LIBRO: Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy; Mark Gilbert We all know the phrase "may you live in interesting times" and, alas, Italy has indeed been through its fair share of these. One of its "interesting times" corresponds to the period following the defeat of fascist Italy in WW2 and the emergence of the Italian democratic state. The transition was all but smooth yet Mark Gilbert manages to take us on a ride through the twists and turns of this turbulent period with the flair of a true roller-coaster master! Come si dice "roller coaster" in italiano? Le montagne russe! Perché? Clicca qui! (Febbraio, 2025). 
MUSICA: Il corpo umano, Vol. 1; Jovanotti
Il grande Lorenzo Cherubini, in arte Jovanotti, rèduce di un brutto incidente in bici a Santo Domingo il 10 maggio 2024 che gli ha procurato la rottura di clavicola e femore, ha pubblicato un nuovo album, Il corpo umano, Vol. 1. Ne parleremo e ascolteremo una delle canzoni in classe - forse Un mondo a parte ! Intanto, troverete il disco sulle solite piattaforme di streaming musicale. In basso, eccolo intervistato su Fanpage.it. (Febbraio, 2025) 
Italia 500 review: Eva Evviva!!!! We've received a lovely review from a lovely student called Eva: "Great entry level course for any beginner wanting to learn some good basics of Italian." Europeans and South Americans, by the time they turn 18, are very likely to have been learning formally a second language for 13 years. In many... [more] (Febbraio, 2025) 
LIBRO: Written in Water: The Ephemeral Life of the Classics in Art; Rochelle Gurstein
When in Rome, il Cimitero acattolico (Non-Catholic Cemetary), still often referred to as il Cimitero Protestante, or il Cimitero degli inglesi or, poetically, as il Cimitero degli artisti e dei poeti, is a truly wonderful place to visit. Located right beside la Piramide Cestia, it's un'oasi di pace amid the hustle and bustle of Rome, and houses the tombs, amongst the many, of Antonio Gramsci, Andrea Camilleri (author of the Commissario Montalbano crime novels), the poet Shelly, and of John Keats, whose tombstone bears the most beautiful of epigraphs: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water". Rochelle Gurstein, alluding to Keat's epigraph, explores how the concept of "classic" in art, seemingly immortal and undisputed, is, perhaps, everything but: Before the middle of the nineteenth century, Michelangelo's most acclaimed sculpture was not his endlessly reproduced David, but his now-neglected Moses in Rome. Equally disorienting, Leonardo was rarely mentioned by art writers, and Michelangelo's reputation waxed and waned. The most revered Renaissance artist was instead a painter for whom few people today feel anything at all, Raphael. And this stunning shuftling of reputations extended to entire schools as well: the early Italian Renaissance painters (Giotto, Masaccio, Sandro Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, to name a few), so adored by modern art lovers, had fallen into oblivion for centuries, only to be rediscovered and given a second life by ardent admirers in the nineteenth century. But nothing was more unnerving to me than to learn that an entire class of art - Greco-Roman sculpture - had, after close to four hundred years of the most passionate adulation, simply vanished from the modern imagination. To my great dismay, what I believed was written in stone was actually written in water. Gurstein's book promises to be utterly fascinating e non vediamo l'ora di leggerlo (we can't wait to read it)! Intanto, ascoltiamoci un'intervista con l'autrice, and, if you'd like to purchase the book, you'll find it in stock at Abbey's. (Febbraio, 2025) 
MUSICA: The Summer Portraits; Ludovico Einaudi
Evviva!!! Dopo una lunghissssssssima attesa di tre anni, è uscito l'ultimo album di Einaudi. I soliti maligni diranno che è scontato, banale, ripetitivo, schematico ma non è affatto vero: è semplicemente bellissimo! (Basta ascoltare la parte finale di Sequence , che è degno di Bach, per capire che sono un branco di invidiosi!!! - anche se, bisogna ammettere, il brano ricorda molto Where the Wild Roses Grow ). Troverete il disco sulle solite piattaforme di streaming musicale. In basso, Einaudi ci spiega da dove ha tratto l'ispirazione per l'album, tra i cui brani ce n'è uno dedicato a Rose Bay, qui a Sydney. (Febbraio, 2025) 
Cinema: Ieri, oggi, domani
SBS on demand is screening a gem of a classic of Italian cinema released in 1963, directed by the great Vittorio De Sica, which won the Oscar for best foreign movie in 1965: Ieri, oggi, domani. The movie is divided into three independent episodes each featuring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni as the main protagonists. The first episode, set in Naples, is truly delightful and apparently based on a real person! The second episode is skippable, whilst the third episode features one of the greatest striptease scenes of all time! Below is a 1977 interview with both in which you can sense how close they are - not in a romantic sense; in fact Loren comes accross as Mastroianni's older sister, protective of him but also happy to warmheartedly tease him! - and one can only marvel at Sophia Loren's intelligence, beauty, and her English, which is truly what we would like your Italian to be like! (Febbraio, 2025) |
OGGETTI: Tazzine Illy It may not be scientifically proven - yet! - but we know that a lovely coffee cup, in the sense of a beautifully designed one, perhaps even beautifully decorated, not only enhances the pleasure of the physical act of having a coffee, but it enhances the actual flavour of the coffee! In 1990, someone from Illy, a certain Francesco, asked an industrial designer, a certain Matteo, to design a new espresso coffee cup. Why? We don't know, but we are very glad he did because Matteo came up with the iconic Illy coffee cup! Soon after, a certain Pippo, had the wonderful idea of inviting established and emerging artists to decorate the cups, and thus, the Illy Art Collection was born. Pippo's identity is entirely fictional but if you'd like to own your very own set of Illy Art Collection cups, now is the time to do so as Illy Australia is offering a 20% discount on all its offerings, including the cups, until the 14th of February! Evviva!!! Che significa "evviva"? Per saperlo, clicca qui! Pippo, dove sei? (Febbraio, 2025) 
