Translate Spanish Menus and Maps

Flag of Spain

When I return from holiday I often have the advertising flyer, the business card or the menu of the day from a restaurant. I now have so much paper that I have to select some to discard. But before I do so, I try to translate the Spanish or French or Italian or Portuguese. Some words I recognize because they are similar to English, others I know, and a few have to be translated and added to an alphabetical list like the one below which I am sharing with you. 

Spanish Hotel Menus

adobado - pickled

ajo - garlic

anguila - eel

agua - water

arroz - rice

calamares - squid

caldo - broth / soup

cálida/o - warm

caliente - hot

cerdo - pig

charasko - steak

chuleta - chop

churrasco - steak (churrasco de ternera - beef steak)

combinados - combinations

con - with

croquetas - croquettes

del - of the

empanada - pie

ensalada - salad

entremeses - appetisers

espanola (note sign over the n) - Spanish (style of cooking)

especial - special

filete - fillet / steak

frita - fried

galeras - 

gallego - Galician (in Spanish and Italian you do not have capital letters at the start of a country or country style

hamburguesas - burgers

huevos - eggs

lomo - back

lubina - sea bass

marisco - seafood

menu - menu

merluza - hake

Meso 

meson (accent on the on for emphasis) - house (like the French word maison)

mixta - mixed

o - or

pan - bread

parillada - barbecue

pasteles - pastries / cakes

patatas - potatoes

pechuga - poultry breast

plancha - griddle, iron, plate

plato - plate or dish

platos - plates / dishes

pollo - chicken

postre - dessert

Primer - first / starter

pudin - pudding

quesadilla - tortilla (omelette or wrap) covered in cheese

queso - cheese

rusa - Russian

Segundo - second

spaguetis - spagetthi

tartas - tarts

ternera - veal / beef 

tomate - tomatoes

tortilla - thin omelette containing slided potatoes and onions cooked in olive oil

ternera - veal

variados - varied

vino - wine

y - and

Addresses, Directions, Maps 

avda - short for avenida or avenue

avenida - avenue

C abbreviation for carreta

carretas

catedral - cathedral

de la - of the

hospedaje - accommodation

peregrino - pilgrim

pza - short form

Santiago - Saint James

telf - tel / telephone

tenemos - we have

Useful Websites

Translate google

Many more similar websites.

Buttons for Decoration - what to do with spare buttons - for sarongs, beach wraps and holiday wear

Button box. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Do you have spare buttons from sewing kits? Or from clothes you threw away or gave away? Where do you keep spare buttons?

I keep my spare buttons in a button box. How do you find it in a hurry? Decorate it with buttons. I have small shirt buttons in a small box. Larger buttons are in larger bozes or sections of sewing boxes.

Here are some ideas for buttons.

1 Buttoned Up Beach Wrap

Add buttons and ribbon loops to create fastening for a wrap-around skirt or beach sarong. You can turn a towel into a beach wrap. Cut a t shape slit in the middle for the neck. If you have two matching towels, the second towel can make the top into a tunic or make the tunic longer. Buttons can be used as fastenings, as decoration, or to hide untidy joins.

2 Thread them onto safety pins or hand them from same colour or contrasting colour safety pins to make brooches.

3 Sew them around the neck and cuffs of a plain sweater.

Make a row of false buttons down an item with no buttons. Or beween the real buttons down the front of a cardigan.

4 Stick onto magnets to decorate the fridge with photos and postcards of your last trip.

5 Make ear-rings, necklaces and bracelets.

6 Use as handles or handle decoration or simpley stick on decoration for  a sewing or crafts cabinet or underwear drawer.

7 Scatter them across on old torn garment to hide holes and tears.

8 Use as eyes for soft toys. (Not for children uder three yeas old, Only for four years old and upwards.

9 Sew onto a headband or belt or both.

10 Decorate slippers

11 Decorate a picture frame

12 Decorate Button boxes and sewing kits. 

13 Use for dolls house furniture.

14 Entertain children at a holiday let o a rainy day.

Useful Websites

Button Decor

https://diyeverywhere.com/2024/09/25/lady-collected-mismatched-buttons-instead-of-tossing-them-she-came-up-with-these-10-brilliant-ideas/

Buying Buttons

Button covers

Useful Websites

After Easter Eggs - best eggs to buy?

