Sunday, January 19, 2025

Some example of dis prefixed words in Italian Language

Dis prefix in Italian - change word meaning.
Dis prefix in Italian - change word meaning.


We recently walked into our pharmacy to pick up something we ordered the day before. It wasn’t there. As we left, the pharmacists said scusate per il disguido. My ears went huh, disguido. I had never heard it used before.

On the walk home, we had fun coming up with some words where “dis” is added as a prefix and it more or less negates the sense of the word (see note below).

Our top dis prefixed words heard during a typical day: disgrazia, disagio, dislivello, and dispiacere.

Here’s a list of similar words. Instead of thinking of these as exact formulas for creating the final prefixed word, use them as mnemonics to help you remember the meaning.

disaccordo – dis + accordo
disagio – dis + agio ("inconvenience, bother")
disarmato – dis + armato
disarmonia – dis + armonia
disavventura – dis + avventura
disdetto – dis + detto
disfatto – dis + fatto`
disfunzione – dis + funzione
disgrazia – dis + grazia ("bad luck, misfortune")
disguido – dis + guido ("error, mistake, glitch")
disguingere – dis + giungere
disgiunto – dis + giunto
disimpegno – dis + impegno
disinfestazione – dis + infestazione
disinformazione – dis + informazione
disinstallare – dis + installare
disinteressato – dis + interessato
dislivello – dis + livello ("difference in height, i.e., not level)
dismisura – dis + misura
disonore – dis + onore
disonesto – dis + onesto
dispiacere – dis + piacere ("sorrow, regret" or "to be sorry")
dispiaciuto – dis + piaciuto
disservizio – dis + servizio
dissimile – dis + simile
disuguaglianza – dis + uguaglianza
disumano – dis + umano
disuso – dis + uso

Note: Here we are talking about the sense of the “dis” prefix changing positive meaning of the word to negative. There are similar words where only “di” prefix does the work without the “s” (example: di + sperare => disperare). Or other cases where more of the first part of a word is lopped off before adding “dis” (example: di + apprezzo => disprezzo). However, the “dis” prefix catches our ear sthe most in Italian. For more information, see Treccani vocabolario dis and Treccani vocabolario di.

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Examples of Edicole (Santinelle) of Bergamo

12 Edicole (Santelle) in Bergamo and Surroundings
12 Edicole (Santelle) in Bergamo and Surroundings

In English “edicule” derives from the Latin word “aedicula”, meaning shrine or small house. It refers to a small structure or niche for a statue. In architecture, it can be used to describe a small construction, often a kiosk or a decorative feature.

In Italian, edicola (plural edicole) is a small architectural feature separate or attached to another structure that is for ornamentation or more often to house a sacred image, work of art, or remembrance. Also called santella in Lombardy, especially in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia and the Upper Mantua area. Santelle are images of popular religious devotion typically arranged in an outdoor environment.

Also, in Italian edicola is used to refer to a newsstand or kiosk. These kiosks sell newspapers, magazines, and much more. They are usually free-standing found on a sidewalk or in a piazza.

The edicole (altars) gathered in this post are all found in Bergamo city except one found in nearby Alzano Lombardo.


Friday, January 17, 2025

Monte Misma – Just Outside Our Window



  
Left: View over Po River Valley - looking west from Monte Misma.
Center: The tracks for this hike up to Monte Misma, Bergamo.
Right: Descending from Monte Misma with view of Po River Valley and Apennines in the distance.


This mountain greets us every morning when we look out the window. If we can see it, it’s a good day and the air is clean. If there is snow on it, we might just hope to see snow in Bergamo (which is rare these days). Given that we look at this mountain a lot, we only climbed to its bald top once in our 10 years here. That was in 2016: A Walk from Albino to Bergamo via Monte Misma. It was a hot day and a bit of a weird walk back to Bergamo.

So, recently (end of December 2024) on a clear winter day we decided to repeat the good parts of our last effort but not walk all the way back to Bergamo.

