Italian word of the day: 'paesaggio'

Anyone who's ever visited any part of Italy has certainly come across a stunning panoramic landscape or two.

Italy is packed full of gorgeous landscapes, and the language has some equally pretty ways to describe them. The phrase bella vista isn't known all around the world for nothing.

As you might know, paese is the word for both town and village, and confusingly, also for country.

- Chiamano l'Italia 'il bel paese'

- They call Italy 'the beautiful country'

And a related word, paesaggio, is used to mean landscape, view or scenery.

- ci siamo fermati ad ammirare il paesaggio

- we stopped to admire the view

- c'era un paesaggio incantevole

- the scenery was lovely

It's also a word that be used to describe a landscape painting, or even a photograph or other image with landscape (as opposed to portriait) orientation.

So it stands to reason that una paesaggista could be a landscape gardener or designer, or even a painter of landscapes.

- architettura del paesaggio

- landscaping

Be careful not to confuse it with the similar-sounding word passaggio, which means passage or crossing.

It's easy to be descriptive - just pop an adjective onto the end.

- Un paesaggio di fiaba

- a fairytale landscape

- il paesaggio alpino

- the Alpine scenery

So whether you want to call it una vista, un panorama or un paesaggio, now you'll never be stuck for words to describe Italy's endless stunning landscapes.

IN PICTURES: Magical winter landscapes across Italy