Most people in Italy speak Italian. It’s similar to French and Spanish, they’re called romance languages. In many places, like here in Calabria, people also speak a dialect. Dialects are a slightly different version of a language, that vary from region to region. People use some different words and have a different accent depending on their dialect. The dialect spoken here is called Calabrese, and it’s sometimes hard for me to understand. My students are helping me learn some words.
In Italy they use the euro. For many years, they used the lira, but in 1999 they switched to the euro. Euros are used in most of Europe, and that’s where it gets its name. They use the symbol € instead of the symbol $ that we use for US dollars.
A bottle of water costs €1.00 or less at the grocery store, or €2.50 at a restaurant or cafe.
My favorite thing I ate this week was some delicious gelato! I always get hazelnut and pistachio flavors. Normally, you get two flavors of gelato, no matter how big your cup is! I also had some crostatina (tart) for breakfast one day, which is similar to pie but has a jam-like filling and is more flat.
