Padua is a cool place, I used to visit often (over 20 years ago) when my girlfriend's sister lived there. Are you going to Trieste on this trip? It's fascinating, and the dialect there is infused with a bit of Slovenian and German, especially in the pronunciation (my language skills, as you know, are poor, so I barely know what I'm talking about!)
I'm with you on TV in other countries - the commercials are also a revealing insight into the culture as well.
Padua seems really nice so far. Not making it all the way over to Trieste…but am going up to the Dolomites on Thursday! By the looks of it, menus are written in Italian and German and the food has a lot of Austrian/German/Swiss influence. I don’t speak enough Italian to even recognize different dialects at this point, so that’s a positive at the moment. Sounds like you sell yourself short on the language skills if you’re able to hear the differences in pronunciation of a language you don’t speak! 😉
You said you'd researched how to ask for things in Italian, and that made me think of something...
In English, we ask for directions by saying, "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Piazza Duomo?"
Italians say, "Scusi. Piazza Duomo?" and just wait for the answer.
Thats probably what I can come out with anyway! 😅
You're doing great!
Padua is a cool place, I used to visit often (over 20 years ago) when my girlfriend's sister lived there. Are you going to Trieste on this trip? It's fascinating, and the dialect there is infused with a bit of Slovenian and German, especially in the pronunciation (my language skills, as you know, are poor, so I barely know what I'm talking about!)
I'm with you on TV in other countries - the commercials are also a revealing insight into the culture as well.
Padua seems really nice so far. Not making it all the way over to Trieste…but am going up to the Dolomites on Thursday! By the looks of it, menus are written in Italian and German and the food has a lot of Austrian/German/Swiss influence. I don’t speak enough Italian to even recognize different dialects at this point, so that’s a positive at the moment. Sounds like you sell yourself short on the language skills if you’re able to hear the differences in pronunciation of a language you don’t speak! 😉