Overview


Duration: 3.25 hours
Elevation: 889 m
Length: 14.3 km
Location: Italy, Lombardy, Bassa e Media Val Seriana

From Bergamo center, we walked to one of the TEB tramvia stops that takes you up the Val Seriana. We got off at the last stop, Albino, and started walking, following trail 511 to trail 601. Trail 511 is on the north side of Misma. From the top of Misma, we followed trail 539 back down to Pradalunga (one tram stop before Albino). Trail 539 is by far the most popular way up in winter as you catch more of the sun! 

We took the tram back to Bergamo. Hooray no car needed!

About Misma


Mount Misma (Ol Misma in Bergamasco) is a mountain in the Alps 1,160 m high. It is in the province of Bergamo, straddling the Seriana Valley and the Cavallina Valley. It is one of the first foothills of the Bergamo Pre-Alps and is visible from much of the central Lombard plain.

The summit is the border point between the municipalities of Albino, Pradalunga and Cenate Sopra, while the slopes also extend over the municipalities of Scanzorosciate, Trescore and Luzzana. Especially in the nineteenth century it was famous for the mining of coti stones and cement (mainly in Pradalunga), activities that contributed to the development of the territory, but also to the disfigurement of the mountain itself, perpetrating wounds that are still clearly visible. Whetstones, used to sharpen blades, weapons and tools, have been used since the times of the ancient Romans, so much so that there are mentions of them in the words of Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD).

Even today it is possible to find, in the locality called Valley of the Prisoners upstream of the Forcella sanctuary, huge masses of Roère, or the waste from the processing of these stones, a work begun by the prisoners of 2000 years ago, and finished in the last century when the natural coti stones were replaced by synthetic stones of lower cost, and with them their processing also ended.

Musings


On the route we took passing above Fiobbio, we came across a small chapel: Cappella del Martirio della Beata Pierina Morosini or “Chapel of the Maryrdom of Blessed Pierina Morosini”. We passed this in 2016 as well but this time stopped to read the sign carefully. Pierina Morosini (1931 – 1957), the eldest of nine siblings, was born in the "Stalle" farmhouse in Fiobbio, a hamlet just below where the chapel is. When she was 15, she was hired as an assistant weaver in the Honegger cotton mill in Albino, first as a cleaner in the department and looms, then as an apprentice and helper for the other workers, and finally as a loom operator. Morosini really wanted to be a nun but continued to work to support her family. One day after work, she was attacked and mortally wounded by a young man. Cause of death: stone to the head. 

I don’t know why that story sticks in my head. Dream not attained. Senseless loss of life.

A little bit later on the trail, we met a enthusiastic, beaming man who spoke to use in the Bergamasco dialect. He was descending and we were ascending. The more it was obvious we weren’t getting what he was saying, the louder he spoke. After a bit of back and forth, we were able to glean that this was his 86th time climbing to the top of Misma. I wondered: a distant relative of Morosini?

The day we did the hike we could see the Monte Rosa Massif and Monviso to the east. To the south, the Apennines and the start of the Ligurian Apennines. Unfortunately, it's becoming rarer that we have such clear days.


  
Left: Approaching Chapel Morosini under Monte Misma, Bergamo.
Center and right: Inside Chapel Morosini on trail 511.

  
Left: Cross on top of Monte Misma, Bergamo.
Center: Descending from Monte Misma, Bergamo on a winter day.
Right: Trail leading down to Prati Alti above Pradalunga, Bergamo.

  
Left: Helloborus niger - Christmas rose.
Center: Ice crystals - haorfrost or needle ice on the trail to Monte Misma.
Right: Niche featuring Madonna con bambino with along Monte Cura, Albino.

  
Left: Castagneto Secolare La Pratolina Information, Pradalunga, Bergamo.
Center and right: Secular chestnut tree of Castagneto Secolare La Pratolina (Pradalunga).

   
Left: Porta al Cielo (Memorial) to coronavirus victims at Santuario della Madonna della Forcella.
Center: Approaching Pradalunga, Bergamo.
Right: Prati Alti above Pradalunga, Bergamo.

  
Santuario della Madonna della Forcella - frescoes.

 
Left: Santuario della Madonna della Forcella
Right: View from Santuario della Madonna della Forcella, above Pradalunga, Bergamo.

 
Left: View from Monte Misma, looking back over Val Seriana toward Bergamo.
Right: View northeast from Monte Misma toward Casale and Lago d'Endine.