Posts in April 2009

A day in Firenze

Posted by Serena
Apr
28
2009

Last week here in Italy was Settimana della Cultura (Culture Week). Organized by the Italian Ministry of Arts, Settimana della Cultura offers free entry to all the national museums, so we decided to make the most of it and go to Firenze (Florence) for the first time in many years. On the Monday afternoon we went down to Lucca to visit my parents, and use their house as a base for our ‘expedition’. The following morning we caught the Lazzi bus from Piazzale Verdi in Lucca. Known as the direttissima per Firenze (the ‘very direct for Florence’!), the bus runs from Lucca to Firenze along the motorway without any stops, it’s comfortable and fast, and in just over an hour we had arrived in Piazza Adua, Firenze, right next to the main railway station which is called Santa Maria Novella.

Full of enthusiasm, we strolled down past the Chiesa di San Lorenzo and the Cappelle Medicee towards the Galleria dell’Accademia: I was in fact planning on visiting the Galleria because I love Michelangelo’s “unfinished” statues of the four prigioni (prisoners) and the Pieta’ di Palestrina, but I had completely forgotten that the Galleria is of course also famous for Michelangelo’s David. As we got near the Museum we saw a coda (cue, literally ‘tail’) of people, probably 200 meters long, all waiting with dogged patience to get into the Galleria dell’Accademia! Mamma mia, stavo per piangere! (I was ready to cry). Disappointed, but resigned to the situation I decided to go to the nearby Museo Archeologico where I used to work many years ago.

This is an excellent museum, but is not very popular with tourists due to the comparative lack of ‘famous’ works of art, and apart from a couple of school parties it was very quiet. Upon arriving, I sought out my former manager, now director of the Egyptian section, and caught up with all the latest gossip about my ex Egyptology colleagues. We then went on to have a fascinating tour of the Museum. Near the entrance there was a very interesting exhibition about counterfeit money, which began with counterfeit Roman coins, and included fake Bank of England banknotes produced by the Third Reich in Sachhausen concentration camp during WW2 in order to try and flood the British and U.S. economies with counterfeit money, fake post WW2 Italian Lire notes,  and contemporary forged credit cards. The exhibition ended with a large display of machinery which had been used in a counterfeit money factory discovered a year ago near Rome which produced fake US Dollars. It was all very fascinating and you couldn’t help but admire the ingenuity of the forgers.

At lunchtime, rimbambiti (stupified) after looking at innumerable Etruscan bronzes and Egyptian steles, we went out into Piazza Santissima Annunziata to eat our panini. The piazza was packed with parties of school children whose main occupation seemed to be feeding the pigeons with their panini. Luckily there is plenty of space for everybody to find a seat on the steps that lead up to the beautiful porticoes of the Spedale degli Innocenti by Brunelleschi. Feeling somewhat refreshed we continued our expedition with a walk down towards Santa Maria in Fiore, with its magnificent Campanile di Giotto (Giotto’s bell tower), finally arriving at il Bargello.

Il Bargello, also known as the Palazzo del Podesta’, houses the national museum of Tuscan Sculptures from the 14th to the 17th century. Here you can find many famous sculptures by Michelangelo, Giambologna, Benvenuto Cellini and Donatello, as well as a collection of exquisite ivory carvings, the intricate work of goldsmiths, beautiful tapestries, and armor. Displayed on a wall behind Donatello’s David (a delicate bronze sculpture depicting a young adolescent, so different from Michelangelo’s powerful marble sculpture of the same name), there are two very interesting bronze plaques, one by Lorenzo Ghiberti and the other by Filippo Brunelleschi. They were made in 1401 for a competition which was held in Firenze to choose the artist who would decorate the second door of the Baptistery (the first door had been decorated by Andrea Pisano in 1336). The artists entering the competition had to present a work based on the biblical story of the Sacrificio di Isacco (Isaac’s sacrifice) and many famous artists, including Jacopo Della Quercia, presented their interpretations of this theme in order to try and win this prestigious contract. In the end the judges awarded equal first place to both Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, but it seems that Brunelleschi artistic pride prevented him from sharing the job, and so the work of embellishing the huge doors of the Baptistery was carried out by Ghiberti. Even if it is full of wonders I have to say that what I like best about this museum is the building itself: il Bargello was built between 1255 and 1346; it has a beautiful inner courtyard surrounded by porticoes with a monumental staircase which takes you up to the first floor where the museum is located. We walked around with our mouths open looking at the imposing walls, the decorative ceilings, and the fantastic windows composed of hundreds of round glass ‘panes’ which looked rather like the bottoms of old wine bottles. This is probably my favorite building in the whole of Firenze: if only it could be mine!

