Breakdown of Questa è la costa dove trascorriamo l'estate.
essere
to be
questa
this (feminine)
dove
where
l'estate
the summer (f)
Questions & Answers about Questa è la costa dove trascorriamo l'estate.
Could I use in cui instead of dove in this sentence?
Yes, absolutely! When referring to a physical place, dove (where) and in cui (in which/on which) are interchangeable. Questa è la costa in cui trascorriamo l'estate is perfectly correct. However, dove is usually preferred in everyday, conversational Italian because it's shorter and flows more naturally.
Could I use che instead of dove, since we can sometimes say "the coast that..." in English?
No, you can't use che here. In Italian, che (that/which) only replaces direct objects or subjects. Because you are spending time at or on the coast, you need a word that captures the location. If you used che, it would grammatically mean you are spending the coast itself! You must use a locative pronoun like dove or in cui.
Why does this sentence use trascorriamo instead of spendiamo for "we spend"?
Why is the first word Questa and not Questo?