Christmas greetings from Italy by way of a Christmas poem by Alda Merini.

Holiday greetings from Yabla Italian.

Holiday wishes from the Yabla Italian team.

Holiday greetings for 2021 from the Yabla Italian team.

As we approach the end-of-the-year holidays, the staff of Yabla Italian makes a toast to all its students and followers who are, each in his or her own way, on the road to becoming fluent.

This year's holiday greetings from the Yabla Italian team include a short poem by Gianni Rodari. He asks a soothsayer to see into the future. Let's see what the soothsayer says! Heartfelt thanks to all who are honing their Italian skills with Yabla.

When one retires, it can free up time as well as one's mind, providing an opportunity to experiment and find out what is important. Armando, who worked as an architect before retirement, uses photography to explore the circle of life in nature.

Little by little, we discover Armando's fascination with oxidation. It seems to have started by looking at advertising billboards.

Armando tells us how the designs he is fascinated by come to be. It all has to do with billboards, and how they are marked up, torn, and over time, oxidized. The oxidation process is fascinating.

Armando begins describing the structure of his book, and talks about how he envisions a kind of journey, beginning in the far reaches of the universe, down to the tiny details of a flower.

In this segment, describing chapters 3 - 6, we can imagine storms, volcanoes, oceans, and mountains in Armando's photographs.

In chapter. 7, Armando describes how, to him, his images represent vegetation, woodlands, trees, and flowers.

Not only are Armando's photographs reminiscent of the universe and nature — they also recall other works of art from history.

Armando talks about how the works of Duchamp influenced his work and that of so many contemporary artists. The choice of a unique exhibition hall played a part, as well.

Gestures are part of body language, and we all know that Italians are particularly famous for communicating with their hands. Arianna shows us how to "speak" Italian without words.