Lesson Transcript

Hello everyone, welcome back to italianpod101.com.
My name is Desy.
Mi chiamo Desy.
And in this video, we're going to talk about June in Italy.
giugno in Italia
il mese di giugno in Italia
the month of June in Italy
Let's say together what happens during this month in my country.
So the first thing that has to be said is that the 2nd of June, il due giugno,
il due giugno, is la festa della repubblica,
la festa della repubblica.
Actually, la festa della repubblica italiana, Italian Republic's Day.
In 1946, there was a referendum on the 2nd of June, of course,
in which citizens were asked to vote between republic and monarchy.
Of course, republic won, but it wasn't a really relevant win.
In fact, it was only 54% of population who voted for the republic.
Also, it was the first time that there was suffragio universale,
suffragio universale,
so that everyone was allowed to vote, women included.
Since then, on that day, there are military parades in Rome, but not only, all over Italy, I'd say.
Typical of this day is to see the frecce tricolori.
Frecce actually means arrows, but in this case, we're talking about aviation.
In fact, it's planes, like military planes that do aerobatics, I'd say.
So they fly, they cross the sky and they leave the smoke coloured as the Italian flag,
which is green, white and red.
And let's also remind you why those are the colour of the Italian flag.
There are actually many theories.
One of them says that the green is taken from the military uniform
and white and red come from some emblems of powerful families at that time.
A more romantic theory says that red is the blood, so the passion,
that was actually needed for Italy to be created.
Green is the fields and white is the snow that you can also find in Italy.
Anyway, that being said, due giugno is festa nazionale, public holiday,
and when it happens to be Tuesday or Thursday, you know we do what it's called ponte,
ponte, so bridge.
So on top of that day, you also get the day in between the Sunday and the Republic day
or the Saturday and the Republic day if it's on Thursday.
Either way, it's a good thing.
If it's on Wednesday, then you don't get any extra day.
In Italy, June also means the end of the school year,
which is usually around the first week of June, la prima settimana di giugno, first week of June.
Students then have three months off, so basically the whole summer.
And since it's warm already, it's common to celebrate this day with gavettoni,
gavettoni, water fights, outside schools, or sometimes if students happen to have fountains nearby,
and this was the case of my school, you just go there and get soaked basically,
just you know, kind of destroying books, which is not a good thing to do, but still it did happen.
Not only kids or students in general, but sometimes even adults start to have holidays during this month.
In fact, some companies have a shift vacation system, meaning that there's always someone in the office,
so during the whole summer, and each employee chooses which week or weeks they want to have off.
Then you ask for the, of course you have to get a bit organized before, but then it works fine.
Like if someone wants June and someone else wants September, then can just shift and blah, blah, blah.
So there's always someone in the office.
Otherwise, other companies do close in August, like all August, and everyone stops and that's it.
So you get your vacation on August, like most people though.
So it's actually, let's say, better depending on what you want to do to get your vacation, not in August.
So either for early vacationers or let's say kids with grandparents, June marks the beginning of alta stagione,
high season, alta stagione, while before that it's still bassa stagione.
Mid of June starts to see prices rising and so on.
But June is still a good time to go on vacation, because not everything is so expensive as it is in August,
since, as I told you before, most of people get their vacations in August.
Even though it's not the biggest vacation time, June has a really, really good weather.
The minimum is usually 18 degrees Celsius average and maximum 28.
So it's the perfect time not only to start your vacation, but also to visit cities.
For this reason, weekends start to get crowded.
So even though you don't get your vacation on June, you may want to travel on the weekend, right?
To do, let's say,
A trip to the mountains.
Gita in montagna.
Un weekend fuori porta.
Fuori porta actually literally means outside the door, but it's what we say to mean get away for the weekend, for example.
A weekend fuori porta.
Like you just go somewhere where you don't usually go.
In June, you can also find notti bianche.
Literally white nights, meaning that there are stalls and markets or maybe just even shops are open the whole night.
And that's especially near the seaside, like for example in Romagna or Sardegna and Liguria.
My travel tip is that if you manage to avoid the weekend, you may find cheaper deals.
Also, maybe renting places for more than days, but like two weeks, let's say, because it may be even cheaper,
so people don't have to rent it to different people every weekend, but just rent it to you for a cheaper price.
And also there may be punti verdi, already, punti verdi, green points, green dots,
which is like stages that are built in parks in the city where there is some music, some food, and just people chilling out in general.
So I'd say that in my opinion, June is one of the best months to visit Italy.
It's not too crowded, it's not too cold, not too hot, good for cities, but also for nature.
I hope you enjoyed this panorama of June.
Let me know in the comments how this month is spent in your country.
Also, if you want to learn Italian in the easiest, fastest and most fun way possible,
just click the link in the description and download our PDF lessons.
Thank you for watching.
I'll see you soon.
Ciao, ciao.
Bye, bye.

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