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 what happens in November in Italy.
novembre in Italia
Don't get confused by the word novembre because nove means nine, right?
But that's because it's the ninth month of the Roman calendar, which began in March.
Nowadays, it's the eleventh month, okay?
Novembre, calendario, it's calendar.
We started the month with two holidays already, actually.
I mean, if you count that just the day before, so the 31st of October was Halloween,
even though that's not a holiday, like an official one in Italy.
The first day of November celebrates Tutti i Santi, also known as Ogni Santi.
Sometimes you may see it written as Ognissanti, like all together, like just one word.
Either way, it means every saint.
So all the saints that don't have a specific day on the calendar.
As you know, we have one day for each saint, like the most important ones,
and all the ones that we can't fit into the calendar, basically,
because they're more than 365, then this is the day when we celebrate them.
That's why it's called Tutti i Santi, every saint.
The second day of November, then, it's the commemoration, the celebration of all the
departed ones, the faithful departed, believers that are now dead.
So all in all, these two days go together with Halloween,
so it's the celebration of dead people.
You celebrate your ancestors or anyway anyone you knew.
In fact, it's common for people to go to the cemetery to freshen up graves,
bring flowers, and there are also special functions in chiesa, church, chiesa, chiesa.
Cimitero is cemetery, cimitero, and tomba is grave, tomba.
You bring flowers, fiori, fiori.
Il giorno dei defunti, porto i fiori sulla tomba dei miei cari.
The day of the deceased, I bring flowers on my beloved graves.
Il giorno dei defunti, porto i fiori sulla tomba dei miei cari.
Now then, on a brighter note, on the fourth of November, there is another celebration,
which is actually an ex-holiday.
What I mean is that before 1976, it was a proper holiday,
meaning that people celebrated not going to work and with parades.
In fact, it's the day of unità nazionale e forze armate.
So la giornata dell'unità nazionale, the day of national unity,
and delle forze armate, and armed forces, so the military forces basically.
Not only actually, there's also like carabinieri, polizia, and so on.
But anyway, after 1976, when we entered the austerity period,
so periodo di austerità, there were many cuts here and there,
and this celebration as well became one of those.
So it's not an official holiday anymore.
Even though you will see it paid in your paycheck, it's like festività non goduta.
This literally means not enjoyed, because it's not a holiday anymore,
but it's still paid more than a normal day.
Also, celebrations are moved to the first Sunday of November.
So somehow, it's still a thing, but not on the proper day.
Also, recently, it has become kind of a controversial topic,
because there's a lot of people that don't support having an army,
so they don't really want to celebrate the forces.
The last celebration, like official celebration that you will see in November is on the 11th,
so l'undici di novembre, e la festa di San Martino.
It's the day, it's the holiday of San Martino.
So I was talking about saints before, right?
On the 11th is San Martino's day, so San Martin's day,
and this is what it's called the Indian summer in other countries.
In fact, when in Italian you hear people saying l'estate di San Martino,
l'estate di San Martino, the summer of San Martino,
we're talking about the Indian summer, meaning that it's a hot period
after the first cold of the year, so when it's not really supposed to be hot or warm,
but it still is.
Speaking of temperature, this month is quite cold.
In fact, it varies, let's say, from 5 degrees,
Celsius degrees, of course, degrees Celsius, to 11, maybe, in the north, at least.
So quite cold.
It may get warmer, as I was saying, with the Indian summer thing,
especially in the south, maybe even around 18, 20 top,
but it doesn't really last long and also it goes down at night.
In fact, this is the perfect time to see the foliage,
so the colors of the autumn, especially Rosso and Giallo, red and yellow,
on leaves, le foglie, le foglie d'autunno.
For this particular thing, there are trains, actually, that have a journey,
so the trip is just done, especially to enjoy the panorama,
and this train goes, for example, in Valle d'Aosta, Piemonte or Lombardia,
so Aosta Valley, Piedmont or Lombardy.
Since this month is also quite rainy, you may find a lot of funghi,
mushrooms, and tartufo,
tartufo, truffle.
It goes without saying that since we like to eat a lot,
and we have all these special products in this season,
there are a lot of sagre, sagre, so fairs about food,
like torrone, nugget, torrone, and also, of course, vino, wine, vino,
especially because this is the month of Vino Novello, Vino Novello.
So from Nuovo, new, is the new wine.
This, too, is celebrating during Saint Martin's Day,
so the 11th of November in particular,
but, of course, you can find it throughout the month,
where you just go and drink and taste the new wine,
so the one that you drink the year that it's produced.
Since it may be kind of warm during the day when it's sunny,
but not too hot and not too cold, this is a nice time to do some tracking,
of course, with the proper equipment,
but notice that if you go to areas or cities around the sea and the coast,
some of the facilities may have closed down already,
because they go till October,
and then they start again with the new season, or anyway in December,
so November may be tricky for that,
but if you go to big cities, of course, it's the perfect time to enjoy museums.
When maybe it's raining outside and after a museum,
you can enjoy your vino novello.
Dopo il Museo Egizio, after the Egyptian Museum,
dopo il Museo Egizio, facciamo un aperitivo col vino.
We're gonna have aperitivo with wine.
Novembre è perfetto per degustare vini.
November is perfect to taste wines.
Novembre è perfetto per degustare vini.
Degustare is different from assaggiare.
Assaggiare is just like taste, especially food though.
Degustare is for wines.
It adds more the enjoy nuance to the verb.
So yeah, these are pretty much the things to do in November,
but if you don't like alcohol, I'm sure there's plenty to enjoy as well.
For example, there's an exhibition of chocolate
called Cioccolato in Turin, but not only around Italy.
It's full of fairs about food.
So remember this phrase.
What do you recommend me?
What do you suggest?
Cosa mi consiglia di vedere nella zona?
Because there are a lot of local events during this month.
If you want to make sure to understand the answer, just keep studying with us.
Click the link in the description and download our PDF lessons
in order to learn all the phrases that you need in your everyday life.
Thank you for watching and I'll see you soon.
Bye bye, ciao ciao.

Comments

Hide