Reading/guessing practice:
A useful skill for the language learner is guessing. To encourage you to try to do this here is a passage (opens in new window) about a café in Padua which is famous historically for being the place where liberals met in the days of the Austrian occupation and where indeed the uprising of 1848 started. You can still see the bullet hole made by an Austrian soldier who fired on a revolutionary. Study the passage as often as you need and decide whether the statements about it are true or false. The passage is fairly challenging, but you do not need to understand every word to get the gist. There is some help with the vocabulary too.

Vocabulary notes

idee liberali = liberal ideas
era/erano = was/were
aperto = open
Tutti erano i benvenuti = all were welcome
una persona che non poteva pagare = someone who couldn't pay
se pioveva = if it was raining
prendere in prestito = to borrow
la fine degli studi = the end of their course of study

1. The style of the café is intimate

2. The original owner created an atmosphere of courtesy.

3. Only those who could afford it were welcome.

4. If it was raining the staff would sell customers umbrellas.

5. It was a place where people of liberal ideas could meet and talk.

6. Famous customers included French writers like Stendhal and Georges Sand.

7. Today it is no longer a coffee shop, just a restaurant.

8. The Pedrocchi offers facilities for wedding receptions, corporate dinners etc.

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Colloquial Italian The complete course for beginners

Colloquial Italian
The complete course for beginners