So little time, and in an audio format (what's more), yet your explanations were clear, complete, friendly, and memorable. Bravo. Thank you!

P/s: For users who, like me (burp!), learn well by over-analysing things, you might find it helpful to compare "avvelenato" ("poisoned") with "velenoso" ("poisonous"). Just in case that helps you to see a pattern...

Happy weekend, all, and thanks once again IPOD for this very chunky lesson.

When ST was about one year old, I played him my "old" (= audio cassette!) copy of this exact piece of music, sung by D. F-D himself, and found myself wiping away tears of laughter caused by my nephew's very personal and heartfelt approximation of "basso baritono". I think he hit notes that day, which he won't be hitting again until his voice breaks... it sounded like he was growling!

... but the little boy is worth it, I'll play anything for him that I think can help to develop and challenge his "ear", and stimulate his appetite for cultivating his very own taste in music. The exact same thing happened about one month later, when I put on for him one section of Grieg's "Mountain King", another piece which flatters the classic baritone. Ah, music... food for the souls -- and the imaginations -- of children even as it nourishes the hearts of "adults" like me...

So I thank you (**as well as anyone who expended precious brain cells on my little challenge, of course), from the very warmest, and the sincerest, place in my heart.

Q: Which cantante lirico in michele's list above has an asteroid named after him/ her?

Hint: He is this Auntie's favourite basso baritono.

Catherine, Marco, thanks again for yet another fun and useful lesson. "Risiamo"... I should have known that the Italians could -- and would -- stretch "ri-" to the very limits! 

P/s: What is the plural of Prima Donna? I have a feeling that this is one of those tricky compound words where part (or all) of it is invariable.

Please please don't feel awkward, if you happen to recognize yourselves anywhere on my list, because I know that nobody has a clue, and it's not so bad (just a bit jarring to me; I'd never think less of anybody for innocently doing any of these things):

(1) "Messing up your rice": By drizzling soy sauce on it. Or by mixing the whole bowl/plate of rice up with the sauce (*except maybe mabo tofu). But I blame the Chinese restaurants for this, because they serve those one-dish meals with a scoop of something splashed right in the centre.

(Explanation: In Chinese food culture, children are taught to keep their rice looking neat. Mixing up the rice thoughtlessly with other food is a bit like slicing up a plate of spaghetti into 1-cm lengths and then eating it with a spoon.)

(2) Sucking on chopsticks, chewing them, or -- che schifo! -- playing with them (eg. drumming on the table with them).

(3) This is something I have seen Greek, Italian, and Spanish friends do, with my own eyes, so maybe it is a Southern European thing: Scraping food from one communal dish into another, like so many food scraps, so that the waitress can start clearing away some serving dishes.

(Explanation: This has to with respect for the chef/ preserving the restaurant's "decorum". In a decent Chinese restaurant, only the waitress or waiter can do this. The waitress will actually ask the customers for permission before "combining" dishes, and even so, only for those foods whose flavours won't get blended with each other eg. deep fried food. Other things will be transferred to pristine new plates of their own -- much smaller ones. In most good restaurants, the staff will even pay attention to how they "plate" the result, and may even replace the garnishing so that it looks refined.)

I hope that my che schifo list didn't make anybody out there feel self-conscious! After all, I bet that a lot of Europeans think "che schifo" when they see Chinese diners sucking the meat off bones, which is actually not considered impolite. 

I don't know about being brave; everything happened so fast. But accidentally getting the borseggiatore's cheap copy watch was a kind of compensation. I'm keeping the watch in my safe deposit box at HSBC to give to the Stunt Toddler one day.  

Thank you for the phrases. "Cavarsela" looks intimidating; double object pronouns have always been a weak point for me (eg. "andarsene"). 

So --

"You'll never get away with it!" ("it" being some audacious crime)

= Non te la caverà mai con questo!

???

Hope the users won't be too irritated if I share a story. A few years ago, I was mugged in Barcelona, right in front of my friends. Fortunately, I was able to wrench my handbag back out of the mugger's hands, but not before scraping my knee on the cobblestones (ouch). 