After we left the Bargello we wandered through some of the narrow Medieval streets down near the river Arno, took one look at the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge) which seemed about to collapse under the heaving mass of tourists, and then back up towards Piazza della Signoria, where we sat down to listen to a street musician whilst watching a ‘living sculpture’. Finally we escaped the mad hordes and strolled along some of the smaller interesting backstreets to find our way back to the bus station. 

E’ stata una bella giornata.

 
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Parole Curiose, le soluzioni e una leggenda molto interessante.

Posted by Serena
Apr
25
2009

(Unusual words, the answers and a very interesting legend.)

Well done everyone who had a go at my little quiz called ‘Parole Curiose’. It was, admittedly, quite hard and no one has attempted to answer all the questions.

Let’s begin with the answers, and then I want to tell you a story related to one of them.

 

1. What is the shortest word in the Italian language that contains all five vowels (aeiou)? You will find a clue at the end of my blog Un po’ di giardinaggio

The answer: aiuole. Several people came close to getting this correct, but only Cathy realized that in order to contain all five vowels the word aiuola needs to be pluralized because otherwise it lacks an ‘e’.

2. Which Italian word has six i’s and no other vowels? (clue: prime numbers have this quality)

The answer: indivisibili. Oh Cathy, if only you had pluralized your answer this time! Indivisibili is the plural of indivisibile (undividable/inseparable) e.g. sono due amici indivisibili (they are two inseparable friends).

3. Which Italian word has the most o’s? (clue: politicians are very good at doing this whenever a proposal is made)

The  answer: contropropongono (they propose against), now perhaps you understand the clue.

4. Name at least two Italian words that have five a’s. (clue: one of these is potentially explosive, another may require an exorcist, yet another will be useful if you’ve lost a dog)

The answers: well I can’t do any better than give you the list that the intrepid Bella posted in her comment:

Allora, per quanto riguarda le parole che hanno 5 “a”…..abracadabra (e grazie al dizionario!) :-)  eccole!  :
accalappiacani
accalappiatura
acchiappafarfalle
ammainabandiera
asparagiaia
ciarlatanata
malaparata
santabarbara

Grazie Bella

Let me explain the clues: ‘one of these is potentially explosive’ Santabarbara (munitions magazine)

‘another may require an exorcist’ assatanata (satanised); Bella’s list doesn’t include this one.

yet another will be useful if you’ve lost a dog accalappiacani (dog catcher)

5. Which word is considered to be the longest in Italian? (clue: it has 26 letters and it happens very quickly!)

The answer: precipitevolissimevolmente. Ironically this word which takes 15 minutes to say means something like ‘extremely hastily’! (well done Natasha)

6. Which is the longest Italian word with no repeating letters? (clue: you can find them at the circus, they have very good balance)

The answer: funamboleschi (the masculine plural of the adjective ‘acrobatic’ e.g. Laura sta facendo gli esercizi funamboleschi (Laura is doing acrobatic exercises)

 

And now after all that hard work, a little story. It seems that just about everything here in Italy has a legend attached to it, and the santabarbara is no exception.

Why, you may ask, is a munitions magazine named after a Saint? Ecco la leggenda.

Santa Barbara was born into a Pagan family in Nicomedia, Asia Minor, during the third century A.D. At some point her family moved to Scandriglia in the Italian province of Rieti. The legend tells us that Barbara’s jealous father Dioscuro wanted to ensconce his daughter in a tower to protect her from her suitors, and in order that Barbara shouldn’t have to attend the public baths he even intended to build her a private one!

One day Barbara’s mother revealed to her daughter that she had secretly embraced the Christian religion. After hearing her mother’s revelations and prayers Barbara felt Jesus enter her heart and became a Christian herself. When Barbara saw the plans for the tower that her father intended to construct for her she realized that it only had two windows. Taking matters into her own hands Barbara ordered the architects to add a third window in order to commemorate the Christian Trinity. Dioscuro, seeing the modifications to his plans, immediately realized their significance and knew that his daughter had become a Christian.

Dioscuro denounced his daughter to the Roman Magistrate, the punishment at that time for conversion to Christianity being decapitation. The magistrate ordered Dioscuro to carry out the execution himself. According to the legend, on the fourth of December in the year 306 Dioscuro decapitated his daughter. Immediately after the execution however he was struck down and killed by lightning, an event that was interpreted as divine punishment for his cruel act.

Hence Barbara became a Christian martyr and saint who, due to the manner of her father’s death, is evoked as a protectress against sudden death by fire and explosions. Because of this, places where explosives are stored are often called santabarbara in her honor. Barbara is the patron saint of miners, of those who work with explosives and in fact anyone who risks sudden violent death. In the military services she is protectress of the Marina Militare Italiana (The Italian Navy), I Vigili del Fuoco (The Fire Brigade), L’Artiglieria (the artillery) and Il Genio (the military engineers). In paintings and sculptures she is very often represented standing next to, or even holding, a tower.

