Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Pitrè's mission was to conserve and safeguard the traditions of his people, the Sicilians, and to keep the roots alive. Looking at religious traditions is one important way to do this.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Saint Rosalia (1130–1166), recognized by her crown of roses, is Palermo's patron saint. The video shows the July 14 parade in honor of the saint, and a young man who credits his cure from a grave illness to Saint Rosalia.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
The segment concentrates on the richness of the Sicilian dialect, a dialect which is less and less spoken. The narrator interviews two poets who recite their works in Sicilian, providing insights into the language.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Giuseppe Pitrè received his degree in medicine in 1865. His patients, among Palermo's poorest, provided him with a wealth of ethnographic material.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
A woman performs a traditional Sicilian ritual involving the sticking of pins into an onion, accompanied by prayers, in order to bring back the boyfriend of her suppliant.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Giuseppe Pitrè loved attending performances of chivalric folk plays in Palermo. This segment follows a marionette player at Palermo's Opera dei Pupi, the same theater where Pitrè went to see folk epics.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Palermo faces the sea and has a very long history of immigration. The narrator interviews a young woman whose great grandfather came to Sicily from Sudan. She is involved in educating immigrants from Africa and Asia. Pitrè was also highly involved in education.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
A Palermo doctor is interviewed about his practice and the African and Southeast Asian immigrant patients that he treats.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
A Palermo doctor discusses the Integration of immigrants in Sicily and highlights the successes in healthcare. Medical assistance is provided for all immigrants, whether lawful or not.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The documentary comes to a close with an interview regarding a prison cell used during the Inquisition. The cell bears the graffiti of its inmates. Pitrè had laboriously uncovered the graffiti, but it was only rediscovered in the 1970s by the writer Leonardo Sciascia and the interviewee in this segment, Giuseppe Quatriglio, who used Pitrè's writing to find it.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Il formaggio (cheese) is rarely missing from an Italian kitchen. This video takes us to the mountains north of Bergamo where the Monaci family has kept the family cheese-making tradition going, beginning in the stable where the cows are taken care of during the colder months.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Lo stracchino is a soft, mild but flavorful cheese that's spreadable, and we find it in supermarkets all over Italy. But the kind Francesca's family produces in the mountains, with traditional tools, is on a whole other level. Why is this cheese called stracchino? There is a fascinating reason. Watch the video.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The fine white mold that forms on the cheese helps give it its characteristic flavor, but it is also painstakingly scraped off each round. Before the high-altitude pastures are ready for grazing, humans take advantage of the snow and the trails.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Here and there in the small villages of the valley, there are interesting frescos hearalding back to earlier times. Two local recipes are offered: stuffed curly cabbage leaves and Taragna polenta, a kind of cornmeal with the addition of buckwheat.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
In the Brembana Valley, the river reigns supreme. In fact, there is still a functioning water mill for grinding corn, as well as people passionate about maintaining centuries-old traditions.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment? You will not be able to recover it.