In Italian, communication goes beyond mere verbalization and sentence construction. Words and sentences carry subtleties that often require physical expression. In some respects, Italians who cannot use their hands may find themselves rendered mute. As you walk along the streets in Italy or even in the Little Italy neighborhoods of America, you’ll...
READ MOREA native of Rome (Italy), Assistant Professor of Transnational Italian Studies Luca Zipoli was trained at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, where he attended both the undergraduate and the graduate programs. During his Ph.D., he researched and taught as a visiting scholar at Princeton and at New York University. His main area of specialization is t...
READ MOREOn Wednesday, October 25, 2023 in a highly anticipated ceremony, award winning artist and producer Simona Rodano was set to be honored with a prestigious award from the esteemed Comm. Joseph Sciame, a prominent member of the St. John's Preparatory School Board, as well as the President and Chair of the Italian Heritage Culture Month Committee in Ne...
READ MOREThe seminar “Artificial Intelligence and Language Learning: The Italian Model” opened today at the Embassy of Italy in Washington the 23rd annual Week of the Italian Language in the World. “This year, the underlying theme of the Week of the Italian Language is sustainability, with particular reference to sustainable learning of the Italian language...
READ MOREThe Italian Language Week has two main thematic strands: sustainability linked to a great intellectualot the 20th century, Italo Calvino (ante litteram environmentalist writer) and democracy through the contribution made by renowned Harvard former professor Gaetano Salvemini (an intellectual historian committed to the struggle for democracy). Both...
READ MOREIronically, the Tuscans are often credited with inventing the modern Italian language. History books and encyclopedias alike record that the standard literary form of Italian is based on a Florentine dialect called “volgare”, which means “of the Volgo” or “of the people”. The credit goes to Dante Alighieri, who wrote Divina Commedia in said dialect...
READ MOREOctober 20 | 6:30 PM. THE ECOLOGICAL SOUL OF ITALIAN MUSIC AND SONGWRITING. A live radio show presented by Italian scholar and Radio DJ Sara Marinelli. Italian Cultural Insititute San Francisco, 710 Sansome St., San Francisco, CA. Register here. Start your weekend off on the right beat! Join scholar and radio DJ Sara Marinelli as she takes us on a...
READ MOREIn mid-century Italy, going to the cinema was the thing to do. The release of a new Totò film, the most recent Fellini, or Sergio Leone’s latest western were unmissable events. The next day’s water cooler chatter, newspaper headlines, and dinnertime gossip would revolve around new releases and their lingo, and to not be up to date was a special for...
READ MORESometimes referred to as “Romanaccio”–with the pejorative “accio” suffix emphasising its vulgar, bawdy qualities–this dialect is no-nonsense and direct, a linguistic embodiment of the Roman people. Listen for the dropping of vowels and the doubling of consonants–quando becomes quanno, ogni becomes gni–as well as prolific swearing, profanity, and th...
READ MOREWhy are the Italian proverbs of Naples so famous and widespread? Beautiful Naples has a history, a culture, a sense of irony and a tradition unique in the world and proverbs are the tool that keeps them alive and that has made them, over time, popular even outside the city. Let’s give it a try, how many of you can pronounce and translate A dark hea...
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