LIBRO: Iconophages: A History of Ingesting Images; Jérémie Koering Have you ever had the urge to eat an image? Hopefully not but it musn't have been that uncommon a practice for Jérémie Koering to actually write a book about the history of ingesting images! (The fact that Italians often seem to make an appearance, is quite disturbing!) Published by Zone Books, not only does the topic promise to be fascinating, but the simple pleasure of turning the pages and feeling the paper, looking at the beautiful black and white reproductions, and admiring the cover of a Zone book, let alone ingesting some of the pages, if you are thus inclined, make it a truly worthwhile addition to any library, and perhaps... table? (Febbraio, 2025) 
Italia 500 reviews: Harry e Natasha Evviva!!!! We've received two wonderful reviews from two wonderful wonderful wonderful students called Harry e Natasha. We put a lot of effort into explaining the grammar simply and we're very happy that both Harry and Natasha have noticed and appreciate our effort... [more] 
RIVISTA: Bell'Italia, febbraio:
Ci è arrivato, puntuale come un orologio svizzero, l'ultimo numero di Bell'Italia. In questo numero, quello di febbraio, si va a Milano in visita al bellissimo Museo Poldi Pezzoli; a San Gimignano per girare tra le sale dei Musei Civici; a Roma per scoprire la Serra Moresca di villa Torlonia; si visita la meravigliosa val d'Ultimo in provincia di Bolzano e La Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta a Ruvo di Puglia, in provincia di Bari. Infine, si va in Sardegna, per scoprire le tradizioni ancestrali del Carnevale dei piccoli centri della Barbagia. Per abbonarti a Bell'Italia, clicca qui! (Febbraio, 2025) 
Italia 500 reviews: Davide e Andrea Evviva!!!! We've received two lovely reviews from two lovely lovely lovely students called Davide e Andrea (which, despite the ending in "a", is a boy's name, as is Luca): "The small class size created a supportive and friendly environment and the chance to get to know each other." (Davide); "The group atmosphere was supportive, lively, and full of laughs, which made time fly." (Andrea)... [more] (Febbraio, 2025) 
OGGETTO: Moka Bialetti Dolce e Gabbana
If the Dolce e Gabbana Moka Bialetti has been on your wish list for some time, now is perhaps the time to grab one as Victoria Basement has them on sale at 32% off the normal retail price ($109 per la moka da 3 tazzine; $139 per quella da sei). We are so in need of more roba (stuff) at the school that we just had to buy one! And, if you have a spare $5,500 - ripeto: cinquemila cinquecento dollari - you can purchase the 50 cup Dolce e Gabbana Moka Bialetti which, alas, seems to be designed solely for display purposes. 
A few years ago, Bialetti, the company, began producing its own brand of roasted coffee and coffee pods (le capsule di caffè). Here is an ad (uno "spot" in Italiano) which features the actor Luca Argentero which set many a heart aflutter when we showed it back in 1785! (Febbraio, 2025)
Cinema: Cinema Paradiso at the Orpheum
If you missed watching Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore on the big screen when it first came out in 1988, here's your chance to do so as the Orpheum in Cremorne is screening this marvellous movie on Sunday, the 23rd of March, at 3:00pm. Remember ragazzi that the "ci" in Italian is pronounced like the "chi" in "chimpanzee". (Marzo, 2025) 
LIBRO: Divine Light: The Art of the Mosaic in Rome; Wendy A. Stein
When one thinks of mosaics, one thinks of the amazing mosaics in Ravenna, or those of il Duomo di San Marco, in Venice, or those of il Duomo di Monreale, in Palermo, and we sometimes forget that Rome has wonderful Christian mosaics dating all the way back to the fourth century. Hirmer, a German art book publishing house, has released a lavishly illustrated book by Wendy Stein which talks about Rome's Christian mosaics dating from 300AD to 1300 AD. So, before our next trip to Rome, let's learn more about these beautiful works and, perhaps, once there, visit the churches that house them and, given that in some cases the churches are off the beaten track, get to explore areas of Rome we would not have explored had we not read Divine Light: The Art of the Mosaic in Rome and set off on a Christian mosaic hunt! In 2007 the BBC broadcast a truly wonderful three part documentary called The Art of Eternity, presented by the truly legendary, acclaimed, illustrious, famed, celebrated, inimitable Andrew Graham-Dixon. The series is a celebration of Byzantine art and the beauty of its mosaics and, in the second episode, il Signor Graham-Dixon ventures to Ravenna - at the 24th minute our heroic presenter, whilst speaking in Italian, happens to stumble on the "ci" of "mosaici" which stands to show that it can happen even to the best! In the third episode, il nostro eroe visits il Duomo di Monreale in Palermo, then Siena, Assisi, Padova, and Firenze examining the works of, amongst others, Cimabue, Giotto, and Duccio di Boninsegna. Although, he doesn't visit Rome, the series is a homage to the beauty of Byzantine art and its influence. You'll find the three parts here: The Art of Eternity: Painting Paradise (1/3); The Art of Eternity: The Glory of Byzantium (2/3); The Art of Eternity: When East Meets West (3/3). In the 2018 series Rome Unpacked however, our intrepid hero, in the company of the equally inimitable Giorgio Locatelli, does, at 1:01:53, visit one of the churches featured in Divine Light, la Basilica di San Clemente, but do watch the whole documentary as it is wonderful, and do watch everything else you can by Andrew Graham-Dixon because he is truly fantastico! (Marzo, 2025) |