After Easter, like after Christmas, I am looking hoping to see that the prices of the leftover seasonal goods are now reduced price. 

Even if not, I sometimes buy because this is my last chance as the shop won't be re-stocking. I have non-buyer's remorse. Fear of missing out. For short, FOMO.  

The opposite of buyer's remorse is consumer satisfaction. The extreme is panic buying. 

By the end of the season I have tried at least two products or brands and decided on my favourite or favourites.

I am now the expert on all the Easter egg options I have tried. 

Interesting Easter Egg Ideas

After Eight Easter eggs. Mint middles. Good idea.

Unfortunately, it didn't work well for me. I had to try it once but won't buy again. Their After Eight mints are ideal mints, somehow the perfect proportion. So sticking their brand name on another individual portion of wrapped chocolate covered sweet treat appeals. However, despite the product's visual appeal, how do the new shape and flavour compare with the brand leader mints? The mini eggs are a different combination - more white mint filling, so less chocolate, also in an egg shape. 

Why was I not thrilled with the taste? Maybe their trial run customers told them make eggs less minty for children. 

Maybe I was just expecting the same familiar After eight taste from a new shape which creates different proportions.

Maybe I, a real customer, was the trial run. The sales assessors might find initial results are good from adventurous customers, or people looking for novelty goods. This might become a new staple.

Or it might disappear next year. Why? Maybe the lack of repeat purchases results in lack of repeat production runs. Whatever their intention was, mint mini eggs didn't work for me.

Victory Verdict

Lidl's little marzipan filled eggs are the clear winner for me. I get repeated purchaser's pleasure. Smacked lip satisfaction. 

We divide one Lidl egg into two portions to eat one half per person after our morning coffee.

Lidl supermarket Easter egg cut in half showing the marzipan centre. Photo by Angela Lansbury.  Copyright. 

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Easter Egg Novelties in 2025 in London - Small size eggs

 Who would think that two branches of Tesco in London would have compeltely different sets of Easter eggs. 

In Mill Hill I found a large selection of novelties in Tesco supermarket.

Tiny After Eight Easter eggs. Just right, bite size.

Bite size Easter Eggs. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

What are the advantages of a small size Easter eggs? For the buyer, a chance to share with a group of people. For the eater, better for the diet and the teeth to eat lass sugar in one go. 

My favourite small eggs are from Lidl because the filling is marzipan, but for size the Tesco ones are perfect. 

Lidl's website has recipes.

Tesco supermarket in Mill Hill stocked the Full size, chicken egg egg size Kinder Surprise, which our almost four-year-old grand-daughter chose. Also four brands of Mini eggs, After Eight, Milky Bar, Smarties and KitKat. 

Left to right, After Eight mini eggs, Milkybar Mini eggs, Smarties mini eggs, KitKat mini eggs, Kinder Surprise. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The mini eggs were one pound fifty pence, reduced to one pound if you have a Tesco card, which has two advantages, cheaper prices in the shop, and occasional monthly discount vouchers, according to how much you have spent.

On another aisle I saw orange mini eggs, at a higher price.

Useful Websites

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/buylists/easter-treats/easter-eggs

https://www.lidl.co.uk/c/easter/s10039051

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Mill Hill, marvellous Numa restaurant for freshly cooked food, home made

 We had planned to eat in Mill Hill in north west London. My husband checked the online menus of several places and chose Numa because they specifially stated that some of their dishes were home made and my husband wanted that.

 Numa restaurant serves Middle Eastern food. The word numa means 'so what' in Hebrew, according to their website. It is also written as pneuma is Greek for breath, spirit or soul. Perhaps think of it as soul food. Our server was Greek. Numa is also a word in Arabic and Indian and other languages.

