Meaning of "ci" in this sentence

Question

"Casa di Gloria è molto lontana dalla stazione, quindi ci mette tanto tempo per arrivare."

What would be the meaning of "ci" in the sentence above? I understand that it sometimes means "qui" but this meaning does not seem to fit in this case.

Answer 1

In that sentence, metterci (io ci metto, tu ci metti, egli/ella ci mette, etc...) is a "verbo pronominale"; that "ci" modifies the meaning of the verb mettere, just like "up" in "to give up" modifies the meaning of the verb "to give".

Here "metterci" means "to need": Gloria's house is far from the station, therefore she needs a lot of time to arrive [there]

It might be worth mentioning that "mettere" + "ci" can also be used to express its literal meaning of "to put here/there"; it is the context of the sentence to suggest which meaning is the correct one:

• se viaggi in auto, ci metti due ore ad arrivare -> If you travel by car, you need two hours to arrive / it takes two hours to arrive

• mi piace questa borsa, posso metterci dentro tutto quello che mi serve -> I love this bag, I can put in it everything I need