Bologna thru rose-tinted spectacles (and how it really is)

Buondì.

Wednesday last week I was doing Swedish conversation with a native speaker, who’s also a club member, and the topic of Bologna came up.

That’s where we have our Italian school, where I’ve lived for the last quarter of a century, and where my three, now-adult, children were born – in the Policlinico di Sant’Orsola, a university hospital founded in 1592 (the university itself is much older, but we’ll get to that).

Clearly I’m no sort of ‘Bolognese’, even after twenty-five years. One of the mums in the park the other day, whose offspring Roomie was bounding about with, remarked wistfully that I had a strong English accent. She meant it kindly, I think.

But my kids most definitely are ‘Bolognesi’, as one definition of being a local is that you were born within earshot of the bells of Policlinico di Sant’Orsola. Their cousins in Firenze sound different, as do my kids to them.

Live in a place long enough and you get to know its charms but also its faults. Which brings me back to our Swedish conversation. My online friend is also a regular student at Madrelingua and was telling me that when he comes again in September he’d like to visit FICO (‘Il Parco da Gustare’), a sort of foodie theme park a few miles out of town.

I haven’t been, because you have to pay to get in, because the shuttle bus from the central station is not free either, but mostly because the center of Bologna, where the school is, is already packed full of gastronomic wonders. Cheese, meat, fish, vegetables, wines – just wander through the narrow streets off to the left of Piazza Maggiore, feasting your eyes as you go.

They have animals at FICO, apparently – cows, sheep, goats, that sort of thing – so I briefly considered taking Roomie, who likes to pet, and be petted. But then I remembered that the urban farm down the road, part of a ‘sixties housing project with a bad reputation, has a donkey, a horse, a cow, and a sheep, plus gaggles of fowl of different types. Also, it runs off donations (chuck your spare change in the milk churn to buy straw for the animals) rather than coporate sponsorship. So never mind.

Later that day, my conversation partner sent me a video of Bologna, which features FICO, and Bologna’s other, older sights.

I hated it. Particularly the incredibly irritating music, but also the fact that it was filmed on some impossible day when there were no crowds, all the outside bars and restaurants had free tables, the weather wasn’t obviously too hot, there were no cars honking to get past, and so on.

But for a rose-tinted introduction to the city, you could do worse. The voiceover is in English, too. Unchallenging, as is the text itself. Really, really sorry about the music…

https://youtu.be/Eyem4V-xUQ0

Poi, by some sort of amazing, psychic coincidence, that very same day my wife sent me a link to a video on Facebook about – you guessed – Bologna, with the comment that it was a “nice video about Bologna’s history (very fast and a bit long…)”

That more or less sums it up. It’s in Italian, it IS very fast, and it is quite long. It’s also very funny in parts, and filmed on a real, non-magical day, with proper weather, and intrusive traffic sounds.

If you fancy your Italian, do take a look. I’d estimate that you’d have to have near-native speaker comprehension skills to get more than the gist of it. Think of it as a C2 listening test!

But even if you don’t understand rapid spoken Italian, take a look anyway. The video is quite visual, gives you a much better idea of the city than the other one, and most importantly, there’s OUR TOWER, the Torre Azzoguidi, which is in our street, just a couple of doors down from the school, and visible in close up from the window of the small classroom where I plonk my computer to work when I’m not typing away at my kitchen table.

For a quick introduction to Bologna’s famous towers, fast-forward to minute 6 in the video (press ‘play’, then drag the pointer to the right). There are some great views. OUR tower is at minute 6.58. It’s one of the ugliest ones, I admit, but it ours!

Well actually, of course it isn’t, but you’ll excuse me feeling proud when MY tower is on TV, despite me being an ‘extracomunitario‘ with an accent. Hah!

Here’s that video link again, the fast, long, funny one: https://fb.watch/iHoPKND6k7/

A venerdì!

P.S. ‘Io la conoscevo bene’, £5.99 until Sunday

Don’t forget this week’s new ‘easy reader’ ebook ‘Io la conoscevo bene’ (I Knew Her Well). It’s part of our ‘eBook of the Classic Italian Movie’ series, and is 25% off the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £7.99, so just £5.99. But only until Sunday 26th February.

The movie itself can be found on YouTube, here. Watching it is free, but if you have a budget for your Italian learning, why not get yourself a copy of our ebook version to read/listen to before you tackle the film?

Antonio Pietrangeli’s 1965 movie, ‘Io la conoscevo bene’, features Stefania Sandrelli as beautiful Adriana, an aspiring movie star who’s looking for something more than just a career on the screen…

Giovanni Galavotti’s re-telling of the story of the film for learners of Italian makes a great introduction before watching the movie itself (ideally in Italian!) Or it can be used simply as supplementary reading/listening material, guaranteed to liven up any study program!

• .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
• .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
• 8 chapters to read and listen to
• Comprehension questions to check your understanding
• Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
• Suitable for students at B1 level and above
• Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Io la conoscevo bene just £5.99 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | eBook of the Movie (1) | eBook of the Movie (2) | eBook Catalog

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P.P.S.

Did you, as I suggested on Monday, read/listen to Saturday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news?

If so, brava or bravo!

As promised there was another bulletin yesterday. Read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news, if you haven’t already done so, as there’ll be another tomorrow (Thursday) and another on Saturday.

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Read/listen to them all, each week, and for absolutely zero cost you’ll be well on the way to establishing habits that will, over time, improve your comprehension of Italian.

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