Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Besides his much better known activity as a graphic artist, Crepax was a keen wargamer and wargame designer and collector of paper soldiers, drawn by himself.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Crepax loved playing at battles and would change the outcomes, using his friends to fine-tune the moves. He had some famous personalities as willing participants in the games, too.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Guido Crepax's son Antonio talks about the day Antonio Custra was killed in May of 1977, during an armed demonstration in Milan. This was during the so-called anni di piombo (years of lead), a period of social turmoil, political violence and upheaval that lasted from the late 1960s until the late 1980s, marked by a wave of both far-left and far-right incidents of political terrorism and violent clashes. Many demonstrators were arrested, but Antonio Crepax managed not to get loaded onto a paddy wagon.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Just as in Cubist art, Crepax would design his figures to be seen from various points of view simultaneously. Sometimes he would use small windows to attract attention rather than making them larger.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Who was the model for Valentina? Certainly, the actress Louise Brooks who portrayed Lulu in the movie Pandora's Box directed by G.W Pabst (based on two plays by Frank Wedekind), but also Crepax's wife, Luisa Mandelli.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Crepax's stories were based on imagination and vision. In those years, artists contaminated one another's works, and there was even a curious connection between Crepax's Ciao Valentina and Antonioni's Blow-Up.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Which came first? Blow-Up or Ciao Valentina? Which work stole from the other? In any case, there are some striking similarities.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We've come to the end of this journey to find Valentina. Philip Rembrandt continues to wait, and Valentina never forgets him.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Gianni takes us up to an abandoned villa, and reflects on the tremendous challenges the builder faced.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Gianni explores the interior of the abandoned villa, imagining what it might have been like before.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Arianna shows us around the Cathedral Square, where the bell tower, better known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, is located.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
This beautiful church is worth a stop on the way from Pisa to the seaside. Arianna shares her discovery of it. The ceramic bowls that decorate the church are technically known as “bacini ceramici” in Italian, which could be translated as “ceramic basins.” Art historians who write in English, however, also use the term “bacini” for these tin-glazed works.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy Tuscan
Arianna takes us down to a beach near Pisa, and explains a bit about how beaches work in many parts of Italy.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
"Quelli che" (those who...), written and performed by the great Enzo Jannacci, lends its ironic and humoristic verses to the soundtrack of Lina Wertmüller's film,"Pasqualino Settebellezze" [Seven Beauties] starring Giancarlo Giannini, and nominated for best foreign film at the 1976 Oscars.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Irene introduces us to Venice, unique city, rare and famous throughout the world. Not only for its architectural beauty and historic monuments, but also for its art and cultural exhibitions. Venice is definitive a must-see city.
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