Becoming Italian Word by Word

A new website and newsletter from Dianne

During this lovely season of giving and gifting, I am excited to share something dear to my heart: a brand-new website, completely redesigned by the brilliant web designer Madeira James of xuni.com. She created my very first site ten years ago but after a decade online and more than 1.7 million visitors from countries around the globe, we felt ready for a new look.

The new site includes excerpts and information on my previous books on Italy: LA BELLA LINGUA and MONA LISA: A Life Discovered. It also showcases my upcoming book, LA PASSIONE: How Italy Seduced the World. You can preorder a copy now and check the website for updates as we count down to its official publication date of April 16, 2019.  

This is also the season for heart-warming stories. One of my favorites, which I came across while researching LA PASSIONE, is set in the postcard-pretty Tuscan town of Castiglion Fiorentino. The Friends of San Filippino, a nonprofit created by Rita Morgan Richardson, an Italian-American from Nashville, is raising funds to restore an abandoned Baroque chapel that has fallen into ruin. Click here to watch a video summary of the group's progress, with uplifting music and messages sure to fill your heart with joy.

December and January bring an abundance of joyful celebrations in Italy, including:

*December 6: La festa di San Nicola, the feast of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of shepherds and the inspiration for America's Santa Claus

*December 8: La festa dell'Immacolata, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Catholic holy day honoring Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus

*December 12: La festa di Santa Lucia, the festival of lights    

*December 24,  La vigilia di Natale, the Christmas vigil

*December 25: Natale, the birthday of the baby Jesus

*December 26:  La festa di Santo Stefano, Saint Steven's

*December 31: La festa di San Silvestro, Saint Sylvester's day, or New Year's Eve (la vigilia di Capodanno)

*January 1: Il Capodanno, literally the top of the year

*January 6: L'Epifania, Epiphany, which marks the arrival of the Re Magi, the three wise men, who brought gifts to the infant Jesus from afar

As we celebrate feasts and families, I thank all of you for your continuing support and friendship and extend warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Buone feste!

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language, MONA LISA: A Life Discovered  and the upcoming  LA PASSIONE: How Italy Seduced the World.

The New Italian Cinema Festival Comes to San Francisco

 

You don’t have to cross an ocean to meet some unforgettable Italians, appearing in a delectable assortment of movies in the New Italian Cinema festival, presented in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute and scheduled for the first weekend in December in San Francisco.

Among the featured films:

*AS NEEDED (Quanto Basta), a charming narrative about a hot-tempered chef performing community service at a school for adolescents with Asperger’s and his intense relationship with a teenage protégé with a perfect palate. Overcoming all odds, the young man cooks his way to the final round of a culinary competition for young chefs. Exceptional performances set against classic Tuscan settings.

*BOYS CRY (La terra dell’abbastanza), a raw, wrenching story of two young, happy-go-lucky friends training to work as baristas or waiters. A tragic accident thrusts them into the dark underworld of their rough Roman neighborhood as they turn to crime and violence as their only hope.

*EASY (Un viaggio facile) follows an overweight former go-kart champion known as Easy as he transports a coffin with a worker’s body back to his home village in the Ukraine. Along the way, the unlikely but lovable hero encounters unexpected perils and predicaments.

*HERE AND NOW (L'assoluto presente). In this searing portrait of modern malaise, three young men, restless for adventure, prowl the streets of Milan. Their violent attack of a random stranger sets off repercussions that change the course of their futures. 

*HOTEL GAGARIN, a fantastical feast of a movie about an unlikely crew of Italian film-makers and wannabes, duped into travelling to Armenia on a sham project. When war breaks out, they find themselves marooned in a grand hotel but, through the magic of movie-making, end up bringing the locals’ dreams to life. An absolute delight!

*THE LAST PROSECCO (Finché c’è prosecco c’è Speranza), a wry and witty mystery that takes us into the vineyards and behind-the-scenes dealings in the lush Veneto as an unflappable detective investigates the mysterious death of a local count. As sparkling as the bubbles in a glass of Prosecco.

*MANUEL, a debut film as compelling as Italy’s neorealistic classics, captures the turmoil of an eighteen-year-old. As he comes of age, Manuel struggles to do what he hopes is the right thing and desperately tries to win the relative freedom of house arrest for his long-incarcerated mother.

