by Dianne Hales | Nov 23, 2021 | books on Italy, culture, Italian, Italian language, Italian words and expressions, Italy, Language, learning Italian, Sayings and expressions, Thanksgiving, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
There is an Italian name — la Festa del Ringraziamento — but no cultural equivalent for the day when the Pilgrim fathers (padri pellegrini) and the American native people came together to celebrate the harvest in the New World. Although turkey...
by Dianne Hales | Oct 19, 2021 | Books, books on Italy, culture, history, Italian, Italian folklore, Italian language, Italian words and expressions, Italy, Language, learning Italian, Sayings and expressions, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
For centuries the Italian peninsula was a patchwork of hundreds of dialects, often as different from one another as French from Spanish or English from Italian. Sailors from Genoa couldn’t understand—or be understood by—merchants from Venice or farmers from Friuli. ...
by Dianne Hales | Oct 12, 2021 | books on Italy, Dante, Florence, history, Italian, Italian language, Italian words and expressions, Italy, Language, learning Italian, Travel, Tuscany, Web/Tech, Weblogs
This year the Settimana della lingua italiana nel mondo (week of the Italian language in the world), from October 18 to 23, celebrates “Dante, l’Italiano.“ It is a fitting tribute during the 700th commemoration of the poet’s death in 1321. Born in Florence in...
by Dianne Hales | Sep 28, 2021 | Books, books on Italy, history, Italian, Italian language, Italy, learning Italian, Thanksgiving, Web/Tech, Weblogs
Excerpted from Salento by 5: Friendship, Food, Music and Travel Within the Heel of Italy’s Boot Olives have been cultivated throughout the Mediterranean for thousands of years, even before written language was invented. In Salento, where I live in the far south...
by Dianne Hales | Sep 21, 2021 | autumn, Books, books on Italy, food, Food and Drink, history, Italian, Italian folklore, Italian language, Italian words and expressions, Italy, Language, learning Italian, Sayings and expressions, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs, wine
\ In Italy every season— la primavera (spring), l’estate (summer), l’autunno (autumn), l’inverno (winter) — has a different feel and focus. L’autunno is when farmers reap what they have sown. The harvest (il raccolto or la messe) has already passed for many fruits,...
by Dianne Hales | Sep 7, 2021 | Books, books on Italy, cooking, culture, food, Food and Drink, Italian, Italian language, Italian words and expressions, Italy, Language, learning Italian, Modena, Sayings and expressions, Web/Tech, Weblogs
A guest post by Andrea Gelfoso Eating Italian food in Italy made me cry. The first time I had pizza during our year in Modena, tears ran onto the perfectly crisp crust. I’m a vegetarian, so vegetables rule. Pizza offered toppings from all over the produce...
