Welcome back to the Daily Dolce! This is a 30 day challenge of learning a little something in Italian every day, inspired by daily life. The goal is consistency, whether you have 5 minutes or 50 minutes.

I’m sharing everything here on Savor & Speak so that if you stumble upon this and you are an English speaker learning Italian, or an Italian speaker learning English, you can join in, too! I’m also writing everything down here to record my experience, recall what I’ve learned, see what methods work best, and share my experience to inspire others to keep learning, piano piano, slowly but surely.

Today’s Daily Dolce is inspired by one of my favorite activities: hiking!

We’ll cover two false friends: trekking, and excursion/ecursione. They are definitely similar, but not interchangeable in meaning and usage.

First, let’s look at the word “trekking,” which exists both in Italian and English, although with subtle differences in meaning and pronunciation.

When you think of trekking, what do you picture? You may have something different in mind depending on if your native language is Italian or English.

That’s the fun of language, the subtle nuance.

I imagine trekking as a strenuous, challenging, long-distance hike in an exotic destination like Machu Picchu with llama or the Himalayas with yaks hauling your stuff. Whereas hiking is how we describe the activity of walking in the mountains for fun, carrying your own load. I personally would never use trekking and hiking interchangeably.

Whenever we borrow words from another language, the usage and meaning might vary a little. Take latte, for example. For an American, it’s a drink with espresso and steamed milk. For Italians, it’s a glass of milk. That’s kind of how trekking is in each language. It has similarities, but not quite the same.

For example, I would not say “I’m going trekking” if I’m staying local. I would say, “I’m going hiking” instead.

Then we have excursion and excursione.

• In English, an excursion is an organized event, usually as part of a program, like study abroad or a cruise.
• In Italian, escursione can be used to talk about hiking or a day trip.

Here’s some more examples of how hiking can be translated in Italian as either trekking or escursione in English & Italian from Reverso Context.

Enjoy these activities for some more hiking related vocab!

Thanks for joining me, and see you tomorrow for day 3 of the Daily Dolce!