The Festival also presents several documentaries, including The Last Italian Cowboys (Gli ultimi butteri) on the legendary horsemen of western Tuscany; The Call (La Convocazione) on jurors serving in a Milan criminal court; and Open to the Public (Aperti al Pubblico) on the Neapolitan agency that manages—often chaotically--some 40,000 public housing units. Several directors and cinematographers will make personal appearances at the screenings.

Click here for the complete schedule, venues and tickets, including group tickets and discounted passes.

Andiamo al cinema! Let’s go to the movies!

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language and  MONA LISA: A Life Discovered. Click here to preorder her upcoming book, LA PASSIONE: How Italy Seduced the World.

Ways to Say Thank You in the Italian Language

Thank you

Italians don’t observe the all-American holiday of thanksgiving (la festa del ringraziamento). There are Italian words, but no cultural equivalents for the Pilgrim fathers (padri pellegrini) and the American Indians (Amerindi) who came together to celebrate the harvest (il raccolto) in the new world (il Nuovo Mondo). Italians do eat turkey (tacchino) and pumpkin (zucca) but not in the traditional way (modo tradizionale) that Americans prepare them on Thanksgiving.

Yet Italian has a wonderful array of ways to say thank you: grazie (thanks), grazie infinite (endless thanks), grazie mille (thanks a thousand, literally, but it translates as thanks a million), molte grazie (thank you very much), and grazie di cuore (thanks from the heart).  

Italian appreciation (like everything else) becomes more effusive on paper. If you are writing a lettera di ringraziamento (a thank-you letter) for a gift, a meal or a kindness, you might use phrases such as: 

*Non so come ringraziarLa -- I don’t know how to thank you (formal) 

*Grazie per la squisita ospitalità -- thank you for your exquisite hospitality 

*Grazie infinite per la Sua (formal) / la tua (informal) gentilezza -- thank you for your kindness 

*La ringrazio per tutto quello che ha fatto per me -- thank you for all that you have done for me (formal) 

*Il più affettuoso grazie per...la cena, il regalo, ecc -- most affectionate thanks for...the dinner, the gift, etc. 

*Le porgo i miei più sentiti ringraziamenti -- I profer to you my most heartfelt thanks  

*Non trovo parole per dirLe quanto ci ha fatto piacere -- I cannot find the words to tell you how much pleasure it gave me 

So what do you say when someone thanks you? Here are some options: 

*Prego -- please, not at all, comparable to "you're welcome"

*Di niente -- It’s nothing 

*Non c’è di che -- Not at all 

*Ma immaginati!  Ma figurati! -- That’s all right (literally, imagine or fancy that) –

*Non dirlo neanche -- Don’t even mention it 

*Non dire sciocchezze -- Don’t be silly (to friends) 

*È il minimo che potessi fare -- It is the least I can do 

*È stato un piacere -- It was a pleasure 

And then there's my husband's favorite: L'onore e tutto mio! -- The honor is all mine.

Words and Expressions 

Ingraziarsi -- to curry favor 

Grazie a Dio -- thank God 

Grazie, a buon rendere! -- Thank you, I owe you one! 

Essere grato di –- to appreciate, to be grateful for

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language and  MONA LISA: A Life Discovered. Click here to preorder her upcoming book, LA PASSIONE: How Italy Seduced the World.  

 

 

 

Celebrating Italian Cooking in the World

Cucina
Cooking, kitchen

I love everything about la cucina italiana, whether you translate it according to a 13th-century definition as the place where food is prepared or according to a 14th-century definition as “l’arte di preparare il cibo” (the art of preparing food). I particularly enjoy Italian's rich culinary vocabulary.

Italy’s food and language meld together as smoothly as cacio sui maccheroni (cheese on macaroni). Both boast a rich and rollicking history dating back to ancient times. Both vary greatly from region to region, even from village to village. Both reflect centuries of invasion, assimilation and conquest. And both can transform daily necessities into vibrant celebrations.

Alta cucina (haute cuisine) descends from la cucina principesca, the refined dishes prepared by the cooks of the nobility. Cucina povera (cooking of the poor or peasant cooking) refers to a now-fashionable mode of Italian cooking that uses the basic ingredients that were the only things available to i poveri (the poor).

Italians’ (and my) favorite cooking is cucina casalinga (home-cooking). In cucina (in the kitchen) I like to read aloud the lilting words for simple culinary techniques such as rosolare (make golden), sbriciolare (crumble) and sciacquare (rinse).

