Mine Vaganti by Ferzan Ozpetek

Mine Vaganti, the latest film by Ferzan Ozpetek, opened in the theaters on March 12.
The film was received with great favor at the Berlin film festival. It is a coral story and portrays the reactions of a ‘traditional family’ to the son’s unexpected revelation of his homosexuality. Set in the beautiful city of Lecce, among olive trees, “pasticciotti” and the blue sea of the nearby Gallipoli, Mine Vaganti narrates intensely and lightly at the same time a cross-section of Italian society, still intensely homophobic, and fogged by clichés.

Once again, Ozpetek brings on the scene a family, seen as an extended family to include friends as well as blood-related relatives, who care not so much for the sexual orientation of their son, brother and friend, as for his happiness. Once there is happiness, Ozpetek clearly states, everything else is secondary.

Terre della Venezia Orientale

Terre della Venezia Orientale. Guida turistica e culturale (€ 14,50), edited by Laura Pavan (Ediciclo Editore), is the perfect guidebook for those who want to discover the eastern part of the Veneto region, its art, its wines and its gastronomy.
The book will guide you through the territory between the rivers Sile and Tagliamento, and the many small cities and towns of the area, from San Donà to Portogruaro, and along the shore, from Cavallino-Treporti to Bibione, including also Caorle.

Terre della Venezia Orientale, published with the support of the province of Venice, combines scientific information with a clear and easy to read style. The numerous photographs, detailed maps of the itineraries of the territory and maps of the main cities make it an extremely user-friendly tool for the tourist.
There are four suggested itineraries: from the Sile river to the Piave river; from the Piave river to the Livenza river; from the Livenza river to the Lemene river, and from the Lemene river to the Tagliamento river. Each itinerary begins from a town on the coast and goes inland following the river. At the end of each itinerary, the reader can find a section dedicated to the typical products of the area and useful information (addresses and phone numbers of tourist offices, museums and cultural institutions, parks, markets, fairs and cultural events calendar).

The guidebook is also available in English, German and Slovenian.

magari

In each language there are words that escape a clear univocal definition and a precise use. This is the case in Italian of “magari”.
To look for help, we turned to the good old dictionary Devoto-Oli

MAGARI (ma-gà-ri)

It expresses:
a strong desire, felt as unrealizable “magari potessi andare!”[I wish I could go!]
an enthusiastic adhesion/acceptance: “vorresti venire con noi?” “Magari” [Would you like to come with us? Absolutely!]
a moderate assent “prendiamo un aperitivo?” “Magari” [shall we have an aperitif? alright]

2. It functions as adverb in parenthetical position as perfino, addirittura : “loro, magari, ti diranno che non lo sanno” [they will even say to you that they don’t know it]

The word magari comes from the Greek “makárie” vocative of “makários” meaning happy.

...alea iacta est!

In 49 B.C., on the shores of the river Rubicone (Romagna), which marked the border between Italy and Gallia Cisalpine, Julius Cesar stated the famous sentence: “Alea iacta est”, that is: “the dice is cast”. Crossing the Rubicone meant to violate the law that prohibited armed men to enter the Italian soil, hence Cesar’s action marked the beginning of the civil war, which brought the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of Cesar’s dictatorship.
The sentence still refers to actions that cannot be undone.

loan-words

Italian words, that do not come directly from Latin mostly, come from the languages of the populations Italians came in contact directly or indirectly throughout the centuries.
These words are called loan-words or precisely:
-integrated loan-words are words that have phonetically adapted into Italian, that is they have taken an Italian spelling and pronunciation, thus they have acquired also gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular and plural). These words are for instance "giardino" (from franco-provencal jardin), "bistecca" (from English beefsteak) and "zucchero" (from arabian súkkar);
-non-integrated loan-words are words entered only recently in the Italian languages, thus they have maintained their original form (spelling, and sometimes also pronunciation). They are always masculine and invariable (do not change from singular to plural). These words are for instance "dessert" (from French dessert), "golpe" (from Spanish golpe), "sport" (from English sport), "würstel" (from German würstel) and "robot" (from Czech robot).

Buona Pasqua a tutto il mondo!

Grammar and coffee

For Italians, only a cup of coffee really starts their day. At home or in the Italian bars, millions of Italians stop briefly to enjoy the aroma before sipping slowly their coffee. Only then, the day really begins.
Complete with the direct or indirect object pronouns this brief story about coffee, from “Grammatica pratica della lingua italiana” by Susanna Nocchi (Alma Edizioni-Firenze).
As usual, if you need help, please contact us!

Il caffè di Piero

Che bellezza! Il mio primo caffè della giornata! Ho preso la moka,______ ho riempita di acqua, ho messo il filtro e poi ho aggiunto il mio caffè preferito: Arabica.

______ piace questa miscela, ______ bevo ogni giorno.

E’ l’unica che ______ tiene sveglio e ______ fa affrontare bene la giornata.La mia ragazza invece è salutista, dice che il caffè non ______fa bene, che ______ rende nervosa e beve solo tè deteinato.
Sì! Avete capito bene: tè deteinato, un’offesa all’italianità!

Volete mettere con il piacere di preparare la moka, sentir______ mentre fa il caffè e sentire il profumo del caffè che riempie la stanza… poi versar______ nella tazzina, senza zucchero naturalmente. E, finalmente, ber______ mentre ti svegli lentamente… questo sì che è un piacere della vita.