Decor

Decor is pleasant and original. 

Attractive features of the decor included an arch over the bar.

On the back wall is an elephant. 

If you want to wash your hands before eating, the ladies' toilet is adorned with imitation greenery.

Food

Olives were placed on the table when we arrived. My Prosecco came up fast.

I had checked the menu in advance by looking at their website.

Starters

Our starters included  potato wedges coated in truffles. I could not see any specks of black truffle. My husband said. 'It must be prepared using truffle salt. That is very common. '

Main Courses

For the main course, my shredded chicken was accompanied by pots of garnish.

The steak was the runaway leader. The most expensive dish for good reason. A thick and soft steak.Accompanied by those lovely potatoes.

We had enough food to have the surplus packed up by the restaurant. 

Useful Websites

https://www.numacafe.co.uk/menus

https://wearenuma.org/home/numa-the-story-of-our-name/#:~:text=The%20ancient%20Greek%20word%20pneuma,soul%20the%20energy%20to%20act.

The Cinema Museum Sells Posters. What is a Quad poster?

I looked at the shop page of the Cinema Museum and they were selling quad posters. What is a quad?

I was at first confused by the term quad poster. I searched for the word quad. A goodle and wikipedia search produced nothing useful. I wondered if it was a brand name. 

When I used the two word search for quad poster, all became clear. Quad refers to the size. 

See my previous post about the exciting Cinema Museum.

The Wikipedia entry about thte Cinema Museum has lots of pictures and a video.

The website has 39 pages of posters for sale. For example, Isadora, Halloween, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Lots for fans of the cinema, or just to decorate in season, or all seasons, in your hall, living room or bedroom, or as a housewarming gift, for someone who has eveything, except this poster.

The Cinema museum in London, near Elephant and Castle London underground tube train station.

Useful Websites

http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/shop/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_Museum,_London

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Film_Museum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_Museum

https://www.sign-holders.co.uk/snap-frames/movie-poster-frames.html?

Please share with your family, friends and colleagues the links to your favourite posts on this blog. I also have blogs on travel and comical poetry. My books on quotations and writing poetry are on Lulu.com and amazon.co.uk

Collecting Souvenir Thimbles - And Staying With Collectors

 I used to buy thimbles showing local landmarks as souvenirs of my travels. I am a keen sewer, but I found porcelain thimbles too bulky to use and preferred metal ones. So I stored my increasing numbers of thimbles in a small display case.

Thimbles in a display case. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Thimbles were small enough to go in my handbag, and did not take up lots of room in a suitcase. 

You can buy display cases for thimbles.

Display cases which are open are more likely to collect dust. But provide easy access if you want to take items out and read the detailed wording.

\

If you are travelling on budget airlines such as RyanAir, you need to buy small souvenirs, or look for a company which will ship to your home country.

 I looked online for thimble display cases. The ones on Amazon cost over one hundered pounds sterling. But you can buy a case, a bit scratched and battered looking, already filled with thimbles, for under twenty pounds plus about 3.95 postage, online from charity shops.

If you are keen on collecting thimbles, you can join a local or international thimble collectors' club. I was amazed and delighted to hear that thimble collectors stay with each other, admire each other's collections and swap stories about all kinds of thimbles, such as the open top thimbles used by men who used only the side of the thimble to push needles. More information below.

Useful Websites

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/an-interview-with-antique-thimble-collector-sue-gowan/

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Italian words for cooking and shopping in Italy and Italian delis

At an Italian show in London I saw some pasta in different colours. The brand name was Livera. I came home with a brochure showing handy pictures of different shapes and colours of pasta. 

Here are my translations into Italian which will help you translate Italian pastas and other foods on restaurant menus. Also for trnaslating packaging of items you consider buying in shops or online. 

