Catholics in Italy just recently celebrated the Feast Day of Santa Lucia, on December 13. St. Lucy is the patron saint of the blind and those with eye-trouble; her name is associated to light because it shares a root (luc-) with the Latin word for light, lux. So we have decided to pick luce as our Word of the Week.
And let’s not forget about the luci di Natale (Christmas lights) adorning the streets of Italian cities these days!
To turn on the light is accendere la luce.
To turn off the light is spegnere la luce.
Dare alla luce (literally to give to light) is an idiomatic expression meaning to give birth.
Now listen to the great Elisa and her "Luce (tramonti a nord est)", the song that was the winner of the 2001 Sanremo Music Festival:
