lost Luggage, Found Fortune: A Lesson in Traveling Through Italy with Phil Rosen

    Lost Luggage, Found Fortune: A Lesson in Traveling Through Italy with Phil Rosen

  • 2020 — I should be traveling to Italy today… instead world shut down by COVID

    2020 — I should be traveling to Italy today… instead world shut down by COVID

  • Getting married in the time of Covid-19

    Getting married in the time of Covid-19

  • Quarantine: Italian Origins and Human Resilience

    Quarantine: Italian Origins and Human Resilience

  • Italy on Lockdown: The Darkest Hour, But We’ll Make It!

    Italy on Lockdown: The Darkest Hour, But We’ll Make It!

  • Google Home Mini now communicates in Italian!

    Google Home Mini now communicates in Italian!

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Receive “5 Things to Do Every Day to Learn Italian” FREE!

🇮🇹 Un consiglio dalla Matta 🇮🇹  Matta Italian Lang 🇮🇹 Un consiglio dalla Matta 🇮🇹 
Matta Italian Language Tip!

Read the latest Studentessa Matta Blog Post about Italo Calvino’s novel “Il Barone Rampante.” 

Learn new ways to study Italian, words like — RAMPANTE (cavallo rampante, giovane rampante)and RAMPICANTE (piante rampicanti)

Discover the curious expression: ARRAMPICARSI SUGLI SPECCHI

Espressione curiosa che significa: To climb mirrors.

“Arrampicarsi sugli specch”means trying desperately to justify oneself with weak, flimsy, or impossible arguments. The image is perfect: attempting to climb a smooth, slippery mirror, finding no foothold, and inevitably sliding back down.

In English, similar ideas include: to make desperate attempt, flimsy excuses, to grasp at straws, to try to justify the unjustifiable, oppure to attempt something logically impossible or futile.

Discover more on the http://StudentessaMatta.com website, study and travel with Melissa and take your Italian language skills further!

#StudentessaMatta #LearnItalian #ItalianWithCalvino #TheBaronInTheTrees #ItalianLiterature ItalianVocabulary
Muldoon 🇮🇹 Un consiglio dalla Matta 🇮🇹  Matta Ital Muldoon 🇮🇹 Un consiglio dalla Matta 🇮🇹 
Matta Italian Language Tip!

Take the Playful Path to Learning Italian!

Imagining “What If…” in Italian
How to express hypothetical or unreal ideas
When you want to express a hypothetical or unreal idea in Italian, you often use the periodo ipotetico, the Italian “if” structure. 

In English, we say things like: If dinosaurs lived in Rome, I would go to the Colosseum. Italian can do this in several ways, depending on your level.

For beginning students, don’t panic and don’t wrestle the subjunctive dragon yet. You can still express “what if” ideas using simpler structures using present and future tenses. 

Advanced students can gallop straight into the glorious grammatical empire of the congiuntivo, where hypothetical dinosaurs roam freely!

Beginner-Friendly Options

You can use se + present tense + future tense for a simple, possible idea.

Se i dinosauri vivono a Roma, andrò al Colosseo e sceglierò un dinosauro come animale domestico.

If dinosaurs live in Rome, I will go to the Colosseum and choose a dinosaur as a pet.

For More Advanced Students

Use se + congiuntivo imperfetto + condizionale presente for an imaginary situation in the present.

Se i dinosauri vivessero a Roma, andrei al Colosseo e sceglierei un dinosauro come animale domestico.

If dinosaurs lived in Rome, I would go to the Colosseum and choose a dinosaur as a pet.

Use se + congiuntivo trapassato + condizionale passato for an unreal situation in the past.
Se Didone avesse sorvolato Cartagine sul dorso di uno pterodattilo gigante, avrebbe visto tutto il suo regno dall’alto.

If Dido had flown over Carthage on the back of a giant pterodactyl, she would have seen her whole kingdom from above.

Read the latest http://Studentessamatt.com article about Emanuele Aloia’s song Cartagine and a Playful Path to Learning Italian

EmanueleAloia #Cartagine #LearnItalian #ItalianMusic
Cartagine: la musica di Emanuele Aloia, la storia Cartagine: la musica di Emanuele Aloia, la storia e imparare l’italiano in modo creativo

Cartagine: Emanuele Aloia's music, history and Learning Italian Creatively

Un amore grande come un impero 
A love as vast as an empire

Con la sua canzone Cartagine, Emanuele Aloia ci porta in un viaggio in cui l’amore non è solo un sentimento, ma una forza che attraversa il tempo.
#Aeneas #ArtHistory #Cartagine #Carthage #Congiuntivo #Dido #EmanueleAloia #ItalianCulture #Italiangrammar #italianlanguage #ItalianMusic #LanguageLearning #LearnItalian #StudentessaMatta

https://www.studentessamatta.com/emanuele-aloia-cartagine-learn-creatively-italian-music-history-endless-love/
Il finale che non c’era… e quello che ho scritto i Il finale che non c’era… e quello che ho scritto io