 
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Buon Compleanno Roma!

Posted by Serena
Apr
22
2009

Yesterday, Tuesday the 21st April, Rome celebrated her birthday, and she’s is not doing too badly given her age: 2,762! Rome’s birthday is called il Natale di Roma: Natale comes from the Latin word natus, which is the past participle of the verb nascere meaning ‘to be born’. Nowadays we only use the word Natale for Jesus’ birthday (i.e. Christmas), and Rome’s birthday, ordinary people like me and you have a mere compleanno, which literally means ‘a year’s completion’. Very confusing! But let’s get back to the Natale di Roma:  I wonder if there are any other cities in the world that have such a definitive birthday?

How do we know the exact date of Rome’s foundation? Well, the Roman historian Varrone (Varro, 1st century B.C.) fixed the date of the foundation of Rome to the 21st of April of the year 753 B.C. Varrone based his dating on the calculations made by his friend the astrologer Lucio Taruzio. 

There is a legend of Rome’s foundation that tells us how Numitore, king of Alba Longa (a pre-Roman town near Rome), and descendent of the Trojan hero Enea, was overthrown by his brother Amulio, his daughter, Rea Silvia, being forced to become a Vestale (vestal, a virgin priestess). The amorous god Marte (Mars), however, seduced Rea Silvia, and she gave birth to the twins: Romolo (Romulus) and Remo. King Amulio ordered a servant to kill the twins, but the servant, not having the courage carry out the order, put the two babies in a basket instead and placed it on the river Tevere (Tiber). The basket ended up in a marshy area between the Campidoglio (Capitol) and the Palatino, two of the seven hills that form Rome, and was found by a lupa (she wolf) who breast fed the twins, an act that has been immortalized in many Roman sculptures, and which has become the symbol of Rome. Animal lovers, be aware: according to modern historians the Lupa was in reality a prostitute. In Roman times ‘Ladies of the Night’ were also called lupae (female wolfs), the root of this word can be found in lupanare, the Latin name for ‘brothel’!

To return to the legend: Romolo and Remo were later found by the pig herd Faustolo, who reared them as his own children. On reaching adulthood, Romolo and Remo took their revenge on their uncle Amulio by killing him and reinstating their grandfather Numitore on the throne of Alba Longa. As they were unable reign while their grandfather was still alive, they decided to build a new town in the area where they had grown up. Romolo wanted to found the town on the Palatino hill and call it Roma, whilst Remo wanted to found it on the Aventino hill and call it Remora. As they couldn’t reach an agreement, they decided to wait for an omen to guide them. It was Remo who sighted the first omen, which arrived in the form of a flight of six vultures, but later on in the day Romolo sighted twelve vultures! A fight broke out between the group supporting Remo and that supporting Romolo and, tragically, Remo was killed.

On the 21st of April 753 B.C. Romolo ploughed the pomerium (the sacred furrow) which traced out the perimeter of the town that he would build on the top of the Palatino hill. He named the new town Roma, and hence become the first king of Rome.

This, with a few variations, is the legend told by ancient historians such as Livio and Plutarco. A few years ago, Professor of Archaeology Andrea Carandini discovered an ancient city wall in the northeastern area of the Palatino hill. This so called ‘muro di Romolo’ (Romulus’ wall), seems to prove that the city was actually founded according to a preconceived plan rather than evolving at random.

The 21st of April was designated a national festival in 1870 when Rome become the capital of the newly unified Italy, and since then it has always been celebrated with public events such as concerts and exhibitions. This year’s celebrations will include a re-enactment of the ploughing of the sacred furrow by the Gruppo Storico Romano which will take place at the Circo Massimo.

When I was in Rome for il Natale di Roma a few years ago, Piazza di Spagna and la Scalinata di Trinita’ dei Monti (the Spanish steps) had been decorated with a sea of flowers: it was magnificent!

 
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Parole Curiose

Posted by Serena
Apr
19
2009

One of the things that attracts a lot of people to the Italian language is its musicality. This is probably largely due to our rather ‘generous’ usage of vowels which enable scorrevolezza (fluency), well at least for us ‘natives’, students of Italian may disagree! Try this little scioglilingua (tongue twister) for example:

Sopra la panca la capra campa, sotto la panca la capra crepa

(Above the bench the goat lives, below the bench the goat dies)

Too easy? Try this one then.

Trentatre’ Trentini entrarono dentro Trento tutti e trentatre’ trotterellando

(Thirty three people from Trento entered into Trento all thirty three trotting along)

Hmmm, o.k. you’d better get yourself a refreshing glass of water, perhaps even have a lie down. Now if you’re feeling refreshed, and you’ve realigned your tongue are you ready for another challenge? Dai, proviamoci! (Come on, let’s try!)

