Lesson 194: Understanding verbs -- visitare v. andare/venire a trovare + qualcuno

One of the most common "mistakes" that speakers of Italian make is confusing the usage of visitare and the verb expression, andare/venire a trovare qualcuno.

Visitare means to visit but in specific circumstances and contexts. Be careful when using it to describe visiting people, because it gives the impression of a visit to or by your doctor and generally means to examine or to see -- if you say that you're going to visit Maria, and you use visitare, while you'll probably be understood, it gives the impression that Maria is your doctor and is giving you a check-up -- see the examples below:

• Oggi mio nonno ha preso un appuntamento dal medico. Vuole essere visitato dato che non sta molto bene.
  
  Today my grandfather made an appointment at the doctor's. He wants to be examined since he is not feeling well.

But, you can use visitare to mean to visit when you talk about going to cities, towns, museums, attractions, etc:

• Quando sei andato a Roma, hai visitato molti musei interessanti?
  When you went to Rome, did you visit many interesting museums?

When visiting cities and towns, omit the preposition, a, with the verb, visitare:

• Sono andato a Londra e ad Amsterdam. Hai mai visitato Londra? È bellissima!
  I went to London and Amsterdam? Did you ever visit London? It's very beautiful!

When talking about visiting people, use andare/venire a trovare qualcuno, which literally means"to go/to come to find someone". However, the usage between the two differs:

1. When you're speaking to the person to whom you are visiting (or plan to visit or have visited, etc.), you use venire a trovare
   
   
2. When you're talking about visiting someone, and you are not addressing that someone directly, use andare a trovare
   

Note the placement of the object pronoun -- it generally attaches to the infinitive, trovare. Let's look at some examples:

• Marta: Ho parlato con Luigi! È molto ansioso!
  Marta: I spoke with Luigi. He's very anxious!
  
  Roberto: La madre di Luigi va a trovarlo presto?
  Robert: Luigi's mom is visiting him soon?


• Marta: Che fai questa estate?
  Marta: What are you doing this summer?
  
  Roberto: Vado a trovare Luigi. Passa un'estate a Barcelona, e mi ha invitato a passare l'estate con lui.
  Roberto: I'm going to visit Luigi. He's spending a summer in Barcelona, and he invited me to spend the summer with him.
  
  
• Marta: Dov'è andato Marco?
  Marta: Where did Marco go?
  
  Roberto: Marco è andato a trovare Luisa. Ha deciso di andare perché non è mai stato a Palermo.
  Marco visited Luisa. He decided to go because he has never been to Palermo.
  
  
• Marta: Non ci vediamo più.
  Marta: We do not see each other any more.
  
  Roberto: Vieni a trovarmi! Mi manchi!
  Visit me! I miss you!