English Listening Practice: Examples & Vocabulary To Describe Places In English
British English listening practice for intermediate, and above, English language learners. In today's English listening lesson we explore the Amalfi coast's stunning scenery and history while enhancing your travel vocabulary for describing places and experiences.
- 🛫 Learn travel vocabulary and phrases
- 🗣️ Practice grammar and pronunciation
- 🌊 Discover Italy’s Amalfi Coast and historical sites
- 🎧 Real-world context to boost your listening skills
- 📚 Interactive and immersive learning experience
✔️ Lesson transcript: https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/english-listening-practice-travel-vocabulary-describing-places/
The creator made Italy from designs by Michelangelo.
⭐ Mark Twain
This isn't your average language English listening lesson - just like our "Activate Your Listening" audio book course is'nt an average English listening course! It's a thrilling journey through Italy's most breathtaking landscapes, packed with rich vocabulary and real-world travel tips.
- Help us make more content with a donation https://adeptengli.sh/donate
Discover hidden archaeological gems, navigate tricky traffic zones, and learn to describe stunning vistas like a native speaker. Warning: This immersive audio experience may cause severe wanderlust and rapid English improvement. Listen at your own risk!
The best education I have ever received was through travel.
⭐ Lisa Ling
Follow and subscribe to our FREE English language podcast, wherever you listen or watch your podcasts.
More About This Lesson
Embark on a thrilling journey through Italy's breathtaking Amalfi Coast! This lesson combines stunning scenery, rich history, and essential travel vocabulary to enhance your English skills and fuel your wanderlust.
Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.
⭐ Gustave Flaubert
Here's what you'll gain from this immersive language experience:
- Learn travel vocabulary and phrases for describing places and experiences.
- Gain insights into a personal travel experience, keeping you engaged.
- Understand the term "area of outstanding natural beauty" and its significance.
- Learn vocabulary related to coastal geography, like "cliff" and "sheer drops."
- Discover terms for natural features like "rocky," "pine trees," and "lemon groves."
- Learn the verb "to perch" and its application to houses and birds.
- Understand the geological term "volcanic" and its effects on coastlines.
- Get familiar with historical sites like Pompeii and Herculaneum.
- Learn vocabulary for archaeology, such as "ruins," "frescos," and "mosaic."
- Explore vocabulary related to human experiences and historical events.
- Understand modern-day challenges like traffic restrictions in tourist areas.
- Get travel tips and practical advice for navigating difficult terrains.
- Hear first-hand accounts of visiting popular tourist destinations.
- Learn the impacts of terrain and weather on travel plans and activities.
This English listening practice lesson provides practical vocabulary for real-life travel situations. You'll improve your ability to follow extended English narratives. Listening to this blend of language and culture accelerates your learning, because you stay interested and that helps you focus. You'll become more accustomed to native speech patterns. All of which will help prepare you for confident communication during your own travels.
You may have the universe if I may have Italy.
⭐ Giuseppe Verdi
Don't miss out on more exciting lessons! Subscribe to our podcast now and boost your English with real-life stories and useful tips. Your journey to fluent, confident communication starts here!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- How can visiting the Amalfi Coast help improve my travel vocabulary in English? Visiting the Amalfi Coast provides a rich context for learning travel-related vocabulary. By describing your experiences and the stunning scenery, you can practice terms such as "rugged," "picturesque," "archaeological," and "volcanic." Engaging with the local environment enhances your ability to describe places and experiences in English.
- What are some useful English terms for describing natural features seen on the Amalfi Coast? When describing the natural beauty of the Amalfi Coast, you can use terms like "cliff" to describe the vertical rock faces, "rocky" for areas full of stones, and "grove" for plantations of trees like lemons. These terms help convey the unique landscape of the region.
- How can exploring historical sites like Pompeii and Herculaneum enhance my English vocabulary? Exploring historical sites like Pompeii and Herculaneum introduces you to archaeological vocabulary. Words such as "ruins," "fresco," "impluvium," and "mosaic" become part of your lexicon as you describe the preserved artifacts and ancient architecture. This vocabulary is useful for discussing history and culture in English.
- What challenges might I face when travelling around the Amalfi Coast, and how can I describe them in English? Travelling around the Amalfi Coast can be challenging due to the "ZTL" (Zona Traffico Limitato) zones and the steep, narrow roads. You can describe these difficulties using terms like "restricted zones," "panoramic views," "windy roads," and "terrain." These descriptions help convey the complexities of navigating this region.
