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: Intermediate
Italy
Yabla takes us to a shop specialized in beauty products. There's plenty of new vocabulary here!
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: Intermediate
Italy
Antonella talks about her relationship with the people who come into the shop, especially older women who still care about being beautiful, and who are beautiful, inside and out.
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: Intermediate
Italy
Francesca Vitalini describes her training in journalism and her work for a newspaper in Garbatella, a neighborhood of Rome.
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: Intermediate
Italy
What kinds of jobs does a journalist do? Francesca explains what her job entails.
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: Beginner
Italy Sicilian
Adriano is not only charming, he was able to teach his new Polish girlfriend how to speak Italian in just a few months, with a little help from Yabla.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Me Ne Frego [I don't give a damn], was one of the mottoes of Fascism, coming originally from the writings of Gabriele d'Annunzio and employed by storm troops during World War One as a war cry for courage and daring, with the meaning, "I don't mind dying for freedom." The motto gives the title to this documentary about the influences of Italian Fascism on the Italian language. It was produced by the Istituto Luce Cinecittà, with materials from the historical Luce archives, and narrates the obscure attempt by the Fascist regime to create a new and unique language, a new “Italian” that fit the dogma of the dictatorship.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Arianna just got her Marketing degree and is looking for a job. Let's see how she goes about it.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Mussolini forbade the use of dialects and the minority languages that were spoken in the regions bordering the countries to the north in favor of one language for all. Italians were bombarded by fascist propaganda and Mussolini's very frequent speeches.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Arianna goes to her job interview. How did she do? Should she have answered any questions differently? Are there some important questions she neglected to ask? Do you think she will get the job?
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
In World War I, Italians who up until then had spoken their regional dialects, found themselves fighting side by side against a common enemy. But Mussolini was interested in fighting the internal enemy.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Arianna is on tenterhooks waiting for the phone call that could change the course of her life. When she can't bear it any longer, the phone rings. No caller ID.
Difficulty: Advanced
Italy
L'Eredità [Inheritance] is an immensely popular daily quiz show on the RAI [pronounced rye], the Italian public TV and radio network. This episode benefits the Telethon Foundation, which provides funds for research into genetic diseases, and is based on Jerry Lewis's Telethon. To understand the play on words they use at a certain point, see the various meanings of macchina here. Learn more about this Italian game show here.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The segment looks at how Mussolini patterned his fiercely nationalist rhetoric after poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, while harkening back to the glory of Imperial Rome. The song in the segment refers to Balilla, an 18th century Genoese boy. In 1746, Balilla threw a stone at an Austrian official of the occupying Hapsburg Empire, which led to the War of the Austrian Succession.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Arianna starts work at Phones and More. Her first task is to call a list of publications to find out about ad space. When she gives her email address, she uses the word chiocciola [snail] for the @ sign. Koreans also say "snail shell" when they see an @ sign, while the Dutch see a monkey's tail, and the Norwegians see a pig's tail.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Francescopaolo, the contestant, is presented with a long list of Italian winners of either a Nobel Prize or an Academy Award Oscar, and has to choose which prize they were awarded.
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