Breakdown of Prima di organizzare la rimpatriata, siamo tornati a scriverci.
essere
to be
scrivere
to write
tornare
to return
ci
to us
Questions & Answers about Prima di organizzare la rimpatriata, siamo tornati a scriverci.
How does tornare a work here to mean "started again"?
Tornare a followed by an infinitive is used to express doing an action again. While it literally means "to return to doing something", it is commonly translated as "starting again" or "going back to" doing an action. Here, it shows that the communication resumed.
Why is the pronoun ci attached to the end of scrivere? Could it go anywhere else?
Ci is the reciprocal pronoun here, meaning "to each other". You can attach it to the infinitive to make scriverci, or you can place it before the conjugated verb: ci siamo tornati a scrivere. Both options are perfectly natural in Italian.
Why do we use siamo instead of abbiamo? Doesn't scrivere usually take avere?
The auxiliary verb is determined by the main conjugated verb, which is tornare. Since verbs of motion like tornare take essere, we use siamo. Note that if you chose to move the reciprocal pronoun ci to the front (ci siamo tornati a scrivere), the rule for reflexive and reciprocal pronouns would also force you to use essere.
Why is it prima di organizzare (infinitive) rather than a conjugated verb?