Archive for September, 2012
Orecchiette con le Cime di Rapa Posted by Serena on Sep 17, 2012
Here is the recipe that Mattia promised in his article, which was published a few days ago, about le orecchiette, a typical pasta from Puglia. You can find out how to make orecchiette by clicking on the link: orecchiette pugliesi The traditional dressing for this type of pasta is that most humble of all the…
Le Paralimpiadi Posted by Serena on Sep 14, 2012
This has been a great year for the Italian team at Le Paralimpiadi 2012 (The 2012 Paralympics). They finished their amazing adventure with a total of 28 medals: 9 gold, 8 silver and 11 bronze, 10 medals more than the previous Paralympics in 2008 and the same number of medals won in this year’s Olympics…
Le Orecchiette Pugliesi Posted by Serena on Sep 12, 2012
Our guest-blogger Mattia, the ‘young Italian chef’, has sent us a nice article in which he describes how to make a traditional pasta from his native region of Puglia (if you find it hard to read you can have a break while you watch the video! See the link at the end of Mattia’s blog)…
Ne: un po’ di ripasso Posted by Serena on Sep 10, 2012
A long time ago I wrote an article in which I tried to explain the different meanings of the pronoun ne: Tricky little words: ne (click on the link to view the article). Following an e.mail from a friend, I’ve decided to revisit the topic concentrating on its practical use. The word ne in Italian…
Il Mestiere Più Antico Del Mondo Posted by Serena on Sep 7, 2012
There is an old Italian movie directed by Federico Fellini in 1957, that me and Geoff love: Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria. Click on link for more information). Giulietta Masina, Fellini’s wife, wonderfully portraits a very naive prostitute, or rather una battona, as they say in Rome. Cabiria is the professional name of…
Maremma Amara Posted by Serena on Sep 5, 2012
A few days ago Geoff wrote an article about the effects of this summer’s draught on Il Parco Naturale dell’Uccellina in Maremma, which reminded me of a folk song that I love. My professor of Topography at the University of Pisa used to sing it during our archaeological campaigns in Vada, near Livorno. Maremma is…
Tu and Lei Revisited Posted by Geoff on Sep 3, 2012
Last year, Serena wrote a couple of blogs about the use of Tu and Lei (click on text to open links): Part 1, Part 2 Those blogs explained that in Italian we have two main forms of addressing people: the informal tu and the formal lei. We normally use tu with family, friends, and children…