Italian - English

acqua - water

arancio - orange

bicolore - two colour / two tone

colori - colours (plural)

di - of / made of

doppio cuore - double heart

duro - hard

e - and

farfalla - butterfly (feinine singular ending in a)

farfalle - butterflies (feminite plural, shaped pasta piece)

fischi - whistles

fischietti - little whistles

funghetti - mushrooms (or mushroom shaped pasta)

giallo - yellow

grano duro - durum wheat

limone - lemon

maxi  - large

mini - small

monumenti - monuments

nero - black

orecchiette - ears

orsetti - teddy bears

papillon - bow tie

peperoncino - paprika

spinaci - spinach

rosso - red

tonde - round

tricolore - three colours / three tones

English - Italian

Black - nero

Bow tie - papillon

Orange - aranchio

red - rosso

round - tonde

spinach - spinaci (plurral)

teddy bears - orsetti

Three colours - tricolore

Whistles - fischi

London's Cinema Museum

 I subscribe to several London information services. London World told me about the Cinema Museum in London. 

I looked at the museum's website and found they had a shop. The shop sells a tote bag for ten pounds, and lots of pictures of posters. I liked the boy who caught a crook.

You might also be interested in the London Film Museum.  And the Theatre Museum.

A cinema museum is not the same as a film museum. A film museum is about the films shown. If you are interested in films, you are more interested in film locations. 

But you are probably interested in both. Two possible visits.

A cinema museum is about the cinema buildings, the clothes worn by the ushers, the seating, the seats, the ice cream sellers.

Volunteers at the Cinema Museum, wearing the uniform of usherettes.

The Building

The building was orignally the workshouse where Charlie Chaplin was brought up.

Old art deco cinema doors.

Old Art Deco Cinema Doors

See my later post about quad posters.

Useful Websites

http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/shop/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_Museum,_London

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Film_Museum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_Museum

Remembering the International NATO Phone alphabet with pictures

at home and when travelling you often need to spell out your name or a place name. It is handy to remember and recognize the NATO alphabet.

 First of all, if you look up phonetic alphabet, the phonetic alphabet is how the letters sound, such as AY for A, bee for B, but the the one you use for telling the spelling of your name or a place name is more often called the NATO phonetic alphabet.

Using Pictures

If you want to recall the NATO alphabet, I thought it might help me and you to pick a few pictures. It is easy to find pictures of golf, India,, Whisky and hotels, and Romeo and Juliet on a balcony. If you have a friend called Mike, add that. For Charlie, either a friend called charlie, or champagne after champagne Charlie (who was a real person). 

Where to Find Pictures

You could search on Wikipedia. You might find you have a few items at home. A hotel brochure. A golf ball., or ball. You might take pictures on your travels. The hotel. The golf course sign. A whisky bottle. A map of India. A flag of the USA, Canada, Peru.

A - alpha

B - bravo

C - Charlie

Champagne Charlie from France. 

Or Charlie Chaplin

D - Delta

E - Echo

F - foxtrot

G - Golf

H - hotel

I - India

J - Juliet

Juliet, from Verona in Italy.

K - Kilo

L - Lima

(Capital of Peru)

M - Mike

Michael Jackson with microphone

N - November

O - Oscar

P - Papa

Q - Quebec

In Canada.

Flag of Canada, maple leaf.

R - Romeo

Romeo and Juliet from Italy.

S - Sierra

T - Tango

U - Uniform

V - Victor

W - Whisky

From Scotland, spelled Whisky, from the USA spelled whiskey.

X - X-ray

Y - Yankee

Person from the USA. American flag.

Z - Zulu

From Southern Africa.

Create Angela's Alphabet With Cutlery, Cocktail sticks, and Toothpicks in restaurants and on flights

 

I tried making curved letters using the lids of miniature jam pots which you get in hotels. That did not work well. The O worked. I have seen business logos where the O in the business name was turned into a solid disc pattern, sometimes to respresent something they are selling.

I had already broken a cocktail stick in half for the entre horizontal line of the letter E.

But a G with half cocktail sticks, from a cocktail stick broken in half, with the horizontal alone, or a horixontal half stick with the other half hanging down from the tip was not easily recognizable as a G.

Then I started looking at alphabets and realised that you can make a squared alphabet.

