Hey erries,

May I suggest that one of the more interesting adventures is to just point at something that looks good.

After you've tried it you can write down its name.

>I can just wing it with pastas,...<

You are not concerned that the other diners will laugh at you for ordering gemelli instead of fusilli?

Enjoy your visit.

What about wines?

Amazing how your post on Slowtrav.com and then this differ.

Be adventuresome, wait staff will help, learn those food items that you KNOW you will hate (tripe).

Italians just really appreciate that you are trying to speak and order in their language.... even if you mess up a word, it is far better that you are not one of those people who don't try and/or those that complain.

A great example. We were at Lamole (awesome restaurant in Tuscany) sitting next to a middle age man and his older mother. She ordered rabbit, did not take a bite and then complained to 2 waiters non stop about how bad the rabbit was. The amazing wait staff smiled, bought the food for her and did everything in their power to be gracious. (Personally I wanted to slap her because she was so rude).

The Marling Menu-Master for Italy is very good, if you can find a copy.

eksrunchy:

tah-lya-tell-ee

aglio= ahyl-oh

with an "a" sound like in "ahhh"

Thanks, StCirq: I knew that you would know the correct pronunciation! So it sounds as if I was correct in my first post about this--that it is not the same as the double-l in Spanish.

St Cirq

There is no English equivalent to the Italian "gli", and your renderings of the sound is not correct. Aglio is not correct and I have no idea what "tah-lya-tell-ee" is. Do you mean "tagliatelle"? There is no "ee" sound at the end and correctly pronouncing "gli" in Italian includes at least a brief sounding of the "i".

To answer your post above, It was precisely my point that your "rules" for pronouncing the Gs in Italian doesn't cover some of the most commonly used g's in the language, a lot of which are frequently found on menus. I don't know if you listened closely the last time you were in Italy (when was that?), but plenty of non-Italian speakers don't know how to pronounce proscuitto. I overhear "praZHOOtoh" all the time.

It's a shame that you do this and then call other people names when they make the effort to steer people to better sources of information. But I don't imagine at this point there is any stopping it.

eks,

You can go all over the net these days and find websites that include an option to hear the pronounciation of a word from a native Italian speaker.

http://en.bab.la/dictionary/italian-english/gli

http://en.bab.la/dictionary/italian-english/aglio

http://en.bab.la/dictionary/italian-english/tagliatelle

But don't thank me, eks! Seriously! (But do listen to the correct pronunciations.)

Will do. That is very helpful!

Don't you love it when you see English translations next to the local language on a menu in Europe, where it looks like they used a translation program?

Hi, erries and welcome. There are other, more simple ways to order dinner in Italy as well. My dear husband and I often told the waiter what we like and let him arrange our dinner. This worked best when waiter spoke some English ( ), but we were never disappointed. We often ordered the special on the outside chalk board and were always happy.


Friends of ours went to a place where no one spoke any English and the waiter made animal noises to describe the dish and other diners brought their dishes over and pointed to the menu description. When their meals were served, everyone stood and applauded!

The best phrase to learn is: vino rosso de la casa....

Seriously, relax and have a great time. Please write about your trip and pass along helpful hints for others.

Oh, Keith, imagine an English trans in a Chinese resto in Venice...

ellenem, thanks for that tip. I didn't realize it was there, with pronunciations

http://www.fodors.com/language/italian/dining-out/

Thanks, ellenem (and starrs). That's a very helpful link!

> Amazing how your post on Slowtrav.com and then this differ. <

What?