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Quiz about Wonderful Italy Horrible English

Wonderful Italy, Horrible English Quiz

If you plan to visit my country, you'll discover a lot of unexpected curiosities, including a peculiar form of English. Luckily, behind the boards, Italy is there.

A photo quiz by zordy. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
zordy

Time
5 mins

Type
Photo Quiz

Quiz #
401,425

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
241

Awards
Top 35% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page

Question 1 of 10

1. The photo was taken in a bar in Naples, where they speak Neapolitan and also a bit of English.
In Neapolitan bars there's an old tradition, called "caff� sospeso" (suspended coffee). Do you know what it is?
Hint

It is a special Neapolitan espresso recipe.

It is the coffee a customer has drunk the day before without paying: until the "suspended" debt is paid, they won't have another coffee.

It is a coffee cup suspended from the ceiling where customers put coins for the poor.

It is an espresso paid for any unknown future customer.

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Question 2 of 10

2. This one is courtesy of the bike sharing service in Milan. Bicycle thieves are warned. By the way, who was the director of the masterpiece of Italian neorealism, the 1948 movie "Ladri di biciclette"? Hint

Frank Capra

Federico Fellini

Vittorio de Sica

Roberto Rossellini

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Question 3 of 10

3. We're in the outskirts of Milan, along the Naviglio Martesana, one of the many canals that run from the city to the lakes and rivers of Lombardy, forming a navigable system.
The digging of the Martesana started in the XIV century, under which dynasty of Dukes? Hint

Sforza

Gonzaga

Este

Doria

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Question 4 of 10

4. This is a wonderful example of "lacustrine English", a variety that thrives on the shores of Lake Como.
The photo was taken inside the magnificent Villa del Balbianello. Besides its architectural beauty, fancy furniture and stunning view, the villa is famous also as the shooting location for a James Bond film. Which one?
Hint

A View to a Kill

Casino Royale (2006)

Quantum of Solace

Octopussy

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Question 5 of 10

5. Spotted on the outer railing of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, near Monza.
Monza, a city in Lombardy with a population of about 120.000, is famous for which major sporting event? Hint

Brianza Triathlon

Soccer Derby

Formula One Grand Prix

Italian Horse Racing Derby

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Question 6 of 10

6. This nonsense was pasted on the door in a toilet of a mountain hut in the Lepontine Alps, Ossola Valley, Lombardy.
A bit of history here: do you know what the "Republic of Ossola" is or was? Hint

The main branch of Italian Freemasonry

A Nazi puppet-state during WWII

An area under the control of antifascist partisans in 1944

A medieval free state

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Question 7 of 10

7. Welcome to the D'Abruzzo International Airport in Pescara. There's an American actor (or actress) of Italian ancestry whose birth name is D'Abruzzo. Do you know which of these it is?
Hint

Anne Bancroft

Dean Martin

Alan Alda

Nicholas Cage

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Question 8 of 10

8. We have arrived in, you guessed right, Trieste, on the eastern border of Italy and on the extreme border of meaning.
Which republic borders Italy just a few miles from Trieste? Hint

Bosnia

Slovenia

Austria

San Marino

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Question 9 of 10

9. This was nailed at the base of a climbing route in the Adamello Massif, before a competition.
Adamello is a beautiful mountain, but not as beautiful as the Matterhorn, the one you can admire in Disneyland too. Matterhorn is the German (Swiss) name: what's the Italian name? Hint

Monte Rosa

Monte Cervino

Corno Matto

Monviso

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Question 10 of 10

10. We end our tour in the center of my hometown, Milan. Full of fancy caf�s with funny anglicized names.
"La bottega del caff�," or "The Coffee Shop", is a comedy that satirized the "new fad" of drinking coffee in the XVIII century. The author is the most important Italian playwright of the era. His name?
Hint

Vittorio Alfieri

Luigi Pirandello

Dario Fo

Carlo Goldoni

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The photo was taken in a bar in Naples, where they speak Neapolitan and also a bit of English. In Neapolitan bars there's an old tradition, called "caff� sospeso" (suspended coffee). Do you know what it is?

Answer: It is an espresso paid for any unknown future customer.

A customer drinks one espresso and pays for two, for the benefit of anyone (normally a poor person) who gets in the bar and asks if there is a caff� sospeso. Basically, anonymous charity.
About the note in the photo: in Italy we sometime call the toilet "bagno" (euphemistically) that means "bathroom" but also "bath".

Answer: Vittorio de Sica

If you haven't seen the film, (that was staged in Rome, not Milan) I highly recommend to do it. With a pack of tissues.
Well, now let's try to explain "hooks your bike". The bike actually has a sort of hook to lock it after use.
In Italian, the second person of the imperative happens to be the same as the third person of the present indicative, that in English has an 's'. Put a sentence in an automatic translator, and that's the result.

