Learn Italian: L'anima riflette ciò che amiamo veramente. - The soul reflects what we truly love.

In English, "what" can be a question ("What is it?") or it can mean "the thing that" ("It reflects what we love"). In Italian, you use cosa (or che cosa) for questions, but you must use ciò che or quello che when "what" joins two parts of a statement to mean "the thing that" or "that which".

Could I use quello che instead of ciò che in this sentence?

Yes, absolutely! quello che and ciò che both mean "what" (or "that which") in this context and are completely interchangeable. ciò che is just a little bit more formal and elegant, which fits nicely with a poetic word like l'anima (the soul).

Why is the verb amiamo in the "we" form if the sentence is about "the soul"?

Because the sentence actually has two different subjects performing two different actions. The soul (l'anima) is the one doing the reflecting, so riflettere is in the "it" form (riflette). But "we" are the ones doing the loving, so amare is in the "we" form (amiamo).

Why does veramente come after amiamo instead of before it?