Archive for 'Italian Language'
La Mattina Dopo il Carnevale Posted by Serena on Feb 19, 2014
Febbraio mi riporta sempre con la memoria ad un altro febbraio di tanti anni fa. Frequentavo il quarto anno del Liceo Classico di Lucca, quando, per motivi di famiglia, mi dovetti trasferire a Viareggio. Cominciai la nuova scuola in un freddo lunedì mattina di febbraio: poco prima delle otto entrai nella mia nuova classe che…
A Romantic Italian Poem for St. Valentine’s Day Posted by Serena on Feb 14, 2014
Today is San Valentino, la Festa degli Innamorati (Saint Valentine’s day), and to celebrate it what better way than reading a beautiful love poem by Francesco Petrarca. Born in Arezzo (Tuscany) on the 20th of July 1304, from Florentine parents, Petrarca is considered one of the fathers of the Italian language, alongside Dante and Boccaccio…
The Curvy World Posted by Serena on Feb 6, 2014
Have you ever looked critically at a photo of yourself and felt like doing a little tweaking with Photoshop? I must admit that I have, but I’m not very clever with photo editing software. However, many people who spend a lot of their time under the spotlight go to great lengths to have the ‘perfect’…
Eclissi del Cuore Posted by Geoff on Feb 3, 2014
In 2013 a U.K. survey named this hit ‘The Most Popular Song to Sing in the Shower’. Perhaps it’s even you’re favourite shower song, at the very least you will have heard it wafting through the aisles at the supermarket. Click HERE to reveal its identity. So where’s the Italian connection? Enter L’Aura, the talented…
How Not to Say I Love You in Italian Posted by Serena on Jan 29, 2014
Italians are very romantic, and town walls all over Italy are covered in graffiti with big passionate declarations of love. Ma amore non fa sempre rima con cuore (but love does not always rhyme with heart), as we say in Italian, so despite the good intentions these romantic graffiti are often full of grammatical mistakes…
Fire and Ice in Sicily Posted by Geoff on Jan 27, 2014
Did you know that Italy has the highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world, 49 in total, followed by China with 45, and Spain with 44? One of the most recent additions to the impressive list came last June when the ever spectacular Mt. Etna, Europe’s highest active volcano, was added. Mitologia…
Pinocchio Part 2 – The Doctor’s Diagnosis Posted by Geoff on Jan 23, 2014
In part 1, I took a look at the ‘real’ Pinocchio, as created by Carlo Lorenzini, better known as Collodi, and explained how I was finding the book surprisingly dark and sinister compared to the sugary Disney version that I grew up with. Were Italian children disturbed by this classic fairy tale? Perhaps, but they…