3. We're in the outskirts of Milan, along the Naviglio Martesana, one of the many canals that run from the city to the lakes and rivers of Lombardy, forming a navigable system. The digging of the Martesana started in the XIV century, under which dynasty of Dukes?

Answer: Sforza

In the past, the Navigli, flowing up to the heart of the city, gave Milan a completely different look, a bit like Venice, or Amsterdam.
"Parapet" derives directly from Italian, meaning "rail", but it does exist in English.
But "deprives"? Same reason as above. "Priva di parapetto" means "without parapet": literally "deprived" of parapet. But the adjective "priva" (feminine in this case) is the same as "it deprives".
Couldn't they translate "without" instead? Too easy.

4. This is a wonderful example of "lacustrine English", a variety that thrives on the shores of Lake Como. The photo was taken inside the magnificent Villa del Balbianello. Besides its architectural beauty, fancy furniture and stunning view, the villa is famous also as the shooting location for a James Bond film. Which one?

Answer: Casino Royale (2006)

The villa is the most visited site of the FAI (the Italian version of the National Trust).
It was also a shooting location for "Attack of the Clones" from the "Star Wars"Saga.
If you visit the villa, remember not to "abuse". "Camers" are watching you.

5. Spotted on the outer railing of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, near Monza. Monza, a city in Lombardy with a population of about 120.000, is famous for which major sporting event?

Answer: Formula One Grand Prix

"To" walk the bike: that's typical. In Italian the infinitive can be used with an imperative sense. That explains the superfluous "to" in literal translations.
Monza is famous also for its park, for King Umberto I's assassination in 1900, for its beautiful Royal Villa, for the Iron Crown of the Longobards.

6. This nonsense was pasted on the door in a toilet of a mountain hut in the Lepontine Alps, Ossola Valley, Lombardy. A bit of history here: do you know what the "Republic of Ossola" is or was?

Answer: An area under the control of antifascist partisans in 1944

Ossola was one of many short-lived republics that partisan fighters founded during the Resistenza, the guerrilla war (some historians define it "civil war") against Nazi and fascist armies. The republic lasted a little more than a month but it is a glorious episode in the fight for liberty and had a huge moral significance.
You might wonder what "plane" or "plan" could mean. They mean "slowly", that in Italian is "piano", which has many other translations: the instrument, floor of a building, and also plain, plan and plane.

7. Welcome to the D'Abruzzo International Airport in Pescara. There's an American actor (or actress) of Italian ancestry whose birth name is D'Abruzzo. Do you know which of these it is?

Answer: Alan Alda

Alan Alda = Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo. Dean Martin is Dino Crocetti, Nicholas Cage is Coppola and Anne is Italiano.
Between 1800 and 1924 around four million Italians migrated to the U.S.
The board contains a small mistake in English (double L) and a big one in Italian: "allarmato" is taken from English but originally doesn't mean "with an alarm device on" but only "with alarm, worried, concerned". So here you have a concerned door.

8. We have arrived in, you guessed right, Trieste, on the eastern border of Italy and on the extreme border of meaning. Which republic borders Italy just a few miles from Trieste?

Answer: Slovenia

I confess I ignore what martial problem Trieste may have. Or what a martial problem is, actually.
Probably the line just sounded cool for a gym.
Trieste, anyway, is a beautiful city on the Adriatic. It was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until 1918 and it still shows in the style of building and in the cuisine.
If you go there, mind the very strong wind called "Bora".

9. This was nailed at the base of a climbing route in the Adamello Massif, before a competition. Adamello is a beautiful mountain, but not as beautiful as the Matterhorn, the one you can admire in Disneyland too. Matterhorn is the German (Swiss) name: what's the Italian name?

Answer: Monte Cervino

The usual beauty of literal translation.
Mount Cervino is 4478 m. (14,692 ft) on the Alps, and 56 m. (183 ft in Anaheim).
The real one lies in Valle d'Aosta Region, with other giants like Monte Bianco, Monte Rosa, Gran Paradiso, all above 14,000 ft.

10. We end our tour in the center of my hometown, Milan. Full of fancy caf�s with funny anglicized names. "La bottega del caff�," or "The Coffee Shop", is a comedy that satirized the "new fad" of drinking coffee in the XVIII century. The author is the most important Italian playwright of the era. His name?

Answer: Carlo Goldoni

Goldoni wrote in Italian of course, but also in Venetian and French.
Don't let the bar wait too long. Come to Milan, come to Italy.

Source: Author zordy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
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