Due to our ‘superfluity’ of vowels, the Italian language contains a number of ‘parole curiose’ (curious words). So here is your challenge in the form of a little quiz:

1. Which is the shortest word in the Italian language that contains all five vowels (aeiou)? You will find a clue at the end of my blog Un po’ di giardinaggio

2. Which Italian word has six i’s and no other vowels? (clue: prime numbers have this quality)

3. Which Italian word has the most o’s? (clue: politicians are very good at doing this whenever a proposal is made)

4. Name at least two Italian words that have five a’s. (clue: one of these is potentially explosive, another may require an exorcist, yet another will be useful if you’ve lost a dog)

5. Which word is considered to be the longest in Italian? (clue: it has 26 letters and it happens very quickly!)

6. Which is the longest Italian word with no repeating letters? (clue: you can find them at the circus, they have very good balance)

 

Click on Post a Comment below to post your answers, buona fortuna

 
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Un po’ di giardinaggio

Posted by Serena
Apr
16
2009

Oggi facciamo un po’ di giardinaggio (today we are going to do a bit of gardening). At this time of year we are very busy working on the orto (vegetable garden). I wouldn’t say that we are big gardening experts, but we have had an orto for many years now and we manage to be self sufficient with our vegetables throughout the summer and autumn. In the winter we still have a supply of cipolle (onions), aglio (garlic), patate (potatoes), and zucche (pumpkins), plus of course all the marmellate (jams), frutte secche (dried fruits), and verdure conservate sott’olio  (pickled vegetables) that we have made during the autumn.

Those of you who enjoy il giardinaggio will probably find the vocabulary in this article useful.

We begin with il terreno (the land). We have about 500 square meters of terreno spread over three terrazze (terraces) on a south facing hillside. Being south facing  ‘il nostro orto e’ molto soleggiato’ (our vegetable garden is very sunny) and therefore good for growing things like pomodori (tomatoes) and meloni (melons) which need a lot of sun to get nice and sweet. The downside is that in the hot months ‘la terra diventa molto secca’ (the ground gets very dry) and it’s necessary to annaffiare (to water) regularly, either with il tubo dell’aqua (the hose, around here they call it ‘la gomma’, literally ‘the rubber’) or with the annaffiatoio (watering can).

But all of that happens a bit later in the year, first of all comes the hard work with la vanga (the spade), il forcone (the fork), la zappa (the mattock, a sort of cross between a hoe and a pick), and il rastrello (the rake). We use la vanga to vangare (dig) la terra (the soil), and while we are digging we diserbare (weed), le erbacce (the weeds) that we pull out going onto our compost heap where they eventually break down into terriccio (compost). Whilst digging the terreno it’s also a good idea to concimare (fertilise) with a good lettame (manure), preferably lettame di stallatico (stable manure from horses or cows). Another attrezzo da giardinaggio (gardening tool) which we find very useful is la carriola (the wheelbarrow) which helps us to shift terra, lettame, and sassi (rocks).

When il terreno is ready, and the time is appropriate we use la zappa to fare i solchi (make the furrows) in which we seminare (sow) the semi (seeds), patate, cipole etc. The locals here tend to say ‘mettere giu’ instead of ‘sow’. e.g. ‘ho messo giu’ due patate’ (I’ve planted a few potatoes).

Now it’s a matter of maintenance: c’e’ da sradicare l’erbaccia (you have to root out the weeds), proteggere le piantine dagli uccelli e le lumache (protect the young plants from birds and slugs), e annaffiare. Luckly we don’t have much of a problem with slugs and snails because the muri a secco (dry stone walls) of our orto are full of lucertole (lizards), frustone (the whip snake, a bit like a big grass snake), and orbettini (slow worms) which tend to eat them before they can eat our plants! The main pest that we have, particularly on the fave (broad beans), are gli afidi, or as they call them round here i pidocchi (the aphids, pidocchi actually means lice).

After all the hard work we hope, of course, to have un buon raccolto (a good harvest), and we get a huge amount of pleasure, and satisfaction from sitting down to a ‘home grown’ meal. I have to admit that many vegetables don’t even get as far as the plate, who can resist a sweet crunchy carota  (carrot) freshly pulled and rinsed, or una manciata di piselli freschi (a handful of fresh peas) straight from the pod!

While we are on the subject of gardening I can’t resist ending this blog by giving you one of the most unpronounceable words in the Italian language: aiuola (flower bed). I’m afraid you’ll have to find an Italian, and ask them to say the word aiuola (probably about 25 times) in order to learn the pronunciation.

 
Posted under Grammar, Italian Language
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