Having just moved of course I packed at least 1000 boxes and during this process, I discovered one of my favorite Italian words was “soggiorno” which means living room. I guess there is something about the double “g’s.” It just felt so fun to write that word.
Another fave?? Ingresso – again, I think it is those double letters. It means entry hall, but it also means “entrance” or “admittance” and so you might see this word used under other circumstances such as:
ingresso principale: main entrance
biglietto d’ingresso: admission ticket
vietato l’ingresso: no admittance
But back to words of the home.
disimpegno: a landing or hallway
camera da letto: bedroom
bagno: bathroom
sala da pranzo: dining room
tinello: dinette
cucina: kitchen
soffitta: attic
cantina: this could mean a completely built out place with a kitchen and a place to eat, but usually it means a storage basement or cellar.
sgabuzzino: storage closet
Again, look how cute those double z’s are! But back to the sgabuzzino – for an American, it would just be considered a hall closet, for an Italian family it is a valuable storage area as most Italian homes do not come with any closets (think: four walls, a floor and a ceiling and lots of armoires)
parete: Since we are on the subject of walls, parete means wall, not to be confused with muro which also means wall, but more like an external wall. It could be the walls that surround a medieval town, the Berlin Wall, or other walls I won’t mention (I am not a political gal). But you get the idea of the difference between the words.
soffitto: ceiling (not to be confused with soffitta)
pavimento: floor
That should be a pretty good start for vocab on the house. Soon I will write about buying a house in Italy, moving, remodeling, etc… so stay tuned. 🙂
Italy Translated 
Italian is such a beautiful language! I am looking forward to the next blog on home buying in Italy!
Thanks Kathy……as you can see, I am behind in writing….can’t even respond in a timely manner! 🙂 – – -probably because I am still working on this house!!! But it is coming to an end soon….yay! Hope you are well.
Good luck with the unpacking!
Thanks so much!!!! STILL trying to get settled, hence the lack of writing…but we are getting there!!!!! Baci..
Personally, I also favor “soggiorno” ove “salotto”.
Hi Renato….yes…it has a better ring to it, doesn’t it?
Good luck with the unpacking! We’re still working on it, but the pile of boxes is gradually reducing! Our apartment is more one big loft, so the bagno is the only true separate room. Otherwise just pavimento, soffito, e quattro pareti. At least the cucina e bagno are bigger than they were in my Dutch house!
Good luck Alison! But it sounds so hip and cool! A loft – – my dream!
I love these language lessons! I cannot wait to read your next entry about remodeling! I know it is very different there!
Hi Sheri….yes….totally different…and the cool thing is now we have done it in Italy and Austin…..in Austin all on our own, here we paid people a lot of money, but still felt like we did it on our own…ha, ha, ha…..that is life in the old country…
I’ll keep an eye open for the vocab on buying a house. We’re sort of thinking about it too.
Ohhh…..have fun…good market for homes in Italy right now…