Learn Italian: Cerco un parcheggio vicino alla stazione. - I am looking for a parking lot near the station.

In Italian, the verb cercare already means "to look for" or "to search for." You do not need to add a preposition like per. You just connect the verb directly to the object you want, as in cerco un parcheggio.

How does the spelling of cerco change if I want to say "you are looking for"?

To keep the hard "c" (or "k") sound of cerco, you must add an "h" when conjugating for "you" (tu). So "you are looking for" becomes cerchi. This is a standard rule for all Italian verbs ending in -care.

Why is it vicino alla instead of just vicino la?

The word vicino (near) is almost always followed by the preposition a (to) when it comes before a noun. Because stazione is feminine, we combine a with the definite article la (the) to make the merged word alla.

How can I easily remember that stazione is a feminine noun?

Almost all Italian nouns that end in -zione are feminine. This includes everyday words like stazione, lezione (lesson), and prenotazione (reservation). Because it is feminine, it uses the article la.