Luigi is the protagonist of this series from RAI Fiction and Wildside. He's forty years old with a wife, a little girl, and another child on the way, when he suddenly finds himself having to spend a lot of time in the oncology unit of a hospital. Although La linea Verticale (the vertical line) is a work of fiction, it's based on a real story, and we are able to see, through Luigi's eyes, what daily life in an Italian hospital is like.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
In this TV series, Luigi discovers he is ill and while he is waiting to see the doctor, his thoughts turn to his death, and how he would like his funeral to be.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi discovers that not only is his oncologist young, but he is his first patient. Luigi and his wife are nervous but ready, while the department head seems to be more interested in her phone call.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Some patients are afraid to go home, to do things for themselves, but once they are well, they must. Luigi waits to sign the informed consent form before his operation. He hears about Doctor Zamagna who will be performing the surgery.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Doctor Policari brings the consent form, along with some seemingly paradoxical advice. Luigi's wife tries to get more information from this doctor, without success.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi's wife reads the consent form. Meanwhile, Luigi gets prepped by different nurses for the operation he will have the next day.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
It's the night before Luigi's operation. It's hard to sleep for various reasons, but he is resting, when Doctor Zamagna pays him a visit.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
The morning of the operation has arrived and the nurse goes through a checklist with Luigi to make sure he is ready before being taken to the operating room.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
It's time to go to the operating room. A priest arrives to give him an encouraging word, and Elena walks with him as far as she can. Luigi is still worried about his surgeon having jet lag.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
As he is being wheeled towards the operating room, Luigi reflects on how the hierarchy of the hospital can be discerned by how people vent their anger and on whom.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
The operation seems to have gone well, but forty-eight hours have to go by before they can be 100% sure.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi is trying to rest, but it's not easy with a roommate who talks, and the feelings of nausea he is experiencing. He thinks out loud about how different doctors say different things regarding a patient's health.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Elena gets to talk to Luigi after the operation. The topic is resilience, a very important characteristic of the healing process.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
The hospital personnel have a special relationship with the elevator. There is a new female walking the corridors and nobody fails to notice her. Doctor Zamagna goes to see Luigi.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Doctor Zamagna tells Luigi what he did during surgery, but although it went well, Luigi doesn't feel so great.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Even with all the activity swirling around, with the visitors, fellow patients, and doctors, Luigi feels very alone with his symptoms and his thoughts, just like anyone else who has undergone surgery.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
The nurse is pretty mad at Amed and she says some things. Luigi makes the consideration that it's the nurses who keep the hospital going.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Elena finally gets to visit Luigi in the hospital and they talk about the situation. She brings him a little video made by Anita, their daughter.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi wants his tube removed in the worst way. Only Zamagna can answer his questions.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi recounts that typically, during the night in the ward, there is anger in the air, and, indeed, Luigi has to deal with an angry stressed-out nurse.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
This episode begins with a flashback to when Luigi first notices blood in his urine. At the hospital, the priest is getting ready for his operation.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi has plenty of time to observe the doctors as they make their rounds. They need to get in and out in a very short time.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi realizes that the doctors have "pre-packaged" answers for the questions they get every day from patients There is s new patient sharing a room with Luigi. Peppe remembers everyone, but they don't remember him.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi can't wait for the tube to be removed and expresses how grateful he would be to Doctor Policari... Peppe is still hoping someone will remember him from two years earlier.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi complains that all he hears doctors and nurses say is, un passo alla volta (one step at a time). He would love a little optimism and reassurance.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi has another conversation with Zamagna, but isn't sure if it is really him. Luigi is not out of the woods yet.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Doctor Rapisarda seems to want to be elsewhere other than making his rounds. Peppe Silvestri is about to be operated on. Luigi is asked how things are going now that the tube has been removed.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Peppe comes out of the operating room where all seems to have gone well. Luigi has a fever and the doctors are discussing the possible causes and what to do about it. Meanwhile Luigi feels he has to try to get out of bed, to prove to his body that he can.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Amed is worried that the replacement chaplain will come and start talking, and never stop. He'll "press play" and tell stories ad nauseam. But on the good side, Luigi's fever is going down, even though he doesn't feel great.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Elena tries to keep Luigi from getting too depressed about his situation. He then gets a taste of what his roommates had been telling him about the friar.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Father Costa just wants to be left alone and chases Friar Marcello away. Luigi finally has his catheter and drainage removed.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi spends the night tossing and turning. In the morning, a nurse comes to get him for the CT scan, but then he has to wait and wait.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
When Luigi finds out he could actually have had some water before his CT scan, he is totally demoralized. He talks about the different kinds of patients to be found in any hospital.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
If Italian food culture is so famous the world over, Luigi wonders why it should be so bad in Italian hospitals.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Amed is convinced that the girl who had promised special food, a while back, was a figment of their imagination. He goes so far as to call the nurse to see if she remembers the girl.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Amed is obsessed with the idea of eating the right kind of food to fight cancer, but he goes a little too far.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Amed predicts Luigi's future, and Luigi has some visions. This segment reveals the meaning of the title of the show.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi talks about getting old. Marcello talks about missing his restaurant and the work he loves.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi tells us the fourth thing that demonstrates that a man has gotten old.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Riccardo's mother has made him all his favorite foods, but can't grasp that he is using a feeding tube. Luigi, on the other hand, is feeling better and is greatly appreciating being able to eat real food.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi explains an unwritten rule at the hospital, and we see it in action. The priest is in crisi (having a hard time) and explains things to his roommate, who doesn't quite get it.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
One doctor chooses to recite Baudelaire rather than listen to his patient. Luigi gets the results of the histological exam.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
The doctor and Luigi finish discussing the results of his exam. The message is always the same, however. One step at a time. Captions 6-8 are a great example of how lei can mean different things and cause confusion.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
A patient's hemoglobin count is very important. If it's high enough, a patient can make it to the hospital bar. But then?
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi makes it all the way to the bar, and once there, it is as his roommates predicted. He doesn't know what to order. He reflects on what metterci la testa (putting one's mind to it) means for him.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi can't wait to get out of the hospital and is dreaming of drinking a toast once he's out. Amed puts on the brakes right away.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
One of the patients has a curious conversation with his doctor about diet.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
This episode begins with the funeral of a patient, in the hospital chapel.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Amed gets ready to leave the hospital. Luigi gets his stitches removed and talks to a doctor about what he'll have to do in the future.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
It's time for Amed to leave the hospital, but he's not quite ready. There are various types of goodbyes happening.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Riccardo, the priest, is having a hard time. His mother is trying to help him in her way. Barbieri keeps bothering Giusi. The patient who seems to think he is a doctor gives Luigi some news.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi has to listen to an interminable list of possible side effects to the drugs he will be taking. Could it be that he is actually going home?
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Two of the doctors meet up in the hall and get into a spat about which job is more noble, that of an oncologist or that of a surgeon.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi reflects on how so many Italians, though living in a marvelous place, would like to be somewhere else, do something else, etc. But there are exceptions.
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Italy
Luigi continues reflecting on how his illness changed his life in various ways, not all of them negative. Un passo alla volta (one step at a time).
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