Opening the shutters this morning I was greeted by a world magically transformed overnight by la neve (the snow). The late autumn mauves, blues, golds and ambers of yesterday now seem a thing of the distant past, having been replaced by an almost monochromatic landscape. As usual, when the snow arrives, the world seems strangely hushed and subdued.

Va bene (O.K.), I thought to myself, time to put a few logs on the fire and write a wintry vocabulary blog.

Questa notte è nevicato (last night it snowed) and today there is enough snow to make palle di neve (snow balls), which we can then tirare or lanciare (throw): tirare/lanciare palle di neve (to throw snow balls).

If we are feeling really ambitious we can even try to make a pupazzo di neve (literally “puppet of snow”, or snowman).

Going out and about in this weather you have to be very careful not to scivolare (slip) on a lastra di ghiaccio (sheet of ice) or get hit on the head by un ghiacciolo (icicle).

Of course for some people scivolare is exactly what they do want to do. I’m thinking of those who enjoy lo sci (skiing). In order to ski, apart from a good sense of balance, you will obviously need gli sci (skis). To understand why we say lo sci and gli sci see this blog articles-articles-articles

 If you’ve got a really good sense of balance (and a padded backside) you might fancy a bit of pattinaggio (skating) for which you will need un paio di pattini (a pair of skates).

As we live in a small mountain village we are always glad to see lo spazzaneve (lit. snow brusher or snowplough) arrive, however it’s advisable to have a set of catene (chains) to put on your tyres if things get really bad, in fact in certain cases it is compulsory to have snow chains. Yesterday, for example, whilst driving on the autostrada (motorway) near Genova we noticed signs saying: “Obbligo di catene a bordo” (It is obligatory to carry chains in your car). 

Personally I think that for today I’ll just stick to sitting by the fire and admiring the landscape through the window: “ah, che bello!”