I love the Ancient Latin language - Many Italian words, expressions and verbs originated from Ancient Latin. I fondly remember the days at school when we had to translate many a passage from Latin into comprehensible Italian sentences: terrifying, challenging and yet thrilling when those sentences finally made sense.

A friend of mine is going to Italy in 4 weeks. So his question is: do I bother learning some Italian or will I just wing it with my English? After all, most Italians understand English.

Want to learn Italian ONLINE? Unsure about what course is right for you?

Arrivederci and arrivederla...I know that many of you find that these two words cause a little bit of confusion. As always, let's break things up a little to make them more digestible.

Image courtesy of Huffington Post

Image courtesy of Farollo e Falpala`

Getting lost in Italy, lost as in … you don’t know where you are, is not that impossible.

Sono occupatissima (I am very busy), Sono piena di lavoro (I have a lot of work to do), Ho tanto da fare (I have a lot to do)... these are ok and common ways to say that you are busy, but they are not as good as this next expression:

Vasco Rossi. A name that means a lot to Italians.

Cortona was founded between the 700 and 600 BC. That is more than 2000 years ago.