You have a choice. For example, the letter E can be made with the three full size cocktail sticks for the horizontals, needing four sticks altogether.

At Home

At home I have a complete  set of a cylinder of cocktail sticks, bought from a hardware store. You can buy them in many supermarkets. 

In Restaurants

In a restaurant you would need to collect several. Either a container with several. Or unused ones if everybody at your table has been given one. 

On Planes

On a plane, you might be given one wrapped toothpick per person per meal.

With a family of three, such as two parents and one child, you would get three per meal, six if you saved them on a two leg outward journey, or six if you savved them from the first journey for the return journey. 

You could even use them still in their paper wrappers so that they can be returned to each person for use as a toothpick.

It might be simpler to use the metal or plastic cutlery. Or ask the server if they had any spare toothpicks. Or ask other passengers if they have unwanted wrapped toothpicks.

Have fun. Lots of fun for adults and children. Amuse and amaze your family, friends and colleagues.

My previous posts give more details and pictures of creating names with cutlery, and cocktail sticks.

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Angela's Alphabet with Cocktail Sticks & Chopsticks. Create the names Ava, Ali or Li with knives and forks or chopsticks - Ava's Knife & Fork and Angela's Chopstick Alphabet games

 Ava's Alphabet With Cutlery

You can play a game with small children. and teach them to read the Roman (English and European) alphabets using knives and forks. This teaches them the alphabet. 

It also keeps children at the table with you.  This is good because it stops them getting bored. It creates rapport. It prevents them from running away colliding with waiters and restaurant patrons, disturbing diners at other tables.

Or worse still, going out of doors left open or opened by incoming and outgoing guests. Then the child disappears, potentially running into traffic. I've seen this happen Worried bystanders intervene, calling the parents or carers away from the table. Much more fun to keep everybody at the table, busy, learning, creative, happy.

Now, how do you create names? Let's start with simple ones. Which are used not just by English speaking people but can also be used for Asian and Oriental people and languages, when travelling to other countries, or out to a restaurant serving ethnic food in your home city.

It is easy to create short names such as Ava, Al and Ali and Li.

Ava created from chopsticks. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Li - Surname

For example, the surname Li is very common in Chinese and oriental families. It is a surname or family name. But in the orient the family name is first, as in Singapore Late Lee Kuan Yew. Li  is written differently in Chinese picture writing or Vietnamese picture writing, but transliterated into the English as Li or Lee (depending on the tribe or area or country). 

It is also easy to create E, as a first name or family name.

Add A and you have Ali.

Subtract I and you have Al, short for Alexander and other names..

AVA's Knife and fork Alphabet

I was shown the use of knives and forks to make the letters A and V by a Norwegian friend who was teaching her niece. I can't find any references to this on the internet so after adding spoons for the horzontals of the A and chopsticks for an orintal version, I first thought of naming it after myself. That goes well because it is alliterative. 

 Angela's Alphabet. But Ava's Alphabet would be even more appropriate as this uses the straight line letters, shorter letters. So maybe the knife and for version should be Ava's alphabet, and the chopstick version should be Angela's alphabet.

Ava's Alphabet - with cutlery

So, here I shall use the name Ava's Alphabet for the knife and fork version which Ava used when I last saw her.

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Make The Alphabet With Ava Cutlery Game - How to use Cutlery in Restaaurnats to Teach children to read letters

 V I watched with amazement and admiration as Helena showed her niece, Ava, how to turn knives and forks into letters of the alphabet. Helena was teaching 4 year old Ava how to spell her name, A, with the knife and fork tips together. Then create V. E and F. 

Helena did it first. Then Ava copied her.

Do you know how to create letters with knives and forks?

A common name in China and Vietnam is Li. Easily created with chopsticks.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I lay awake at night thinking it through. I kept counting how many letters you could make using the liner shape of a knife or fork. I counted sixteen straight letters. 

The other letters had circles, half circles, and quarter circles. How would you make the circle and curves? Easy, Look for items with curves on the table. 

