Il messaggio in bottiglia dalla Spagna all’Italia

Passato prossimo o imperfetto?
Present perfect or imperfect?

“camminava…. quando ha trovato”
(was walking… when he found)

In Italian, one of the most difficult topics is understanding the difference between imperfetto and passato prossimo.
When a sentence refers to 2 or more events that happened in the past, it is helpful to think in terms of foreground and background. In Italian, in cases like these, the imperfect expresses the continuous background (camminava = he was walking):

– Mia papà ha conosciuto mia mamma quando abitava a Roma (My dad met (foreground) my mum when she was living (background) in Rome)
– Erano le 8 quando sono arrivato a casa (It was 8 o’clock when I arrived home)