Francesco De Gregori's inspiration for La donna cannone [The Cannonball Lady] came from a newspaper article about a circus performer who quit the circus for love.

Francesco Gabbani performs the hit that won at the Festival di Sanremo in 2017. It's also a great song for workouts.

There are too many plays on words in this song to describe here, but one stands out in particular: e state (and you stay) and estate (summer). The song pokes fun at Italians on vacation, all the while being very Italian itself. Yabla Italian wishes you a great summer. Buona estate!

Francesco Renga's love song "Angelo" won the 2005 edition of the highly prestigious Festival di San Remo, then in its 55th year.

Francesco goes about explaining philosophy to children using a jar. Philosophy is like magic, but while magic involves objects, philosophy involves ideas.

Is the jar full or empty? Let's see what Francesco and the kids have to say about it.

Franco Battiato sings about love philosophically. It's useless to have regrets, since we can't go back in time.

Permeating the song are images of a Sicilian beach in the hot summer and the waves that could carry you out to sea.

Tozeur is a city in southwestern Tunisia, near the Algerian border. The train line referred to in the song was originally built for the king in the early 1900s when Tunisia was still a French protectorate. More info about the song here.

Franco Commisso, an emerging Italian artist, talks about his latest song "Mai, mai ormai," [Never, Never by Now]. The interview covers subjects like his early start in music, competing at age three, and his performing in Korea. Video provided by PA 74 Music.

This documentary is about 2 brothers — the Taviani brothers — who are famous for having made many award-winning Italian movies. The short clips from their films will surely entice us to see the complete movies in the original Italian. Perhaps the most famous one is La Notte di San Lorenzo from 1982, whose English language release had the title: The Night of the Shooting Stars.

The Taviani brothers lived through the war, so they had a good feel for the terror people felt. But as kids they were also very much affected by the movies offered at the time.

The Taviani brothers talk about how, as young movie lovers, they would grab their bikes and go to whatever movie theater in the area was showing their favorite films. Then they had to go to the big city, Rome, to pitch their first documentary. They learned a valuable lesson.

San Miniato is where the Taviani brothers were born, but it was also the birthplace of their careers in filmmaking. Their first was a documentary and right away they had some problems with censorship.

Actor Giulio Brogi talks about how his role in The Subversives mirrored his character at the time. The Taviani brothers describe how they found another actor in that film, young Lucio Dalla, the famous (and now deceased) singer-songwriter.