- How can I practice my English by sharing my travel experiences? Sharing your travel experiences helps you practice English by using descriptive language and recounting personal stories. You can write or speak about your visit to places like Amalfi, Conca dei Marini, and Pompeii, incorporating new vocabulary and improving your fluency through real-life contexts.
- Additional Tip For more structured practice, consider using resources like the "Activate Your Listening" course from Adept English. It offers conversational practice with topics on the UK, food, and education, helping you further enhance your English listening and speaking skills.
This lesson is a linguistic gondola ride, navigating through picturesque vocabulary and historical ruins. You'll emerge with a panoramic view of travel expressions, as breathtaking as the coast itself.
Most Unusual Words:
- Travelogue: A written or spoken description of someone's travel experiences.
- Amalfi: A coastal area in Italy known for its natural beauty.
- Rugged: Rough and uneven.
- Cliff: A steep, high face of rock.
- Perch: To sit or rest on something high.
- Volcanic: Related to volcanoes.
- Picturesque: Very pretty and charming.
- Fresco: A painting on a wall.
- Mosaic: A picture made from small pieces of coloured stone or glass.
- Terrain: The physical features of a piece of land.
Most Frequently Used Words:
| Word | Count |
|---|---|
| Amalfi | 17 |
| There | 15 |
| These | 12 |
| Because | 10 |
| Herculaneum | 9 |
| Difficult | 7 |
| Means | 7 |
| Houses | 7 |
| Where | 7 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
Transcript: British English Listening Practice Exploring the Amalfi Coast
Let’s explore ‘Travelogue Vocabulary’ with Italy’s Amalfi Coast
Hi there. Today let's do a travelogue. What's a 'travelogue'? It's an account of a travelling experience. I've been on holiday last week so let's practise some vocabulary for describing a place, describing a visit and an experience. And if you're Italian, I'll be talking about part of your country. So hopefully this will be interesting because it's personal experience, we know you like that and it keeps you listening. But also some good general travel vocabulary today. And keep listening to the end to hear my unique insights on the Amalfi Coast. That's A-M-A-L-F-I. Some travel tips to sharpen your experience. This lesson promises to be a blend of real-life experience and practical language, practical vocabulary.
Don’t forget New Activate Your Listening to boost your English!
And don't forget if you would like to fast forward your English language learning then our New Activate Your Listening Course is available. You can practise your understanding of English conversation with two speakers on topics such as the UK, Food and Education. Good universal topics. Lots of vocabulary learning there. So go on, give your English a big boost. That's New Activate Your Listening Course and it's on our Courses page at adeptenglish.com.
Boost Your Learning With Adept English
Hello, I’m Hilary, and you’re listening to Adept English. We will help you to speak English fluently. All you have to do is listen. So start listening now and find out how it works.
What’s behind the photographs of beautiful Amalfi?
So you may look at the photographs and think that Amalfi or the Amalfi Coast is all beauty and relaxation. This lesson covers the real Amalfi, rugged terrain and some difficult travel. Hard to get around. Are you ready?
📷
A photo of the Amalfi coast from our AirBnB. Practice English with real-life examples from the Amalfi Coast.
Amalfi - houses perched on the cliffs!
So I spent last week on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. A-M-A-L-F-I. I've been there before but it was such a long time ago. And the Amalfi Coast is called after a town in the region, Amalfi. And it's what we'd call in English an 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They're A-O-N-Bs on our maps of the UK. An 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty' means that it's nature at its best. A very beautiful area. And the particular sort of beauty that Amalfi is famous for? Well this is a rugged coastal area on the west coast of Italy. Very high cliffs and steep drops down into the sea. So a 'cliff', C-L-I-F-F, means 'a vertical face of rock with a horizontal level high up'. That's a 'cliff'. A cliff is usually made of rock and it's a little bit like a step on your staircase but obviously much bigger! So Amalfi has a very rocky coastline with pine trees and lemon groves and lots of little houses perched high up. So 'rocky' R-O-C-K-Y just means 'full of rocks and stones'. 'Pines' are huge conifer trees, trees that bear cones. And a 'lemon grove', well a 'grove', G-R-O-V-E just means 'a collection of trees' and obviously lemon trees bear lemons as fruit. We also saw olives growing, apricots, lots of vines with grapes on them and figs of course, F-I-G. And also oleanders everywhere. They grow very large lemons in the Amalfi region! And houses perched high up? What does that mean? Well the verb 'to perch' P-E-R-C-H means 'to sit on the edge of something high up'. Typically birds perch up in trees or up there on rocks and here we've got houses 'perching'.
