Posts from November 2009

Lucca Comics 2009

Posted by Serena 15 Comments
Nov 15 2009

It’s not everyday that you can stroll along the historic walls of Lucca and encounter Spiderman! But if you happened to be there over the weekend of 29th of October to the 1st of November you would have seen not only Spiderman but just about every other hero or villain portrayed in all the most popular fumetti (comic strips), cartoni animati (cartoons), and video giochi (video games), plus many others that you’ve probably never heard of, I certainly hadn’t!

Lucca comics is a celebration of fantasy that, over the course of 43 years, has grown from humble beginnings to become the largest festival of its kind in Europe. Just to give you an idea, this year’s show attracted roughly 140,000 visitors, a fairly large percentage of whom arrived in costume. By chance we happened to be in Lucca that weekend, and what really amazed us, apart from the quantity of participants, was the incredible quality of the costumes, masks, and ‘posing’. These were obviously very dedicated fans who had put a huge amount of time, care, and thought into how they presented themselves, but hey, siamo Italiani, no!

Click on the images below to see larger versions

At the same time there was nothing overbearing about the crowd, who were mainly in their late teens and early twenties, in fact the overall impression was of people having a great time whilst sharing their passion with other fans of the genre and the general public alike. Just walking through the crowd and stopping to admire the diverse characters you couldn’t help but feel a smile creep across your face.

One of the things that really pleased me, was seeing so many people participating in something very contemporary. Most tourist only know and see Italy as Europe biggest open air museum, and yes, we are very proud of our heritage, but life here didn’t end in the middle ages. Italy like everywhere else is a country that is still growing and evolving, there should be room for the new alongside the old, providing, of course, that it is done with that special ‘Italian touch’.

If you would like to know more about Lucca Comics then I suggest that you start with these two web sites: http://www.luccacomicsandgames.com/ and http://lucca09.luccacomicsandgames.com/ If you are planning an autumn break to Toscana next year I would definitely recommend a visit to Lucca Comics 2010. As they say ‘Be there, or be square’!

Facciamo San Martino

Posted by Serena 3 Comments
Nov 12 2009

Wednesday 11th of November was la festa di San Martino, a date which has particular significance for the contadini (farm laborers, or peasants) as it brings to a close the agricultural year.

Fare San Martino

‘Fare S.Martino’ (literally: to do S.Martino), an expression used in the vast agricultural plains of the Pianura Padana, means both to traslocarsi or trasferirsi (to move house), and to change one’s place of work. The expression goes back to the time when a significant part of the population of the pianura worked as braccianti (farm hands, or laborers). The farm laborer’s annual contract expired at the beginning of November, and if the contract wasn’t renewed by the proprietario terriero (landowner) for the following year, the  bracciante had to find work elsewhere. This entailed moving himself, his family, and all their possessions to una nuova dimora (a new dwelling place, or residence). The date chosen for il trasloco (the move) was traditionally the 11th November, la festa di S.Martino, and there was a very practical, climatic reason for selecting that date: l’estate di San Martino. 

‘L’estate di San Martino, tre giorni e un pocolino’ – detto popolare. (‘S.Martino’s Summer, three days and a little bit’ – popular saying)

L’estate di San Martino is the name given to a short period following the first really cold weather during the late autumn, in which, if we are lucky, we have a brief reprieve, and things warm up again for several days. I have to say, looking out of the window at the snow capped mountains which occasionally emerge from gloomy grey clouds, that quest’anno sembra che sia poco probabile (this year it seems very unlikely!) Ma chissà! (but who knows).

One well known usage of the expression ‘fare San Martino’ took place during Italy’s second war of independence in 1859. At the great battle of San Martino (a small town located in Northern Italy), King Vittorio Emanuele II famously resorted to dialect when he desperately tried to rally his struggling troops with the phrase: ‘Fioeui, o i piuma San Martin o i auti an fa fé San Martin a nui!’ which in Italian means ‘Ragazzi, o prendiamo San Martino o gli altri ci fanno fare San Martino a noi!’ (Lads, either we take San Martino or the others will make us ‘fare San Martino’ i.e. will throw us out!)

