We love summer even more for the wide range of delicious fresh fruit we get this season – and if you’ve been to Italy, you know how good fresh fruit – frutta fresca - tastes here.
If you’re traveling around Italy in the summer, when it can get very hot, and you need to refresh yourself with some light (leggera), juicy (succosa) fruit (frutta), head to the fruttivendolo (fruit store) and ask:
Buongiorno, vorrei un kilo di fragole – Hello, I’d like a kilo of strawberries
Or
Vorrei cinque pesche – I’d like five peaches
Or
Vorrei due etti di albicocche – I’d like two hectograms of apricots.
Remember, if you’re coming from the U.S., we don’t measure in pounds/ounces, so you’ll probably be better off just giving numbers for the amount of fruit you want.
So let’s take a look at the names of summer fruit – la frutta estiva (singular and plural versions):
Albicocca / Albicocche – apricot/apricots
Pesca / Pesche – peach/peaches
Fragola / Fragole – strawberry/strawberries
Melone / Meloni – melon/melons
Cocomero or Anguria / Cocomeri or Angurie – watermelon/watermelons
Ciliegia / Ciliegie – cherry/cherries
Fico / Fichi – fig/figs
Lampone / Lamponi – raspberry/raspberries
Mirtillo / Mirtilli – blueberry/blueberries
Mora / More – blackberry/blackberries
Prugna / Prugne – plum/plums
Susina / Susine – plum/plums
Ananas - pineapple
