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‘Let It Go’ Made in Italy Posted by Geoff on Jun 3, 2014
Okay, let’s get something straight, no one does romantic better than the Italians, punto e basta! So, take the super romantic Academy Award winning song “Let it Go” from Disney’s Frozen, sing it in Italian with a few ‘small modifications’ to the lyrics, and you’re onto a winner. ‘Let it Go’ has been translated into…
A Very Typical Italian Joke Posted by Geoff on May 28, 2014
Uncle Luciano loves telling jokes, and every time we go out to the restaurant with him he manages to come up with some new ones. Here’s a joke that is very typically Italian as it uses for its theme marital fidelity and religion: Due uomini sono morti e si trovano all’ingresso del Paradiso, davanti a…
The Italian Monuments Men Posted by Geoff on May 20, 2014
Reading about the work of the Monuments Men during WWII left me with a strange sense of unease. It’s not so much the thought of what could have been lost. What really disturbs me is the idea that the same sick brutes who engineered the ‘Final Solution’ could have put so much time, effort and…
Saving Italy’s Artistic Heritage Posted by Geoff on May 19, 2014
What would it be like to fight a war inside a museum? Not long ago I had an e-mail from a long time follower of our blog, William Auge, telling me about a fascinating book he’d just finished reading called Saving Italy by Robert M. Edsel. “How about writing a guest blog for us Bill?”…
Senza Tè Posted by Geoff on May 8, 2014
Music can be a great consolation in our darkest hours. Many times over the years, when I’ve felt close to desperation music has kept me sane. And so, it was to music that I turned this morning when I pried open the lid of my late grandmother’s tea caddy to discover that I only had…
Oh No … Not Ne! Posted by Geoff on May 7, 2014
Yes, it’s time to take another look at that annoying little two letter word that makes even the toughest students of Italian tremble at the knees: ne. Ne has a variety of mysterious uses, but the most common is a means of saying ‘of it’, ‘of them’. Used correctly, it will make you sound like…
The Secret of The Mona Lisa Finally Revealed Posted by Geoff on May 2, 2014
In March this year an astonishing document was uncovered during the restoration of a small pen and ink sketch by Leonardo da Vinci. The document, which seems to have been used to reinforce the back of the sketch, turned out to be a newspaper article written in 1507 and containing an interview with Da Vinci…