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Ci siamo seduti sulla panchina nel parco.

Ci siamo seduti sulla panchina nel parco.
We sat down on the bench in the park.
From Lesson 71:Reflexive verbs in the past (mi sono svegliato)·Italian

Questions & Answers about Ci siamo seduti sulla panchina nel parco.

Why do we use siamo instead of abbiamo here?
The verb is sedersi (to sit down), which is a reflexive verb in Italian (literally "to sit oneself"). In the past tense, all reflexive verbs must use essere (to be) as their helping verb, so we use siamo instead of abbiamo.
Why does seduti end in -i?
Whenever a past tense uses essere as its helping verb, the ending of the past participle (the action word) must change to match the subject. Since the subject "we" is plural, the ending changes to the masculine plural -i. If the "we" referred to a group of only women, it would be sedute.
Where does the reflexive pronoun ci have to go?
In two-part past tenses like this one, the reflexive pronoun (ci, meaning "ourselves") always goes directly before the helping verb (siamo). You cannot put it between the helping verb and the past participle.
I remember su means "on" and in means "in". Why are they sulla and nel here?
In Italian, these prepositions merge with the word for "the" that comes right after them. su + la (the feminine "the" for panchina) combines to make sulla. in + il (the masculine "the" for parco) combines to make nel.

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