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Non ho mai visitato l'Inghilterra.

Non ho mai visitato l'Inghilterra.
I have never visited England.
From Lesson 68:The passato prossimo with avere (ho parlato)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Non ho mai visitato l'Inghilterra.

How do I form the past tense for "visited" in this sentence?
To talk about the past here, we use the passato prossimo. It is made of two parts: the helper verb avere (to have), which is ho for "I", and the past participle of visitare (to visit). For regular verbs ending in -are, you drop the -are and add -ato, giving you visitato. Together they make ho visitato (I visited / I have visited).
Why is mai sandwiched between ho and visitato?
In Italian, when you use a two-part negative like non ... mai (never) with a compound past tense, the non goes before the helper verb (ho) and the mai goes right between the helper verb and the past participle (visitato).
Does non ho mai literally mean "I do not have never"?
Exactly! Italian frequently uses double negatives, and it is perfectly correct grammar. You must use non before the verb to make the sentence negative, even if you are also using a negative word like mai (never).
Why is there an l' before Inghilterra when English just says "England"?
In Italian, you almost always need a definite article (like "the") before the names of countries. Because Inghilterra is feminine and starts with a vowel, the feminine article la drops its "a" and becomes l' to make it flow better: l'Inghilterra.

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