Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Dixieland is left in the dark because Mister Sun has overslept. It's up to Dixi to go and wake him up. The vocabulary review features third person verbs in the passato remoto tense.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
In this video we learn how to prepare delicious sweets with coconut and chocolate. This vegan recipe doesn't call for any ingredients derived from animals.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
The great Domenico Modugno, best known for his hit song, Nel blu dipinto di blu [Volare], came in first at the San Remo Festival in 1966 with the song, Dio come ti amo. The Italian lyrics are very clear, and very romantic!
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
This is part of a film, Capriccio all'italiana shot in 1967-1968. This episode was directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The singer is Domenico Modugno, and you'll also see Totò. This was Totò's last film appearance.
Difficulty: Beginner
Italy
Modugno appears in this vintage clip on the Ed Sullivan Show and sings what is probably the most popular Italian song ever. Franco Migliacci, the songwriter, was inspired to write the song by the paintings of Marc Chagall.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
This beautiful ballad was inspired by Raimondo Lanza di Trabia, an aristocrat known for his electrifying personality and for his romantic relationships (Rita Hayworth and Susanna Agnelli among them). At the age of thirty-nine, he threw himself from a hotel window in Rome.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Giuseppe Pitrè was an ethnologist who collected documents pertaining to Sicily and its culture and traditions. His work is the basis for this documentary, which unites live footage, drawings, and archival documents.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
We learn about Pitrè's life, and his relationship to the sea.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
In this segment, we see some swordfish harpoon fishing, and hear an old Sicilian legend about a boy named Nicola who could stay underwater for a very long time.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Pitrè's life was marked by a sort of travelling storyteller tradition in his family. In those days, a cuntastorie (storyteller) would go around to all the piazzas and tell stories, and people would pay to hear them.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
This segment focuses on an actor who retells and acts out stories from Sicily's past, speaking in Sicilian dialect. He uses the Pitrè Museum as a source for material. The museum houses a manuscript with over 4,000 Sicilian proverbs, just one of the many volumes of Sicilian ethnographic material.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy Sicilian
Pitrè's mission was to conserve and safeguard the traditions of his people, the Sicilians, and to keep the roots alive. Looking at religious traditions is one important way to do this.
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.
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