Italy: Culture

Language

Italian is a Romance language related to French. By common to both languages ​​Latin roots, you will recognize many words. The modern Italian literature began to develop in the XIII th and XIV thcenturies, mainly due to the writings of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, who wrote mainly Florentine dialect. The language has been fueled by his Latin heritage and dialects to become Italian today. The official language coexists with many regional dialects, especially in the South. Some languages, such as Sardinian, have also language status. Recall that the region of Valle d'Aosta is French, while they speak German in Trentino-Alto Adige.

The following words and phrases you may find useful:

Hello: buongiorno (or ciao, informal)
Goodbye: arrivederci (or ciao , informal)
Yes: sí
No: No
Please: per favore
Thank you: grazie
sorry: mi scusi
I would go to ...: voglio andare a ...
Hotel / pension  : albergo / pensione 
Restaurant  : ristorante
Breakfast: prima colazione (or colazione )
Lunch: pranzo
Dinner: cena
Office of Tourism  : ufficio di turismo
Plane: aereo
Bus: Bus

Food

The food comes high on the simple pleasures of a holiday in Italy. The countless specialties of each region have in fact only distantly related to the " kitchen Italian "as practiced abroad.

National emblem, the pasta is fresh and often topped with cream in the North, and decorated with tomato sauce in the South.Emilia-Romagna takes the cake with its gastronomy stuffed pasta (ravioli, Cappelletti ...), parmesan cheese and delicious charcuterie (Parma ham, salami, mortadella). Genoa is the birthplace of pesto, delicious basil sauce. Milan can be proud of risotto, while Tuscany produces the best olive oil in the country. If the Romans are fond of offal (the famous Roman tripe) is the Neapolitans that we owe the invention of the pizza. Sicily, which has kept its Arab past a predilection for pastries, not averse to the seafood (especially tuna and sardines). In Sardinia you expect rustic specialties like suckling pig roasted on a spit.

Religion

Nearly 80% of Italians declare themselves Catholic, but only 15% regularly attend church. Festivals and religious processions, colorful, never fail to draw a crowd of participants.

Arts

Living museum, Italy has a range of cultural and historical riches rarely equaled. Difficult to take a step without encountering an ancient column enthroned in the middle of a train station or a baroque church overlooking the ruins of a forum. Civilizations and architectural styles overlap: Etruscan ruins, Greek and Roman, Sicilian-Norman monuments, Gothic churches, Renaissance palaces, Baroque fountains, monuments Art new or rationalists ... The museums are full of masterpieces of sculpture Greco Roman and the great masters of Italian painting like Michelangelo, Raphael and Caravaggio.

Italian literature is no shortage of big names. First include all the Latin authors of antiquity - Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, Seneca - but the triumvirate Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, first-bearers of the Italian language in the XIV th century. The XX th century, Luigi Pirandello won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934, Italo Calvino ( Theperched Baron ) is the most appreciated Italian fabulist, while Dino Buzzati ( The Desert of the Tartars ) was distinguished by his ability to blend realism and fantasy. Several novels by Alberto Moravia were brought to the screen ( Contempt , The Conformist, The Boredom ). For the general public, it's Umberto Eco ( The Name of the Rose , Foucault's Pendulum ) that today symbolizes the transalpine literary production.

Inventors of the theory, but also the violin (the famous Stradivarius), piano and opera, the Italians have marked the history of music through composers such as Monteverdi, Vivaldi and Scarlatti. The works of Puccini, Verdi, Bellini and Rossini, distinguished representatives of bel canto , continue to be sung successfully worldwide.

The famous Roman Cinecittà allowed Italy to impose among the pillars of the 7 th art. The names of Visconti, Rossellini, Fellini, Antonioni and Bertolucci remain indispensable international film heritage. Who does not know the anthology taken from the sceneDolce Vita , where Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg bathing in the Trevi Fountain? The actress Anna Magnani plays forever Roman woman of working class neighborhoods, while Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida are stereotypes of beauty luscious Italian. Nanni Moretti ( The House of the son ), Giuseppe Tornatore ( Cinema Paradiso ) and Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful ) are among the biggest names in contemporary transalpine cinema. Matteo Garrone won the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes in 2008 for his film Gomorrah . Another recent winner of Cannes (Jury Prize in 2008): Paolo Sorrentino for Il Divo.