Here's a selection of my Italy Magazine articles from last week:
In one of the quirkiest news stories I've covered, you can read about an audacious Welsh company and its plans for the Italian market.
If you are interested in art, here you can read about some unusual art exhibitions or, if you prefer ancient art, about some newly opened Etruscan tombs in Lazio.
Finally, for my personal Patti Chiari column I describe the summer sounds of Sicily.
Happy reading.
5 comments:
I am launching a career as a writer too - I have just written my first hit record!
PLEASE do come by and give some constructive flattery on my amazingly original lyrics... if you do not love them I am sure my tune will make Simi howl with barksome entertainment pleasure!
Hoping you are not sweltering to death out there in Sicily... I have barely moved from the wet-flannel draped fan that is the only thing making life bearable these days...
ps a query - do Italian keyboards have a different layout to the ordinary QWERTY ones us Brits know and love?
I have just updated my computer with French and German key settings.
In German all letters are in the normal place except that Y and Z change place which is MOST inconvenient when typing English, though I am getting used to it in German as of course I need lots of Zs. ß is next to zero on the top right, ö is next to l and ä is next to ö...
But French is another matter entirely!
I hqve just reset ,y keys to French so you cqn see hoz ridiculous it looks; zith everything shuffled qbout into the ,ost biwqrre plqces1
French keyboqrds go AZERTYUIOP
QSDFGHJKLM
WXCVBN?./
qnd insteqd of nu,bers you get &é"'(-è_çà)= up top. You have to press shift to get numbers...
... I was wondering about this as I know you used to teach French and wondered whether you've had many dealings with French typewriters or PCs... I don't think I could EVER get the hang of that ridiculous layout as I touch type (something I learned in school, knowing computers were the way forward ~ one of the best decisions of my life).
I bought a 1943 edition Teach Yourself Italian for 50p from Cancer Research last week, so maybe in a year or two I'll be able to send you comments in la bella lingua! (Or did I tell you this before? If so I'm terribly sorry.) At the moment I'm on Maria e Piero hanno una casa.
Piero e Maria hanno un figlio e una figlia.
Did I get that right? That's exercise 1.
I have to say this old-school book is far more fun than the modern dialogue-based book+CD courses. I think dialogue is a very restrictive way of having to teach language. Writing and translating Ha Piero uno zio? Is far more fun. Than blithering away to a CD pretending to be at the police station.
Anyway enough of this rant. Woofs to Simi ;-)
:-)
Hope this isn't appearing twice. Blogger have really messed up comments these last couple of days... what's wrong with 'em?
I caught the last article first, silently enjoying your description of Sicilian silence. You are so observant!
Hi Pat, I enjoyed all of those articles. I would especially love it if somebody, anybody raised the Italians consciousness about gluten-free foods!
You have been busy, well done. I like the article about Wales.
Hi, Gleds. I'll be right over! It is rather hot here, yes. Ital keyboards are QWERTY but have the é and è plus ù. The worst time I ever had with a keyboard was with a Czech one - it kept typing "z" everywhere! For French, I used to use number codes to get the accents and still do. Your Ital exercise 1 is right so keep up the good work! Hugs and woofs from Simi x woof!
Very kind of you to say so, lakeviewer.
Thanks, Saretta. Perhaps it will take the Welsh to do it!
Thanks, Ellee. x
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