Buon Natale, a seasonal song, and various reminders

Buondì.

I’m writing this from Rimini, where the tribes are gathering for this evening’s Swedish-style Christmas Eve dinner.

Followed, much too soon afterwards, by the rather-more-lavish Italian version at lunchtime on Christmas Day.

Guess which goes on longer…

I hope you’ll be doing something gastronomically-ambitious, too?

I’ll be back again on mercoledì, which Italians call Santo Stefano (Boxing Day to many of us.)

In the meantime I’ll wish everyone ‘Buon Natale!’ and include some links to give you a flavour of the festive season in Italy, or at least in Bologna, where I live.

One of the most well-known (and well-loved) Bolognese was the singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla, who lived in, or near, one of the city’s main shopping streets, the pedestrianised Via D’Azeglio.

It runs parallel up the right-hand side of enormous San Petronio Basilica, up towards the hills.

Lucio died of a heart attack while on tour back in 2012, but is fondly remembered.

This year the ‘commercianti’ (shop owners) of Via D’Azeglio commissioned an artist to decorate their street with lights in the form of lyrics from one of his songs.

Starting at the Piazza Maggiore end (being careful to avoid being run down by crazy people on rented bikes), you can read the lyrics, one line at a time, as you walk under them.

Get the idea by checking out this short video.

You’ll find the full lyrics on this page (mind the adverts…)

And the song itself, on Youtube.

Given copyright laws and so on, here I’ll just quote the first lines, to get you in the mood:

Caro amico ti scrivo così mi distraggo un po’
E siccome sei molto lontano più forte ti scriverò.
Da quando sei partito c’è una grossa novità,
L’anno vecchio è finito, ormai
Ma qualcosa ancora qui non va.

(and my quick translation – be kind…)

Dear friend, I’m write to you to distract myself a little
And because you’re a long way away, I’ll write to you louder.
Since you left there’s been some big news,
The old year is more or less over
But something here still isn’t right.

Enjoy: the lights | the music | the lyrics

So enough with the fun stuff, on with the reminders…

Talking of Bologna, as we were, a quick mention of our Italian school’s Christmas Offer, the details of which can be found here – 2019 Italian Course Offer: Just 48 hours To Go!

And on the subject of offers, Friday 28th December will see the start of the club’s own promotion, with great savings to be had on ebooks, online Italian lessons and so on.

That’s more or less it for this Christmas Eve.

I’m ready.

Bring on the köttbullar!

‘Avanti’ with the tortellini in brodo!

A mercoledì.