{"id":3210,"date":"2013-04-16T08:32:38","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T08:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=3210"},"modified":"2013-04-16T10:44:15","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T10:44:15","slug":"topalbanothe-italian-mouse-detective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/topalbanothe-italian-mouse-detective\/","title":{"rendered":"Topalbano–The Italian Mouse Detective!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Take two classic ingredients from Italian popular fiction \u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

\"topolino3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Generations of Italians<\/font><\/em><\/strong> have grown up with Disney\u2019s comics \u201cTopolino\u201d<\/strong> (Little Mouse), the Italian version of Mickey Mouse, whose hobby is playing the private detective. These comics are extremely popular here in Italy, and rather than being simply a translated version of the original they are specifically \u2018made in Italy\u2019, that is, designed and created for an Italian audience with some original all Italian characters. There is Amelia, for example, the witch who lives on the Vesuvius and is desperate to get hold of Paperon de Paperoni\u2019s<\/strong> (Uncle scrooge\u2019s) legendary first cent.<\/p>\n

\""Montalbano"<\/a><\/p>\n

2. You may have heard of Salvo Montalbano<\/font><\/em><\/strong> Italy\u2019s most famous fictional detective, created in 1994 by writer Andrea Camilleri, and wonderfully interpreted by the actor Luca Zingaretti in the extremely popular TV series \u201cCommissario Montalbano\u201d<\/font><\/strong><\/a>. Salvo Montalbano, like his creator Camilleri, is Sicilian, and lives and woks in Vigata (a made up name) in a house facing the beach (my dream house!). He speaks a mixture of Italian and Sicilian dialect, and is eternally engaged to, but never marries or lives with, Livia, a Police colleague who lives and works in the north of Italy. Translated into English, Inspector Montalbano<\/font><\/strong><\/a> has been very popular in the U.K. where it was screened by the BBC<\/p>\n

\u2026 now put these two classic ingredients together and what do we get?<\/strong><\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

\"TopalbanoSono\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Salvo Topalbano!<\/font><\/strong> The name Topalbano<\/strong> is obviously an amalgam of Montalbano<\/strong> and the word topo<\/strong> (mouse), and naturally Topalbano<\/strong> the Sicilian mouse detective lives and works in Vigatta<\/strong>, that\u2019s Vi<\/strong> plus gatta<\/strong> (cat), rather than Vigata<\/strong>! <\/p>\n

La Trama<\/strong> (The Story Line):<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

Topolino and his lifelong fianc\u00e9 Minnie<\/font><\/em><\/strong> are on holiday in Sicily visiting la Valle dei Templi<\/strong> (the Valley of the Temples) near Agrigento, when Minnie is kidnapped. In order to rescue his beloved Minnie, Topolino  accepts help from Topalbano, who introduces himself with a version of the classic Montalbano line: \u201cTopalbano sono\u201d<\/strong> (I\u2019m Topalbano). During his stay in Vigatta, Topolino learns to speak Vigattese, and to appreciate local \u2018delicacies\u2019 such as la pasta con le sarde<\/strong> (pasta with sardines).<\/p>\n

How did Andrea Camilleri react to the creation of Topalbano?<\/font><\/em><\/strong> Speaking in a TV interview he said he was \u201donorato e felice, \u00e8 come prendere un Nobel\u201d<\/strong> (honoured and happy, it\u2019s like receiving a Nobel prize). Camilleri was, of course, contacted in advance by Disney to get his permission, and he got great satisfaction from watching his creation, Commissario Montalbano, being transformed into the cartoon character Topalbano with the help of scriptwriter Francesco Artibani and graphic artists Giorgio Cavazzano (drawings) and Mirka Andolfo (colour).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Take two classic ingredients from Italian popular fiction \u2026 1. Generations of Italians have grown up with Disney\u2019s comics \u201cTopolino\u201d (Little Mouse), the Italian version of Mickey Mouse, whose hobby is playing the private detective. These comics are extremely popular here in Italy, and rather than being simply a translated version of the original they…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,179],"tags":[229326,229322,229327,229323,229325,229324],"class_list":["post-3210","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news","tag-andrea-camilleri","tag-commissario-montalbano","tag-inspectori-montalbano","tag-salvo-montalbano","tag-salvo-topalbano","tag-topolino"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3210"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3228,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3210\/revisions\/3228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}