ItalianPod101.com Blog

The Focus of This Lesson is Italian Greetings for the Evening Buona sera. “Good Evening.”

Good Evening

buona sera (also written buonasera) is the perfect equivalent for “good evening” and as such you should use this term when meeting someone.

Instead, you may use buona serata (never written buonaserata) to wish someone a nice evening. You should not use this greeting when meeting someone for the first time or upon entering a place.

When someone is about to go to bed, buona notte (also written buonanotte) is almost exclusively the word people use.

“Waiter, there’s a fly in my cup!”
How many times have we heard jokes and real anecdotes of this nature?
However, did you know that in Italy, some people like to drink their coffee “with the fly”?

Coffee is always present in a typical Italian breakfast, which usually consists of light pastries, croissants, and the simple bread, butter and jam.
Italian style coffee though, has many variations and is usually much more concentrated and strong that the American one, and is usually served in a smaller cup.
In Italy, your coffee can be served in many variations, the most popular ones being the espresso, made by machine; and the napoletano, prepared home-made style and in small kettles.

Furthermore, coffee can be machiato (spotted, with a dash of milk), or corretto (laced, with liquour).

And surprisingly enough, you can order your cup of coffee “con la mosca” (literally, “with the fly”)!

This means that inside the little coffee cup, you will be able to find either:

- a chocolate

or,

- a real coffee bean

In Italy, coffee is as rich and interesting as its culture. Next time you have an Italian breakfast, surprise the locals and request “the fly” in your cup!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from everyone here at ItalianPod101.com! We’re grateful to have listeners just like you, and we’re eagerly waiting for the upcoming year to learn Italian together!

And when the New Year comes around, be sure to make a resolution to study Italian with ItalianPod101.com!

Have a healthy and happy holiday season.

From the ItalianPod101.com team!