Italy

Learn Italian in Song: Che Bambola!

February 4, 2012

Another classic from Fred Buscaglione ( the Italian version of this wikipedia bio is much better) Mi trovavo per la strada circa all’una e trentatrè, I found myself on the street about 1:33 L’altra notte mentre uscivo dal mio solito caffè, The other night while exiting from my usual café quando incontro un bel mammifero modello “centotrè” When [...]

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Viva la Mamma? Motherhood, Menopause & Culture

January 8, 2012

I’m a US citizen, but I lived and raised my daughter Rossella (now 22) in Italy for 17 years. I left Italy in 2008 while Ross was at boarding school in India, and subsequently separated from my Italian husband (we were already geographically apart – he did not follow me to the US). My daughter is [...]

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Learn Italian in Song: Mamma & Papa’

December 23, 2011

written, recorded and copyrighted by Alex Britti Again, it could only happen in Italy: a pop/blues singer pens a love song to his parents. Hey, papà, stammi a sentire, Hey, Dad, listen to me ti ricordi quella volta che siamo andati a pedalare Remember that time we went pedalling con le biciclette stanche, With our [...]

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Italian House Numbers

December 18, 2011

House numbers in Milan and many other cities are usually standard and boring, like this: . But sometimes you find interesting and unusual ones, so I’ve decided to collect them.    

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Italian Fountains

December 18, 2011

Not every Italian town is famously picturesque, but, even in those that are not, the attentive observer can find a wealth of beautiful detail and decoration. (I’ve already mentioned the doorknockers.) So here’s a collection of heads on fountains from all over Italy (not necessarily dull ones). ^ These three are all in Chiavenna ^ Varenna. [...]

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San Pellegrino: The Remains of the Grand Hotel

December 18, 2011

A relic of the heyday of San Pellegrino, the Grand Hotel was (quite literally) a watering place for the wealthy, in the early 1900s when health spas with natural mineral springs were all the rage. The hotel is an Art Nouveau treasure, built in 1905, but now sadly going to ruin, its fixtures gradually being auctioned [...]

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Montepulciano

December 18, 2011

coppersmith’s shop, “temple” of San Biagio I don’t remember when this trip took place, maybe summer of 2004.

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Green Veggie Lasagne

December 18, 2011

I have made variations on this recipe for years, most recently for my own birthday potluck the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My friend Mary, who knows a thing or two about good food, said she’d like to know how to make it. This isn’t a recipe in the strict sense, because I can’t be bothered to [...]

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Art School, Castello Sforzesco, Milan

December 6, 2011

One of the areas inside the castle that Leonardo da Vinci designed for the Duke of Milan houses a school for applied arts, appropriately enough.    

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View of Lake Como from Lecco, Evening

December 5, 2011
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Learn Italian in Song: Serenata

December 5, 2011

Serenade by Toto Cotugno Serenata quasi a mezzanotte A serenade at almost midnight guardie e ladri che si fanno a botte guards and thieves who pummel each other e i ragazzi da soli and the young people alone sono ancora romantici. are still romantic Serenata per i separati A serenade for the separated e i [...]

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Learn Italian in Song: Viva la Mamma

December 5, 2011

  Viva La Mamma by Edoardo Bennato also recorded by Neri per Caso Only in Italy would you get a pop song celebrating dear old mom! But it’s also a bit of nostalgia for the 1950s, the hectic post-war period when Italy was booming. The italicized parts are not in the Neri per Caso cover. [...]

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Flowers on a Windowsill

December 4, 2011
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Learn Italian Through Signs

December 4, 2011

Here where the Archbishop of Milan held court, where with the bitter duel of Ramengo and Lupo amidst the jokes and songs of Tremacoldo, T. Grossi [the author?] gave a life of courtesy and tragic passions to Ottorino and Bice, a faithful portrait of an ungrateful age in which will dominate the figure of Marco [...]

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Learn Italian in Song: Maria Teresa

November 8, 2011

Another beautiful song by Pierangelo Bertoli. Maria Teresa forse troppa fantasia, Maria Teresa, perhaps too much imagination giornate uguali, poche notti di follia, days all the same, few nights of folly fragili ricordi, fragile memories sulla fronte qualche ruga in piu’ a few more lines on the forehead volti appena scorti, faces barely seen poco [...]

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Learn Italian in Song: Giovanna e Angiolino

November 3, 2011

I noticed people were looking for this on my site, so I discovered a cute new song. Singer/songwriter Roby Santini “the Country Boy” is obviously writing about his parents – they play themselves in the video. And apparently the family is from Pollutri, Provincia di Chieti, Abruzzo. Si sveglia tutti i giorni di buonora la [...]

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Lecco: Between Lake Como and the Alps

July 25, 2011

Want to see (and, in winter, ski) the Alps? Get off the train in Lecco and walk across the station parking lot to the bus stand in via Montello, where the #5 bus departs, roughly every hour, for the Funivia (you can buy bus tickets at the newsstands inside or outside the railway station, or on [...]

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Gallery: Milan Central Station

June 24, 2011

Milan’s Central railway station is a grand example of Fascist architecture, though these days it can be hard to see under all the advertising…

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Italian Seasons

February 27, 2011

      Holidays Articles January 1 – New Year’s Day6 – Epiphany Smog Days February 14 – San Valentino March 8 – Festa della Donna(Women’s Day)Carnevale Italian Winter Weather April Pasqua (Easter) Holiday Treats May 1 – Labor Day Cambio di Stagione June 2 – Republic Day July Air-ConditionedCommuting with Nature Summer Fun August [...]

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Education in Italy: One Foreign Parent’s Views & Experiences

February 12, 2011

Caveat: The articles in this section are based on my family’s experience of the Italian education system in a specific time and place: Milan, and later Lecco, from 1991 to 2007. I haven’t lived in Italy all my life, nor ever attended any Italian educational institution myself, so my views may be biased, and your mileage may [...]

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