TY - BOOK ID - 77910482 TI - Speak the culture : be fluent in Italian life and culture PY - 2010 SN - 1282580701 9786612580703 1854187201 9781854187208 9781854186287 1854186280 PB - London : Thorogood, DB - UniCat KW - National characteristics, Italian. KW - Culture KW - Cultural sociology KW - Sociology of culture KW - Civilization KW - Popular culture KW - Italian national characteristics KW - Social aspects KW - Italy KW - Social life and customs. KW - Intellectual life. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77910482 AB - "Italy has a bewildering cultural patrimony. Where do you start? With Giotto? With Caravaggio? In murky Etruscan tombs or the mighty Roman Pantheon? Speak the Culture: Italy sifts through a sprawling 3,000 year saga and makes sense of it; dissecting architecture, music, food, art, literature, cinema and much more. Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Mussolini: you've heard of them, but how did they live? What were their achievements and failings, and how are they remembered in Italy today? Speak the Culture: Italy explores the place of these and other figures in the national identity, in the story that made the modern nation. Culture is covered in its broadest sense, extending into the everyday modes of life - the food and drink, religion, politics, sport, character and so on. On one side lies the famous lust for life, expressed in everything from the Carnevale Di Venezia to the family mealtime; on the other lies a darker story of organised crime, corruption and political transience. And while the Italian peninsula has its ancient history, as a state the famous boot, or Lo Stivale, remains young, so the nuances of strong, surviving regional identities are also revealed."--Publisher's description. ER -