But Italian’s gastronomic words do more than tease or appease the appetite. They spice up daily conversations. “Cosa bolle in pentola?”( What’s boiling in the pot, or cooking?) Italians ask when they want to know if something is going on. Gotten yourself into a mess? You’ve made an omelette (fatto una frittata). Fed up and can’t take any more? You’re at the fruit (alla frutta) or the final course. Have a crush on someone? You’re cooked (cotto).

Italians compare a busybody who noses into everything to prezzemolo (parsley), They call someone uptight a baccalà (dried cod); a silly fool, a salame (salami); and a bore, a pizza. They dismiss a story told time and again as fritta e rifritta (fried and refried) and something that’s all sizzle and no steak as tutto fumo e niente arrosto (all smoke and no roast).

When a speech, book or movie is slapped together in a hodgepodge manner, critics find it as hard to digest as a polpettone (big meat ball). Cucinare qualcuno (to cook someone) means treating him as he deserves--cooking his goose, so to speak. But if you’re told to farti i cavoli tuoi, that has nothing to do with making cabbage. This idiom translates as, “Mind your own business.”

This month Italian cultural centers are celebrating la cucina italiana with special events in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities. Their theme provides words to live by all year long:  Eat, drink and be Italian!

Words and Expressions

Libro di cucina, ricettario -- cook book
Cucina abitabile -– large kitchen, kitchen-dinining room, eat-in kitchen
Cucina a vista -– open kitchen
Cucina tipica -– local cuisine

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language and  MONA LISA: A Life Discovered. Click here to preorder her upcoming book, LA PASSIONE: How Italy Seduced the World.  

 

Under and Over the Moon in the Italian Language

Gibigiana

Reflected light, moonglow

“Why do you keep going back to Italy?” a curious friend asks

“For the moonglow,” I reply, only half-joking. I could have answered with a single melodic Italian word: gibigiana (spelled in various ways, including gibigianna). I learned it only recently, from an Italophile as besotted as I by the reflected moonlight (chiaro di luna) on the Tyrrhenian sea off the Tuscan coast.

An Italian dictionary defines gibigiana as a “balenìo di luce riflesso dall’acqua o da uno specchio” (flash of light reflected from water or from a mirror). Considered old-fashioned and little used (poco utlizzata) in modern times, it dates back to the fairy tales grandmothers (nonne) once told about a gianna (witch or fairy, a word derived from the name of the goddess Diana) or a giubiana (ghost).

While gibigiana comes from the Lombard dialect, other regions use different expressions to capture this sparkling effect:  fare specchietto (make a little mirror) in Lucca, bagliore (glimmer) in much of Romagna, indovinello or illuminello (riddle or puzzle) in Pisa and Livorno, la veccia (the old woman) in Piedmont,  lo spirito folletto (the hobgoblin or elf) in Modena.

Italian designers refer to a certain style of lamp as a gibigiana. Film-makers use the term for a device placed in front of a light source as a filter. In slang gibigiana colorfully describes a woman who dresses in a “flashy” style—glittery rather than elegant.

Gibigiana is only one of the magical powers of una luna italiana. Equally impressive is the rising of una luna rossa (a red moon). Scientists explain this as un’illusione ottica (an optical illusion) that occurs when the moon is bassa sull’orizzonte (low on the horizon).

La luna, which can be nuova (new), crescente (waxing) or calante (waning), doesn’t just appear in Italy's night sky. Someone with extravagant wishes is said to chiedere la luna (ask for the moon). Italians refer to a fetus as being ancora nel mondo della luna (still in the world of the moon or not yet born).

Some folks are so absentminded or detached from reality that they seem to vivere nel mondo della luna (live in the world of the moon) while others are in such bad moods that they avere la luna storta (have the crooked moon). In hard times people find themselves struggling to sbarcare il lunario (make ends meet).

An Italian lunatico may be temperamental but isn’t necessarily as wacky as an English lunatic. But do watch out for anyone who tries to fare vedere la luna nel pozzo (make you see the moon in a well). He’s just stringing you along. And you certainly don’t want to end up doing as the local dogs do: abbaiare alla luna (barking at the moon—or exerting yourself in vain).

Words and Expressions:

Lunario –- almanac
Luna park –- amusement park
Luna di miele –- honeymoon
Luna Rossa -- the name of the Italian sailing team that competes in international races such as the America’s Cup

Photo: Giovanni Rinaldi, from the Argentario looking toward the town of Orbetello 

Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language and  MONA LISA: A Life Discovered. Click here to preorder her upcoming book, LA PASSIONE: How Italy Seduced the World.