Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Manuela gets to the document before Paolo does, and reacts. This starts quite a chain reaction involving Natoli, the workers at the factory, and Paolo who ends up on Manuela's bicycle.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
The centerpiece of this segment is dinner. Pasta. In Italian, spaghetti is the plural of spaghetto (a strand of spaghetti), and Italians like their pasta al dente which literally means "to the tooth." In other words, it should be cooked just enough to be bitten, therefore firm, not hard, but by all means not soft.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
A tour of Villa Medici's reception and private rooms. Ferdinando de' Medici hired the architect and sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati to expand the villa, as well as other renowned Florentines artists to create fresco cycles exalting his life. We catch a glimpse of his frescoed south-facing apartment, which would have been used in the colder months, while the north-side suite was for warmer periods.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Antonella talks about her work history, at first in the family business, and later for an American corporation in the cosmetics industry.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
What kinds of jobs does a journalist do? Francesca explains what her job entails.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Abruzzo churches built by order of Saint Francis of Assisi (1226–1330) or dedicated to him, are featured in this segment.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Minivip is called in by a lady in distress over a mouse. He also masters the doctor's line on eighty euros.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Things are going nicely for Camilla when she learns more about Nicola and his girlfriend. With her mother, not so much.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Today is the decisive doctor's visit, but it's not entirely what the newlyweds expected. Meanwhile, let's hope Paolo can start paying attention to his company's developments, because something fishy is going on.
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
Minivip's session involves his being present at a bank holdup, and his crushed fantasy of saving the day.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Emotions run high in this part of the story. Manuela has no idea what Paolo is going through, but they have to go to the adoption interview, so stress is running high, too. As often happens, Natoli provides some relief in his own inimitable way.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Camilla's mother is after her to do her a favor, and Sammy shows up asking a favor, as well.
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
Minivip's good deed of saving a dog is rewarded with multiple tickets from a traffic cop. His big brother, once again, saves the day.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Paolo is surrounded by challenges: Manuela's family, to start with, and then the difficult decisions to make regarding the future of the factory.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Camilla had a hard time of it after seeing what she saw the night before. And she had a hard time in class, too, with students who hadn't studied.
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.
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