You don’t go to Amalfi for the beaches!
There are beaches in Amalfi but they're often very small and hard to get to. They tend not to be sandy beaches but much more likely pebbles and gray shingle. After all, the Amalfi coast is just south of Sorento and the Bay of Naples, Napoli in other words, where of course the volcano Vesuvius is situated. So the coastline isn't sandy bays, it's a bit more volcanic looking than that. And more often than not you'll find it's a sheer drop into the sea. That's 'sheer' S-H-E-E-R meaning 'very steep, straight down'. So some of the beaches you may be able to get to them by boat but they're very difficult to access from the land. So although the scenery here is stunning, the beaches are not the best in Italy.
So what did we do on the Amalfi coast?
Conca dei Marini
Well we stayed in a little village called Conca dei Marini, not far from Amalfi and it was very picturesque. That's P-I-C-T-U-R-E-S-Q-U-E. When we use that word it means we're describing a place that 'looks very pretty, very appealing'. That's 'picturesque'. So we stayed in one of the houses perched high on the hill and we had a beautiful terrace with a 180 degree view of the sea. Very pleasant.
A bit of archaeology - Pompeii and Herculaneum
Our main trips, well they were archaeological in nature. We visited Pompeii, that's P-O-M-P-E-I-I, the ancient city and Herculaneum or modern-day Ercolano. The last eruption of the volcano Vesuvius happened in 79 AD and the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed. People did escape but many were killed. But one of the reasons why these two cities are so well known, these two archaeological sites, they were effectively preserved by lava or ash. And in fact when we visited Herculaneum, one of the things we were told was that 'the science of archaeology was born with the discovery of these sites'!
Of the two, Pompeii is the better known site and the much bigger one, or rather more of it has been uncovered. It's quite a big Roman town and there are lots of ruins for you to wander in. But it's hard to imagine what Pompeii would actually have looked like. Most of the buildings don't have roofs, though you can see the roads in the town which were impressive. Of the two, we enjoyed Herculaneum much more. For one, it's less famous so it was less busy, fewer visitors. But also because of the way the town was preserved. We found Pompeii was not terribly well labelled, whereas in Herculaneum we got an audio guide which meant we got much more out of our visit. But actually there was much more to see in Herculaneum. Many of the buildings have roofs and they were much more intact, much more remained of the buildings in Herculaneum than the ones at Pompeii. In part this is because of the way the town was preserved. In Herculaneum, high heat from the volcanic eruption was the first effect followed by layers and layers of ash. That's A-S-H. or burnt material. In fact the level of the ground was raised significantly. You can see that when you look at the modern-day Herculaneum above it's at a different level to the ancient site. So many of the buildings here are really quite well preserved. There are frescoes on the walls, that's F-R-E-S-C-O, that's Roman wall paintings, very beautiful some of them. And you can see much more of the layout of a Roman house with the gardens in squares in the middle of the house open to the air. And the 'impluvium', that's a stone bath, a square bath, often in the entrance hall which had a hole in the roof above it and which collected rainwater. Most of the houses seem to have one of these. And there were lots of lovely mosaic floors, that's 'mosaic' M-O-S-I-A-C, that's when a surface is covered with lots of tiny tiles. Again very decorative, very beautiful.
Herculaneum - a human tragedy visible nearly 2000 years on
So Herculaneum was hit by something called a 'pyroclastic flow'. That means a wave of super hot air came as the volcano erupted and this was followed by ash, layers and layers of it which solidified into rock. And this had the effect of preserving Herculaneum.
The part of Herculaneum which you perhaps see last is the boat houses where there are skeletons S-K-E-L-E-T-O-N. These are skeletons of people who died in the eruption, who were sitting waiting, hoping for boats to come and take them away across the sea. They were hoping to catch a boat to safety out of town but they were killed instantly when the 'pyroclastic flow' came and can be seen huddled still in the boat houses. You get a real sense of the human tragedy from these figures. You also get a sense of how the landscape changed. These boat houses are nowhere near the sea now. The sea moved further out because of all the ash. And you can see that the modern day city of Herculano is raised up. The level is way above the level of ancient Herculaneum because of the amount of ash which dropped.
