Archive for 'Culture'
La Ricetta del Panettone – The Panettone Recipe Posted by Serena on Dec 23, 2008
As promised here is the recipe used by Toni to enchant his beloved Lucia. This recipe is for a panettone casereccio (home-made panettone). Normally people don’t make Panettone at home but buy it from the fornaio (bakers) or an alimentari (food shop). This recipe is not suitable for microwaves and you’ll need a fairly big…
La Leggenda del Panettone – The Legend of Panettone Posted by Serena on Dec 22, 2008
Anyone who has spent Natale (Christmas) or Il Capodanno (The New Year) in Italy will have been offered the traditional Panettone. Yes it’s one of those indispensable elements of the ‘Festive Seasons’ that contradicts the old adage ‘you can never have too much of a good thing’. I assure you that you can have too…
Italiano o Toscano? Posted by Serena on Dec 17, 2008
In the last few blogs about Italian pronunciation I mentioned in reply to some comments that the Italian language has its origins in Toscana (Tuscany) and that Toscano is considered the most correct Italian. But are Italiano and Toscano the same thing? Lets see. When Italy was being unified in the 19th century there wasn’t…
Buon Compleanno Maestro! Posted by Serena on Dec 11, 2008
Il Mondo della Lirica (the Opera world) is getting ready to celebrate the 150th birthday of Giacomo Puccini author of many famous Italian operas such as La Bohème, Madame Butterfly, Tosca and Turandot. Reading his biography I discovered an interesting, lively character, and decided to write a little blog to add my small contribution to…
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Posted by Serena on Nov 27, 2008
A few days ago we came across a DVD of Sergio Leone’s famous spaghetti western movie ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’, starring Clint Eastwood and featuring Ennio Morricone’s unforgettable haunting soundtrack. Its Italian title is Il Buono, il Brutto e il Cattivo, and this prompted the question from Geoff: “which is the Bad…
La Castagna (The Chestnut) Posted by Serena on Nov 20, 2008
November. It’s time to sit around a log fire and savor a handful of hot caldarroste (roasted chestnuts) with a glass of vino novello (new wine). What more could you ask for? Large parts of central and northern Italy are covered with castagneti (chestnut woods) and for centuries chestnuts were the main source of food…
A Walk in the Mountains Posted by Geoff on Nov 19, 2008
Anyone who has done a bit of walking in Italy will sooner or later notice the little red and white stripes painted on trees, rocks, telegraph poles, old buildings etc. These segnali (signs) mark the routes of sentieri (footpaths) most of which have been created by CAI the Club Alpino Italiano (Italian Alpine Club). Going…