Thanks Kevin – I get it now. As you say, from an Italian viewpoint this refers to people living just north of the Alps. Hey ho!

Le transalpine is another way of saying The French

Secondo Zingarelli transalpino può sugnificare La Francia . Un esempio di antonomasia , È una figura retorica

Having delved a bit deeper into the meaning of ‘decine’ I now understand that this can be used figuratively as in ‘tons/lots of’ or ‘un sacco di’ as you might say over there. So ‘decine di volte/decine di lettere’ for example would mean ‘dozens of times/dozens of letters’ and not ‘tens of times/tens of letters’. Therein lay the confusion, at least up till today.

Looking back on the women’s rugby article and ‘proprio le transalpine’ I can see that now (as in over the border), but it doesn’t translate very elegantly.

Comunque, il senno di poi è una cosa meravigliosa, non è vero?

Phil P

I have to say I do get confused every time I come across ‘decine’. I think this means ‘tens’ but I understand that this can also mean dozens, which I translate as ‘dozzine’. ‘Decine di morti’ (dozens dead). A bit confusing isn’t it?

Doesn’t confuse us, Phil. “Tens of thousands of causalties”, for example. It’s a quantifier, albeit rarer in English than in Italian.

And

‘le transalpine’

would be the female ones over the alps, so if we’re talking women’s rugby, then the French.

The Welsh did well, congrats! But that was the men’s game. And this article was about women’s rugby, in response to a suggestion from another reader.