The Ending That Wasn’t… and the One I Wrote Myself

Un anno con Ricciardi
A Year with Ricciardi

Per quasi un anno mi sono lasciata conquistare dal mondo del Commissario Ricciardi, un personaggio di fiction creato da Maurizio de Giovanni.
#BookLovers #CommissarioRicciardi #FanFiction #Italianbooks #ItalianCulture #LearnItalian #MauriziodeGiovanni #Napoli #StudentessaMatta

https://www.studentessamatta.com/commissario-ricciardi-fan-fiction-matta-epilogue/
Ciao from San Francisco! Siamo tornati! Ciao from San Francisco! Siamo tornati!
🇮🇹 Un consiglio dalla Matta 🇮🇹  Matta Italian Lang 🇮🇹 Un consiglio dalla Matta 🇮🇹 
Matta Italian Language Tip!

Vuoi smettere di flirtare con l’italiano e fidanzarti sul serio?

Want to stop flirting with Italian and get engaged instead?

From Passive to Powerful: How to Finally Start Speaking Italian with Confidence

A word does not become yours when you simply recognize it on a page. It becomes yours when you sit with it and absorb it, use it, play with it, and make it part of your life.

Here’s your daily Matta mini-challenge:

1. LEARN 3 NEW WORDS A DAY.

But do not just admire them like pretty little souvenirs. Put each one into THREE sentences out loud so your brain begins to hear them, feel them, and remember them.

2. NARRATE ONE SMALL MOMENT OF YOUR DAY IN ITALIAN.
Talk to yourself as if you were telling a tiny story. Describe your coffee, your walk, your grumpy mood, your missing sock, your heroic trip to the grocery store. Small moments are where real language starts to live.

3. WRITE 5 WHIMSICAL SENTENCES IN ITALIAN EVERY DAY.
Make them strange. Make them funny. Make them unforgettable. Ask things like: What would cows say if they could talk? If dogs took over the world, what would they do first? What would Dante have said to Shakespeare over dinner?

The more playful and personal your practice is, the more the language sticks. Italian loves attention. Give it a little every day, and before long, it will start talking back.

Read the Matta Post about moving from PASSIVE to ACTIVE language learning.

https://www.studentessamatta.com/active-vs-passive-italian-learning-speak-with-confidence/

#italianlanguage #italianfluency #speakitalian #languagelearning #languagelearningtips italianpractice learnitalianonline

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  • Blog
    • Italian Language Learning, Tips, Motivation
    • Art & Artists
    • Cultural Anecdotes & Current Affairs
    • Food & Wine
    • History, Holidays, Festivals
    • Literature, Music, Film
    • Traveling, Cities, Excursions
    • Matta Posts with Quizlet Vocabulary Flashcards
    • Sofia la piccola Matta teaches beginner Italian to children
    • Blog Signup
  • About
    • Get to know Melissa
    • What people are saying…
    • Matta Guest Posts
    • Other sites by Melissa
      • Melissa Muldoon Author Site
      • Art of Loving Italy Blog
      • Pinterest Art of Loving Italy
      • Matta Youtube Channel
      • Matta Music Spotify Playlist
      • Matta Podcast
    • News, Awards
    • Studentessa Matta Theme Song
    • Why are you learning Italian? Share Your Story
  • Learn with Melissa
    • Online Lessons + Conversation
    • Learn in Italy with Melissa
    • Join the Matta Italian Book Club — Private & Group Reading Experiences
    • Matta Quizlet Interactive Flashcards
      • Book Club Vocabulary: Io Non Ho Paura
      • Book Club Vocabulary: Guida Astrologica
      • 2022 Italian Words of Week
      • 2021 Italian Words of Week
  • Learn in Italy
    • Matta Travel Programs – Study in Italy with Melissa
      • 2026 June Matta Arezzo City Language Program
      • 2026 September Matta Tuscan Villa Language Program
      • 2026 September Matta & ItalianME Florence Language Program
      • 2026 Arezzo Jousting Festival September Weekend Program
      • Matta Travel Philosophy
    • Previous Matta Language Programs Italy
    • Italian Language Homestay Vacations
    • Walk in Italy Day Experience / Italian Lesson in Italy
  • BookClub
    • About BookClub
    • Commissario Ricciardi: Il posto di ognuno
    • Commissario Ricciardi: Condanna del sangue
    • Commissario Ricciardi:Il senso del dolore
    • Il Treno dei Bambini
    • La Libreria dei Gatti Neri
    • Brodetto galeotto
    • Io non ho paura
    • Quattro metà
    • Prima regola non innamorarsi
    • Il risveglio di Isabella
    • Guida astrologica per cuori infranti
    • Book Club Resource Hub
  • Novels
    • Melissa Muldoon Author Website
    • Amazon Author Page
      • Buy Dreaming Sophia
      • Buy Waking Isabella
      • Buy Il Risveglio di Isabella
      • Buy Eternally Artemisia
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