Either draw arond theme, or place them entire., or use pieces of multiple small fruit such as grapes, strawberries, cherries, to create lines and curves,

Here is my list of letters.

Line Letters - using knives and forks 15 of them

A E FHIKLMNTVWXYZ

Letters with curves (11 of them)

BCDGJOPQRSU

You could also do this on planes with their cutlery.

Useful Wwebsites

https://www.policybazaar.com/plans/baby-names/2-letter-baby-boy-names/

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How I remember the International NATO Military Phonetic Alphabet

 The military and police and many telephonists have to learn the phonetic alphabet. This morning I woke up early and went back to bed and tried to clear my mind and use the time by trying to remember the NATO alphabet, wwhich I learn and forget on a regular basis.

I used to type it out and keep a copy stuck into the front of my diary, in my mobile phone and before I had a mobile, and in hotels, on the wall by a fixed phone.

The current (2025) international alphabet has been changed a few times. Originally z was zero, but that got mixed up with zero hours. You can read about all the changes in a general Wikipedia article which covers the history of the alphabets used around the world. 

I'll. first list the latest international alphabet, then my latest ways of remembering it.

A - alpha

B - bravo

C - Charlie

D - Delta

E - Echo

F - foxtrot

G - Golf

H - hotel

I - India

J - Juliet

K - Kilo

L - Lima

M - Mike

N - November

O - Oscar

P - Papa

Q - Quebec

R - Romeo

S - Sierra

T - Tango

U - Uniform

V - Victor

W - Whisky

X - X-ray

Y - Yankee

Z - Zulu

A is easy. Alphabet. Bravo for remembering that.  You are a right Charlie if you forget it.

Six first or persoanl names are in the phonetic alphabet: Charlie, Juliet, Mike, Oscar, Romeo, Victor. Romeo and Juliet, are a pair, of course.

Delta is one of two geographical features. The other one is sierra.

Echo - please echo my recitation of the phonestic alphabet.

Foxtrot, golf and hotel are a threesome. I do a three-step foxtrot at an afternoon tea dance at the golf hotel.where my partner is playing golf. Foxtrot is one of two dances, foxtrot and tango.

I for India, one of the 4 placenames from all the continents. From the Americas, Y for Yankee, Q for Quebec. From South America the Spanish word sierra, and the city of Lima, which is the capital of the the country of Peru. And Latin Americn dancing, not the foxtrot but the tango.

From Europe, Italy's Romeo and Juliet. From the UK, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Scottish whisky. 

From Asia there's India. 

From South Africa the Zulu.

J - Juliet, one of the five people names, and one of a pair, as in Romeo and Juliet.

K - kilo, now hthe UK has joined Europe in being metric.

Lima - one of the five placenames.

M for Mike, one of the five people names. I met him in November.

N for November, when I met Mike.

O for Oscar. One of the six personal names. Papa should have got an Oscar for playing a papa. 

Q for Quebec. Not just the Yankees in North America, but also the Canadians.

Romeo, one of the six names. He went after Juliet, ran after her, courted her. His name is after hers in the alphabet.

S for sierra, one of two descriptions of land, ending with the letter a.

T the tango dance from South America. A pair with the other dance, foxtrot.

U uniform, worn by the military, and school children.

V - Victor - a militry man, a Yankee, or a school boy called Victor in school uniform.

W - for whisky, not drunk by the military, Yankees, nor by anybody in uniform.

X for X-ray

Y for Yankees, who lieve across the border from the Canadians in Quebec.

Z for Zulus, one of the placenames.

Italian Names Translated

Italian - English

Aida - happy

Alba - Dawn

Alberto - Albert

Alfredo - Alfred

Aldo - Donald

Alessandro - Alexander (defender of mankind)

Andrea - Andrew (the Italian is a male name)

Angelo - angel or messenger

Anita - grace

Antonio - Anthony

Arturo - Arthur

Barbieri - barber

Barone - baron

Bianca - white

Bruno - brown (referring to clothes or hair)

Carlo - Charles

Caterina - Catherine meaning pure

Cipriani - from Cyprus

Constantia - constancy

Cosimo from Greek Cosmo meaning order

Cristiano - Christian

Dante - lasting

Dario (from Latin Darius) posessing goodness

Dino - little sword (we used to have Dino's restaurant in Edgware. Several restaurants of this name are found worldwide.