This year however, the expression ‘fare S.Martino’ has particular significance for us because we are in the middle of the grueling process of moving my elderly parents from their palazzo (block of flats) in the suburbs of Lucca to an appartamento near where we live so that they are closer to us and we can help to give them a better quality of life, però, devo dire che è un lavoro snervante!  (however, I have to say that it’s an exhausting job!). Oh well, in order to reward ourselves we can always follow yet another old tradition that takes place at this time of year, il primo assaggio del vino novello, che solitamente viene abbinato alle prime castagne (the first tasting of the new wine, which is usually accompanied with the first chestnuts). This tradition is celebrated in a famous poem by Giosuè Carducci (1835 – 1907) which we all had to learn at school:

San Martino

La nebbia a gl’irti colli
piovigginando sale,
e sotto il maestrale
urla e biancheggia il mar;

Ma per le vie del borgo
dal ribollir de’ tini
va l’aspro odor de i vini
l’anime a rallegrar.

Gira su’ ceppi accesi
lo spiedo scoppiettando:
sta il cacciator fischiando
su l’uscio a rimirar

tra le rossastre nubi
stormi d’uccelli neri,
com’esuli pensieri,
nel vespero migrar.

 

The drizzling fog
climbs the rugged hills,
and beneath the mistral
the sea howls and foams;

but in the village streets
from the seething vats
the pungent smell of wine goes forth
to cheer the souls.

On fiery logs the spit
turns and crackles;
the hunter stands whistling
and from his door watches

amongst reddish clouds
the black flocks of birds,
like forlorn thoughts,
at dusk migrate.

Colloquial Italian – 2. Allora and Dunque

Posted by Serena 6 Comments
Nov 9 2009

In part two of my Colloquial Italian series I’m going to continue exploring those little everyday words that we Italians use all the time, but which are often overlooked in classes and text books. Learning how and where to use them will help to make your spoken Italian sound much more natural.

The two words which I have chosen today, allora and dunque, both have more or less the same meaning, and most of the time it is a matter of personal choice which one you use. I, for example tend to use allora more frequently than dunque, and I was well known when I taught Italian in England for starting every other sentence with ‘allora, oggi studieremo…’ (well then, today we’ll study…), or ‘allora, adesso facciamo…’ (so, now we’ll do…), etc.

Allora has the following meanings: ‘then’, ‘well then’, ‘in that case’, ‘therefore’, ‘so’.

Here are a few examples to give you a feeling for how it is used:

Non sei ancora pronto? allora ti aspetterò (aren’t you ready yet? in that case I’ll wait for you)

allora, siamo d’accordo? (well then, are we in agreement?)

Franco: ‘Purtroppo non sono riuscito a prenotare un tavolo a quel ristorante’ Laura: ‘e allora, dove andiamo stasera?’ (Franco: ‘Unfortunately I didn’t manage to book a table at that restaurant’ Laura: ‘and so…, where are we going this evening?’)

Allora is also used in several common expressions with the meaning of ‘then’, or ‘that time’:

da allora (since then) e.g. …e da allora non l’ho visto (…and I haven’t seen him since then)

da allora in poi (from then onwards, or from that time onwards) e.g. …e da allora in poi ha continuato a funzionare (…and it has continued working from that time onwards)

fino allora (until then, or until that time) e.g non ci ero mai stato fino allora (I’d never been there until then)

proprio allora (right then, at that very moment) e.g. …e proprio allora è entrata Federica! (and at that very moment Federica came in!)

 

Dunque also has the meaning of ‘then’, ‘well then’, ‘in that case’, ‘therefore’, ‘so’.

Here is a very famous example: penso, dunque sono (I think, therefore I am)

dunque, andiamo in pizzeria stasera? (well then, are we going to the pizzeria this evening?)

use dunque if you are picking up the thread of a conversation e.g. dunque… mi stavi raccontando delle tue vacanze (so… you were telling me about your holiday)

you can also use it in exclamatory phrases e.g. dimmi dunque! (tell me then!)

 

As you can see from the examples, dunque and allora are mostly interchangeable and you will probably end up having a preference for one or the other. As I said, I tend to use ‘allora’ a lot but my mother, on the other hand, uses ‘dunque’. Both words are used very commonly when you are having a conversation and are thinking about what you’re going to say next, a bit like saying ‘hmmm now let me think…’

allora… non so cosa altro dirvi!

Omaggio ad Alda Merini, poetessa

Posted by Serena 2 Comments
Nov 6 2009

On Saturday 31st October I heard the sad news that la poetessa (the female poet) Alda Merini had died from cancer, aged 78. I only discovered her poems a couple of years ago, and I was immediately taken by their delicate sensitivity. Through her poetry, Merini describes her inner torment, longing for love, and mysticism.

