nochblad

I have noticed that many want to see Sienna on their trip to Italy.

Sienna loves Italy and has been seen there on many occasions - remember her trips with Balthazar Getty? However, she lives in London and has rekindled her romance with Jude Law .....

Or do you mean Siena?

Both are beautiful but I prefer the one in Tuscany!

hanl

It's an understandable mistake, though, through analogy with Vienna.

greg

I think it is due to sound like products:

Toyota Sienna van
Kia Sorento SUV

nochblad

hanl - but in Italian Siena is not pronounced Sienna. A subtle difference.

hanl

Yes, nochblad, that's true (I also speak Italian).

But, surely, those who are making the mistake are unlikely to be Italian speakers, so they aren't going to know there's a difference in pronounciation...
And in English, for most speakers at least, Vienna and Siena do rhyme.

Aduchamp1

Just the way people want to visit Rhonda and Grenada in Spain.

_________________________

And anyone who had crayolas in America, had burnt sienna in the box.

chartley

What about all those complaints about the Roma in Roma?

We tried to go to Florence, but could only find somewhere quite similar called Firenze.

More seriously, I was confused by trains at Bolzano in Italy, where German is commonly spoken, hence the German name of Bozen. There is also a local language, Ladin, so the station signs are in Italian, German and Ladin.

Back to the trains. Italian trains going to Munich (Munchen) had the destination "Monaco", the Italian name of the German city. Conversely, trains going to Milan (Milano) had the destination "Mailand", the German name for the Italian city.

Who knows where Amwythig is?

PatrickLondon

Amwythig is probably in Wales, but I can't be bothered to look it up. I had enough trouble trying to work out how to get from Luik to Liège via Lüttig. And don't get me started on how you can set up a tour to include Poszony, Preßburg and Bratislava.....

flanneruk

'Sienna' has been a common, and perfectly acceptable, English spelling for centuries.

flanneruk

"Amwythig is probably in Wales, but I can't be bothered to look it up."

It's almost certainly in England. One of those towns (I'd guess Chester) the Welsh insist on calling something funny and then whinge when we write Conway.

They've even got their own word for Catterick apparently

ekscrunchy

Which way to the Almalfi Coast?

PatrickLondon

>>They've even got their own word for Catterick apparently<<

So had my father, who was in the military base there for quite some time one winter......

zeppole

flanneruk is right. If you are going to inveigh against Sienna, you should also be inveighing against Florence, Venice and Rome.

http://www.siena-info.net/

http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/siena.html

nochblad

I would not agree. Florence, Venice and Rome are the accepted and recognised worldwide. Sienna is not (not even by the CIA).
Or perhaps this is American English rather than English English?

quokka

I hope nobody expects to find signs to "Florence" or "Venice" on Italian highways.

I recently heard about a couple on a road trip who were completely lost because there were no signs to Vienna - they found themselves on a road to Wien and had no idea how to find their way.

ama22

So how do you pronounce Siena?

zeppole

nochblad, I posted those links so you could see that Sienna is recognized as an alternate English rendering of Siena. And it is British English, not American English. Hence the popularity of the name "Sienna" in the UK.

I don't see much reason to get all hinky about this. The other day I was in the airport in Genova (you know, what non-Italians call Genoa?) and I was puzzled to see a posted flight to Monaco -- since I know for a fact Monaco doesn't have an airport.

That's how I learned Italians call Munich -- or if you prefer, München -- Monaco.

zeppole

quokka,

I have to admit that had I been trying to fly to Munich from Italy I would have been panicked to not see it listed on any Italian flight board.

Of course one should learn what natives call their own cities, but if you are traveling to these cities from other countries, you can be really stumped by what the French call places in other countries, likewise the Germans and the Italians -- etc.

zeppole

ama22,

In Italian, for any word containing a double consonant, both consonants are pronounced. As nochblad notes, it's a subtle difference.

zeppole

PS, nochblad,

Almost every child in the world first learns the word "sienna" from their box of crayons.

It is spelled "Burnt Sienna."

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/06/05/c...nt-sienna.html