What does “tana” mean in Italian?
Nel laboratorio creativo di Levante tra musica e ricordi
B2 Italian listening practice · Standard Italian · Curated for upper-intermediate learners
Showing off her creative studio, the singer Levante calls it “la mia tana dove vengo a creare, a pensare, a isolarmi.” A tana is literally an animal’s den or burrow, but Italians use it affectionately for a personal retreat, the warm little hideaway where you go to think, create, or just disappear from the world.
The metaphor has a whole family: rintanarsi means “to hole up, to cocoon yourself away,” and in hide-and-seek a child shouts “tana!” on reaching base, like calling “home” or “found you.” So tana carries both safety and secrecy. A lovely, very Italian way to describe the room or corner that’s truly yours.
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Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s B2 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.
- ▸Describing a personal studio, office, or retreat
- ▸The verb rintanarsi (to hole up, to cocoon away)
- ▸In Italian hide-and-seek: shouting “tana liberi tutti!”
- ▸In interviews with artists about their creative space
- ▸Any time an Italian means “my little hideaway”