When my friends caught up with me, they found me holding my bag (intact), badly shaken (but unhurt apart from the scraped knee), and... clutching the mugger's cheap watch in my trembling hand. 

So of the mugger who was involved in this "reverse mugging", can I say, "Non se l'ha cavata così" ? I hope my 2 sentences are understandable despite my wobbly grammar. 

Needless to say, this Italian friend wears a lot of tweed, and he wears "English" shoes (*actually handmade for him in London!) even though Italy is The Land of Great Shoes. Hm...

If I'm not mistaken, in the immortal film by Sergio Leone, "Il Brutto, il Buono e il Cattivo" (sp.?), even Clint Eastwood had to guess whether he was the "Ugly", the "Good" or the "Bad".

Marco, which one are you? Bello we already know (*so "Brutto" is out!!!), but: Buono? Cattivo? Thanks for the great lessons, and your sense of humour.

Again, thank you.

Is it ci li hai messi?

vittoria, I think I heard "ce li hai messi", but I'm not sure because I'm not a paying subscriber and can't check against the pdf. I think the "ci" becomes a "ce", for the sake of euphony? In any case, this post has bumped your question up, so maybe we'll get an answer. Cheers -- Auntie

P/s: I agree that Catherine's explanation was great. Fabrizio started it!

In the expansion tired is " ho sonno", does "sono stanco" have the same meaning?

Hi user2048, according to my dictionary:

"sonno" = "sleepy"

and

"stanco" = "tired".

So the meaning is slightly different.

How very useful the word "quanto" is!

Did I get that right? Thank you for teaching me this constructions. I feel like I have a new toy!

Sorry to ask a scary question in a newbie lesson, but does "quanto" in this expression have to be inflected"?

Eg. Quanti sono di aiuto gli insegnanti del'ItalianPod. 

Thank you so much, ItalianPod. So far, every lesson, regardless of the level, has been packed with useful vocabulary and construction. It's a perfect method of revision for me.

Thanks to your recommendation, I shall start today. "C'era una volta... " My edition even comes with the entire text on six audiocassettes -- an early audiobook! --, which I'll be able to listen to in my car later! And the words are indeed beautiful. Thank you so much, Michele.

P/s: The other novel is "Il rumore sordo della battaglia", written by a friend of mine. But given that it's bristling with difficult vocabulary and historical detail, I'll have to study for a further ten years before tackling that one. 

Anna8: My favourite Babbo is Babbo Natale (Father Christmas). 

Rule #1: For Singular nouns denoting family members (eg. "mamma") --> the definite article is omitted:

Eg. Mia nonna (*not la mia nonna...)

EXCEPT -- Rule #2 -- where, even though the noun is singular as per the general Rule #1, the subject's possessive adjective is loro/Loro:

Eg. La lora nonna (*not lora nonna... here you can't omit the definite article "la"...)

There is an additional case -- ie, Rule #3 --, raised by fabrizio and confirmed by michele, where the singular noun is given in a diminutive form (eg. -ino, -ina etc etc):

Eg. La mia sorellina (*not Mia sorella). La nostra mammina (*not Nostra mamma). Il tuo fratellino (*not Tuo fratello). Il nostro babbo (*that's from "padre" = father; *so not Nostro padre).

Michele, Fabrizio, ItalianPod, I'm sorry if this abuses the Italian language, but it is the rule that I (barely think that) I understood when I looked it up, inth my usual learner's confusion.

If you can confirm any part of this, and maybe even supply some original example sentences (*so that I don't have to infringe copyright in my "grammar book"!!!), you'll be helping A LOT of nervous learners like me! Thank you so much!

@michele: One little tweak recommended for your very correct English: "... it was my [own] fault if/ it was my fault [alone] if/ I was [the one] to blame if..." HTH.

"auntie68 is to blame for the off-topic debate on copyright law at CPOD tonight"

"Tonight's off-topic debate in on copyright law in CPOD was auntie68's fault."

The Italian language seems to favour an adjectival construction: Eg., "Sono un po' colpa di..."