Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The segment focuses on the reasons behind the founding of the French Academy by Louis XIV
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Francesca Vitalini describes her training in journalism and her work for a newspaper in Garbatella, a neighborhood of Rome.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The segment highlights two medieval churches near the ancient site of Alba Fucens. Both churches display ornamental facings made from pieces of colored marble that are intricately pieced together, what is known as Cosmatesque work.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The French government is privileged to have two of Rome's most beautiful properties: Palazzo Farnese, which they rent for a nominal fee and use as their embassy, and Villa Medici, which is the home of the French Academy, and was procured by Napoleon. The narrator speaks of how the land on which Villa Medici was built was highly appreciated by the ancient Romans.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Highlights include a church straddling the Romanesque and Gothic in Celano, and Massa d'Albe (the Roman city of Alba Fucens), where there is an amphitheater excavated from rock. The word arena comes from the Latin word harena, or sand. Sand was used on arena floors to catch the blood lost during gladiator games and the like.
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: Intermediate
Italy
The tour draws to a close in Rome's rougher neighborhoods, those that were particularly fascinating to poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Yabla takes us to a shop specialized in beauty products. There's plenty of new vocabulary here!
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
What does it mean to be a European? Is the variety of languages in Europe an obstacle to actual unification? Umberto Eco explores these questions and offers some interesting insight.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The Abruzzo Region, sometimes known as the Abruzzi with an i in older publications, is the area of interest for this six-segment video. This segment concentrates on the Piccolomini Castle in Marsica.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Rome's many bridges are the focus of this video, including the Ponte Rotto, which dates back to ancient Rome. Only part of the Ponte Rotto is still standing and this is why it is called rotto or broken. Rivers are masculine in Italian, and ancient Roman statues portray River Gods as recumbent elderly men with long beards.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
We visit the cemetery where the English poets are buried, and learn about the relationship between the Tiber River and the city of Rome.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The narrator reads some moving passages from the letters of John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Giacomo Leopardi, the Italian poet and near contemporary to Keats and Shelley, also lived in Piazza di Spagna.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Anna shows the baby changing area that she's set up in her apartment. She talks about many baby care products, and the segment provides a great lesson in diminutives.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The segment touches on Byron and Shelley, but is mostly about Keats and his time in Rome. It also includes part of a beautiful love letter to Fanny Brawne. The narrator speaks of Keats living on the second floor. The Italian way of counting stories is to call the first floor, the ground floor, and the numbering starts above.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment? You will not be able to recover it.