by Dianne Hales | Apr 19, 2021 | April, culture, history, Italian, Italian language, Italy, Language, Roman history, Rome, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
The eternal city has an official birthdate: April 21, 753 B.C. Rome traditionally celebrated with a parade, concerts, gladiator displays and fireworks. This year, like last, there are no such exuberant public gatherings. Photographs capture a city I’ve never seen:...
by Dianne Hales | Apr 6, 2021 | April, Books, books on Italy, history, Italian, Italian language, Italy, Language, Sayings and expressions, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
T.S. Eliot called it the cruelest month (il mese più crudele). Yet this is also the romantic month that inspired classic songs and movies like Enchanted April, April in Paris and April Love. And as the cheerful childhood rhyme reminds us, April showers bring...
by Dianne Hales | Mar 30, 2021 | Books, books on Italy, culture, Easter, history, Italian, Italian language, Italy, learning Italian, Religion, Sayings and expressions, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
On my first Easter in Rome in the Jubilee year of 2000, I joined the throngs jammed into the massive piazza of St. Peter’s basilica. Pope John Paul II, bent with age, extended Easter greetings in dozens of languages, including Italian. “Buona Pasqua!” the Roman family...
by Dianne Hales | Mar 23, 2021 | books on Italy, culture, history, Italian, Italy, Language, Religion, Sayings and expressions, Sicily, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
La Settimana Santa (Holy Week) will be different this year, especially in Italy. In years past pilgrims from around the world would travel to Italy to commemorate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every region celebrated with rituals that...
by Dianne Hales | Mar 16, 2021 | art, art history, Books, books on Italy, culture, Florence, history, Italian, Italian movies, Italy, Language, learning Italian, Renaissance, Sayings and expressions, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs
In English the most eagerly awaited of seasons “springs” to life with blunt urgency. In Italian la primavera blossoms into four elegant syllables. My etymological dictionary traces primavera back to radici indoeuropee (Indo-European roots): prima for “before” and vas...
