Archive for 'Culture'
Pazzesca Burocrazia Gattesca! Posted by Serena on Nov 5, 2010
A short while ago I wrote a couple of blogs about our new cats, Mimì e Cocò. I explained that we found them abandoned in the car park near the rubbish bins. We decided that it would be best to have Mimì, la mamma, checked out by a vet and sterilized. As is often the…
San Francesco d’Assisi Posted by Serena on Oct 6, 2010
San Francesco d’Assisi is the Patron Saint of Italy, and when I was a child ‘Saint Francis day’ (the 4th of October) was a national holiday. The great thing about this was that the school year used to start on the 1st of October, so after only three days we were already back on holiday…
Pasta – part 2 Posted by Serena on Oct 3, 2010
La Storia della Pasta (The History of Pasta) Above, preparazione della pasta nel XIV secolo. (pasta preparation in the 14th century). Origins Pasta, which is so closely linked to Italian culture, is in fact a universal foodstuff whose origins can be traced back to l’età neolitica, circa 8000 a.C. (the new stone age, around 8000…
A Controversial Question Posted by Serena on Sep 30, 2010
I recently received a comment from a reader, called Natalia De Luca on the subject of Gli Alpini, about which I recently wrote a series of articles. The comment comes in the form of a question: "Why are woman [sic.] and non registered military people allowed to join an alpini regiment, some are even of…
Pasta – part 1 Posted by Serena on Sep 18, 2010
If you follow my blogs you will know that I generally prefer to write about the less stereotypical, or well known aspects of Italian culture. So why write about something so simple and obvious as pasta, we all know what it is, right? Try typing the word ‘pasta’ into the Google search engine and you…
Medievalis a Pontremoli – part 3 Posted by Serena on Aug 25, 2010
The Final Part of our Story in Pictures Click on photos to enlarge 1. L’accampamento: alla sera il cibo viene cucinato alla luce delle torce su fuochi all’aperto. Per fortuna il tempo è stato perfetto! The encampment: in the evening food is cooked by torchlight over open fires. Luckily the weather was perfect! 2. In…
Medievalis a Pontremoli – part 2 Posted by Serena on Aug 23, 2010
The Second Part of our Story in Pictures Click on photos to enlarge 1. La bellissima Piazza del Duomo di Pontremoli fa da splendido scenario allo spettacolo degli sbandieratori. Pontremoli’s beautiful Piazza del Duomo makes a great setting for the sbandieratori (flag jugglers) display 2. Molto popolari nelle manifestazioni storiche qua in Italia sono…