Buondì. I’m going to keep this super, super short today, as I’m running late because I’ve been busy publishing two new ‘easy Italian reader’ ebooks. The first is the ebook version of our Summer Series on Il Rinascimento, which ended on Friday last week. You can read and listen to all thirty chapters, for FREE, […]
The Renaissance #30, The End (and what’s coming next)
Buondì. We’ve done it! With today’s final installment, we’ll have read and listened to thirty episodes on The Renaissance (and after…). In Italian! Well done to everyone who’s been following along! We finish today with Garibaldi, the ‘hero of two worlds’, and my favourite biscuit as a child (if you’re into dried fruit, source a […]
The Renaissance #29, La Carboneria (e la carbonara)
Buondì. Tomorrow evening’s dinner at our house will be la carboneria, which is Tom’s favourite, and has the added advantage that it’s familiar enough to pass muster with Roomie, who can be fussy about new dishes. No wait, I got that wrong! Because our vegan daughter’s away, we’ll be dining on la carbonara – La […]
The Renaissance #28 and THREE Half Price eBooks of the Week!
Buondì. My motto is “Honour and Women!”. I had it engraved on my sword, so as not to forget. No, not really. And I didn’t become King of Naples, either. But read about someone who did, and presumably enjoyed plenty of fights and rumpy pumpy during his ascent from humble shop-keeper’s son to Emperor Napoleon […]
The Renaissance #27, Napoleon crowned King of Italy!
Buondì. You may have noticed the similarity between the French and Italian flags, but did you know that Napoleon, besides being emperor of France, was also King of Italy? Perhaps, being one of the earliest Italian migrants (see today’s P.S. for the newest ebook in our Italian Diaspora series) he was homesick, who knows? Find […]
The Renaissance #26, “gli mette le corna”
Buondì. Well, The Renaissance has been a bit of a disappointment, hasn’t it? I thought there’d be plenty of stuff on science, philosophy, and so on, but apart from Galileo, the odd crispy philosopher, and a handful of painters and sculptors, it’s been a lot of articles on various European powers fighting for territory. Not […]
The Renaissance #25 / New Ebook Easy Reader, 25% Off!
Buondì. Imagine you were the king of an island, amongst other things. Not just any island, though. This one has rich cities, sumptuous foods and wines, friendly people, and it’s very nicely positioned – your seaside getaway is in a strategic location, not too far off the coast from one of Europe’s most desirable metropolises, […]
The Renaissance #24 (with the correct link this time)
Buonasera. I’d long suspected there were only a handful of club members following our Summer Series. So when in today’s earlier article I forgot to replace the link to Wednesday’s Episode 23# with Friday’s Episode #24, and indeed to add the new link to our History page (now done!), two of that handful made themselves […]
The Renaissance #24 / “Let’s roll!”
Buondì. They say there’s nothing new under the sun, and reading today’s episode from our Summer Series on the Renaissance (and the following century or two), I was reminded of that. We’re in the middle of the eighteenth century now, in Genova, where the locals are fed up with being bossed about by Austrian queens, […]
The Renaissance #23 / Cursing at other drivers
Buondì. A super-quick one today, as I’m back in Italy after my holiday in the UK. The house is full of grown up children (we’re five adults and an infant at the moment), which means shopping, cooking, and washing up, not to mention taxiing Roomie to and from her distant kindergarten and, um, actually trying […]