Alda Merini was born in Milano on the 21st of March 1931. She started writing poetry at an early age, and when she was 19 two of her poems were included in the Antologia della poesia italiana 1909-1949 (Anthology of Italian Poetry 1909-1949) edited by Spagnoletti. Alda Merini published the first of several books of her verses in 1953, however in 1961 she was taken into psychiatric care due to mental health problems and did not publish any more work for over 20 years. Finally in 1984 she published La Terra Santa, in which she describes her experience of being in the psychiatric hospital, and frequent references to this experience reappear in her later work. Despite being a troubled soul, Alda Merini never lost her sense of irony and irreverent wit, and in 2004, for the occasion of her seventy-third birthday, she asked for a “hot man”. Her friends duly organized  a visit from the male stripper Ghibly.

Merini won many Italian literary awards and was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize, firstly by the Académie Francaise in 1996, and then in 2001 by P.E.N. Italia. A selection of her works have been translated into English by the American poet Susan Stewart in “Love Lessons: Selected Poems of Alda Merini”, published earlier this year by Princeton University Press.

I’ve chosen a self-portrait poem to share with you entitled Alda Merini taken from the collection Vuoto d’amore (Void of Love), published in 1991. Here it is below with my own translation into English.

 

Alda Merini

 

Amai teneramente dei dolcissimi amanti

senza che essi sapessero mai nulla.

E su questi intessei tele di ragno

e fui preda della mia stessa materia.

In me l’anima c’era della meretrice

della santa della sanguinaria e dell’ipocrita.

Molti diedero al mio modo di vivere un nome

e fui soltanto un’isterica.

 

I tenderly loved some very sweet lovers / without them ever knowing anything. / And over them I weaved spider’s webs / and I was prey to my own material. / In me there was the soul of the prostitute / of the saint of the bloodthirsty and of the hypocrite. / Many gave a name to my way of living / and I was simply a hysterical person.

 

Grazie Alda!

Le Noci

Posted by Serena 7 Comments
Nov 3 2009

This year has been great year for le noci (walnuts), and every day I go out to pick up manciate (handfuls) of them that have fallen from un noce (a walnut tree) in front of our house. I share this tree with a couple of scoiattoli (squirrels), which keep themselves busy all day long running up the noce, collecting noci, and running down again to store them away in a secret place. We always enjoy watching these two squirrels from our kitchen window as they skillfully jump from one branch to another with their long fluffy tails trailing behind them.

Earlier this year, at the end of June when the walnuts were still acerbe (unripe), and had il mallo verde (the green husk), I made il Nocino, a strong aromatic liqueur typical of the Emilia Romagna region, which we drink as a digestivo (digestive) in piccole dosi (in small doses). Now it’s autumn, the noci are ripe, and we eat them as a snack or use them in cakes and cookies. But there is one special recipe that we love, and which I always make when fresh walnuts are available, il Pesto di Noci (Walnut Pesto). This pesto is originally from the Liguria region and, as the name suggest, was traditionally made in the mortar and pestle (hence the word pesto, from the verb pestare = ‘to crush’), although nowadays we use an electric blender. It’s a simple and tasty recipe ideal for dressing i pansoti, a type of ravioli filled with spinach and ricotta, or in fact any type of egg pasta. This recipe makes enough for four people.

 

Ingredienti:

16 noci (16 walnuts)

Mezzo spicchio d’aglio (half a clove of garlic)

4 cucchiai di olio extra vergine d’oliva (4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil)

Mezzo bicchiere di latte (half a glass of milk)

2 cucchiai di Parmigiano grattuggiato (2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese)

Sale a piacere (salt to taste)

 

Preparazione

Shell the walnuts, and put them in warm water. When they have softened a bit you should be able to remove the dark skins until you are left with the whitish nut inside. Put the walnuts in a blender with the garlic, salt and olive oil, and blend the ingredients until you obtain a smooth, thick paste, adding the milk a little at the time. Finally incorporate the Parmigiano, and put the resulting pesto aside to rest.

While the pasta is cooking, add a couple of spoonfuls of the pasta water to your pesto in order to make it a little more liquid. Serve the pasta, and dress it to taste with your lovely fresh pesto di noce. Ecco fatto! 

Buon appetito!

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