Speak the Culture: Italy offers a rich and engaging insight into the
events, people and movements that have shaped Italy and the Italians. A
guidebook can show you where to go, a phrase-book what to say, but only
Speak the Culture: Italy will lead you to the nation's soul.
The Italian character is complex, contradictory, alluring and infinitely
variable: heirs to the greatest empire of the ancient world but almost
ungovernable; cradle of western civilization as well as the Mafia;
maestros of modern design, mired in old-fashioned bureaucracy; epicentre
of the Catholic Church and exemplars of la dolce vita.
Where do you start? Giotto? Caravaggio? 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, family and much more.
Culture is covered in its broadest sense, extending into every aspect of
Italian life--food and drink, religion, politics, sport, manners,
character and so on. While the Italian peninsula has its ancient
history, it's been a unified nation for less than 150 years. Lo Stivale,
or the famous Boot, is young: the nuances of strong, surviving regional
identities are important and revealed.
Taken as a whole, Speak the Culture: Italy gives you an insight into
what it means to be Italian, but it's also a book to dip into, to learn,
for instance, about Giuseppe Verdi, Sophia Loren or Umberto Eco. Easily
read and beautifully illustrated, this, the fourth in the Speak the
Cultureseries, offers an intimate understanding of Italian life and
culture for new residents, second home-owners, holidaymakers, business
travelers, students and lovers of Italy everywhere.