Donna lady (ma donna = my lady)

Edmondo - Edmund (prosperous)

Eduardo - Edward (

Elena - bright light

Enrico - Henry /home ruler

Eugenio - noble

Fabio - bean farmer

Faust - lucky

Filippo - Philip  (loves horses)

Franco/Franceso - French

Gemma - gem, jewel

Giacomo - James

Giorgio - George (farmer)

Giulia - Julia (youthful)

Grazia - Grace

Gregorio - Gregory (watchful)

Juan - John

Juliet Julietta - child of Jove

Leo/Lenya - lion

Leonardo - bold lion (as in painter Leonardo Da Vinci)

Lennon - cape/cloak

Leopold - bold

Liliana - lily

Lorenzo - Lawrence (Laurel tree) 

Lucia/Lucan/Luciano/Ludo - light

Maria/Margherita/Mario - Mary (bitter)

Marcello - hammer

Marco (as in Marco Polo) from the Roman God of war Marcus

Marco - Mark

Maximo - greatest

Mona - lady

Nicola, Nicolò - Nicholas (the accent on the o of the Italian means emphasize that syllable) Victorious

Giorgio - George

Pascal - born on Passover

Paulo - Paul (small)

Primo - first one

Regina - queen

Ricco - Richard, powerful or strong ruler

Roma - from Rome

Romeo - pilgrim to Rome

Rosso/Rossini - red (maybe red haired)

Rosa, Rosetta, Rozalia - rose

Serena - serene

Slvatore - Saviour

San - Saint

Silvio - silver

Stefan0 - Stephen (crowned with laurels)

Teresa - harvester

Tomaso - Thomas (twin)

Valeria/Valentino - brave or strong

Violet - flower

Vincenzo - Vincent

Vito/Vittorio - Victor

I have at least ten dictionaries of baby names. 

People and Places

guida - guide

museo - museum

telefono - telephone

torre - tower

Useful Websites

https://adoption.com/baby-names/origin/italian

https://www.behindthename.com/name

https://www.oocities.org/irishkenj/givename

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Teaching English Overseas - or to incoming travellers - idioms and other idiocies

 Teaching English

I was listening to other speakers of English and I heard the idiom, by a country mile. I'm sure that would perplex speakers of Chinese (Mandarin). I have taught English for many years to O level and A level  pupils in schools, first in the UK and later in Singapore.

Cats and Dogs

I remember looking out of the window in Singapore with my English Language For Foreigners class pupils, after a lesson ended. Rain was pouring down. I said, 'it's raining cats and dogs'. 

A puzzled pupil replied, "I see cats. I don't see any dogs.'

The phrase comes from the old days of thatch roofs, when cats and dogs would sleep in the rafters or on rooftops. When it rained the thatch became slippery so the cats and dogs slipped off. To protect those underneath, large family beds had a canopy supported by four posts, called a four-poster bed. You can stay in hotels with four-poster beds in many UK hotels, especially in The Lake District, where people did and still do go for honeymoons and wedding anniversaries, and Stratford Upon Avon where people go to see buildings relating to Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway.

For the benefit of one of my pupils, whose first language is Mandarin, I have been noting down and compiling a list of idioms. Here are some of my favourites.

When you are travelling, you may have to simplify your English when speaking to those who appear to be speaking English fluenty - until you use an idiom. Most idioms were originally metaphors from the mutual acitivites of speakers and listeners. But over the course of a century or more the original context has been forgotten.

Country Mile

by a country mile - a lot (distance or time - like a winding country road which is long in both distance and time)

Tenterhooks

on tenterhooks - in suspense, anxiously waiting for a decision or result (hooks used to suspend drying fabric)