Is it fair to call Amalfi ‘a tourist trap’?
So what about the rest of the area? What about the rest of Amalfi? Well it was very hot when we were there so we didn't want to rush around and we spent quite a few days at the house resting and relaxing and reading. We did visit Amalfi town but it was a bit disappointing. We found it a bit of a tourist trap although the bus journey was very interesting getting there. Where might have been better? The beautiful town of Ravello high up on the cliffs above Amalfi where there are beautiful gardens and sea views. And Positano is another place worth visiting. I have been there before but we didn't make it on this trip.
So those were our trips and the positives about the area.
English Fluency & Health: Dr Michael Mosley
Amalfi roads need careful driving
What else is there to say? Well I think that actually it was quite difficult to get around. We had a hire car otherwise it would have been difficult to get from Napoli airport to the house. The road from Naples or Napoli goes over the top of mountains and down to the sea so it's very windy and panoramic. A beautiful drive but quite challenging in places and I suggest if you rent a car in the region rent a small one because you'll often find yourself squeezing by narrow spaces with cars coming the other direction.
Are ZTL zones a good idea for reducing traffic in tourist areas? Yes…
I think we found the terrain and some of the traffic restrictions difficult to navigate. We were made pretty quickly aware during our stay of the so-called ZTLs. That's the Zona Traffico Limitato. So these are areas where the traffic is restricted. If you're local, a delivery driver or an emergency worker you're fine but if you're a tourist especially in a hire car - no go! You can't go into these areas and if you accidentally do then it's between 100 and 350 euro fine. Quite steep. But if you're a tourist especially one in a rented car you need to watch out. These zones are all over the place and although they're signed it's really easy for people to cross accidentally into one. You can then get a fine of 100 euros up to 350 euros. Stressful then.
Download The Podcast Audio & Transcript
Solve The Maths Problem To Download Podcast & Transcript
But ZTLs possibly damage the tourism industry
Although I can understand why this is necessary, certainly in Amalfi where the roads are narrow and incredibly busy in the summer I understand the need for restrictions and in fact we did use the local SITA bus in preference on a few occasions. So it had the desired effect. But these ZTL restrictions did make getting around very difficult. For example we booked a car park in Pompeii and then were unable to use it because it was in one of these zones. We tried to book Vesuvius but we gave up because it was just too difficult to coordinate everything. Three different tickets were needed and we also gave up on visiting one of the local attractions in Conca dei Marini where we were staying, the Grotto Smeraldo. Although this was just down from our house, probably half a mile away, because of a ZTL we'd have had to drive all the way to Amalfi and back, a 40 mile round trip to access it. So we weren't going to do that. Why not walk you might say? Well we did or at least we tried but the steepness of the terrain was difficult to believe. There are paths, there are ways in between the roads that wiggle down to the sea but they're basically like a long staircase, certainly a 45 degree angle upwards with hundreds of stairs very steep. So my son and I did walk down to the sea a couple of times using these but it was 35 degrees, 38 at times. You need big leg muscles and good lungs to get about in Conca dei Marini because the terrain is so steep. So a swim in the sea was possible to cool down but then a 42 minute walk almost vertically up steps meant that you were hot and sweaty again by the time that you got to the house! I think the residents of Conca dei Marini must be extremely fit. Going up and down those stairs all the time, big leg muscles and huge lungs. So there you have it, that's my travel experience in Amalfi last week. My view of a tiny part of Italy for you.
Goodbye
Let us know your travel experiences or what you think of what I've said. We'd love to hear from you especially if you're Italian on this one.
Enough for now, have a lovely day, speak to you again soon. Goodbye.
Thank you so much for listening. Please help me tell others about this podcast by reviewing or rating it. And, please share it on social media. You can find more listening lessons and a free English course at adeptenglish.com
Links
- ZTL in Italy
- Amalfi Coast
- Things to Do on the Amalfi Coast
- Help us make more content with a donation https://adeptengli.sh/donate
- More great listening lessons
- Find us on Spotify
- Read along on YouTube
- Apple Podcasts
- Listen & Learn English Consonants Pronunciation Course
- English language courses
- Listen & Learn
- Activate Your Listening Course
- Podcast Bundles
- Downloads
