Buondì.
Two things today:
First, for all you Italian history fans, we have the twenty-second installment of our FREE Summer Series of articles with audio, this year on The Renaissance (and the events that followed it.)
Two thirds of the way into this thirty-part series, we seem to be bogged down in a long period of squabbling between various European powers (France, Spain, Austria) to control profitable and strategic bits of the Italian peninsula.
I’m beginning to see why Italians were so cheerful about finally getting their own unified state (we’ll get to that in next year’s summer series), and so finally being able to evade paying taxes to their own government, rather than to that of neighbouring countries. Hurrah!
Anyway, today we meet the Spaniard, Carlo di Borbone, known apparently as ‘Re delle Due Sicilie’ (King of the two Sicilies).
There were two Sicilies? Who knew?
Find out more by reading/listening to:
The previous twenty-one articles in this series, along with the entire Summer Series from 2020 and 2021, are linked to from our History page.
OK, so second in today’s order of business is an announcement which I hope will be of interest to fans of EasyItalianNews.com, which is put together by my wife, two of my adult kids, and a team of young freelance writers.
EasyItalianNews.com is funded by donations (relax, I’m not asking for money today), which now more or less cover its costs, compared to at the beginning, when I funded it myself, out of revenues from ebook sales.
Over the four years EasyItalianNews.com has been publishing ‘easy’ Italian news bulletins, around a thousand people have donated to help with that, mostly small amounts, but sometimes several hundred dollars at a time. All gifts, small or large, are appreciated, and go directly towards producing this educational resource, which is free to access for anyone who wants it.
Emailing our thanks to donors isn’t really practical, in terms of time, but what we have done in the past (not last year, because of the pandemic), is to put together a selection of articles in a ‘Best of’ ebook, and EMAIL A DOWNLOAD LINK TO DONORS, by way of thanks.
This I did on Friday last, another job off the summer ‘to do’ list. But you know how it is – people don’t always open emails, especically if they think we’re selling something. Or maybe our email goes straight to the spam/junk folder, despite our efforts to be ethical, non-spammy, bulk mail senders.
Anyway, the point is, if you ever donated to EasyItalianNews.com, check your email inbox (in particular the email associated with your Paypal account, if you have one) for an email from EasyItalianNews.com . It contains a link to a webpage, from which you can download your free ebook.
If you donated, but did not get an email (check your spam/junk folder, please), email easynews@nonparlo.com. The team there will manually send you the .pdf, with grateful thanks!
And for those who didn’t donate but would enjoy browsing through some of the top stories from the last twelve months?
The new ebook is available here, and it’s currently discounted 25%.
Check out the substantial (thirty pages or so, more than enough to get the idea of it) FREE SAMPLE (.pdf)
But donors, DON’T BUY IT, as you’re due an ‘omaggio’ (freebie).
Everyone else, prego!
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Buy Best of EasyItalianNews.com 2021-2022, 102 page, printable .pdf ebook, just £7.99
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Oh, and this is the page where donations to EasyItalianNews.com can be made. Sorry, couldn’t resist that…
A mercoledì!
P.S.
Talking of EasyItalianNews.com, Saturday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news is online, available to anyone who has a few minutes to read/listen to it, no registration required!
That said, if you subscribe (that’s free, too) you’ll be emailed each thrice-weekly bulletin as soon as it is published, which is each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, throughout the year!
What’s not to like?
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OnlineItalianClub.com | EasyItalianNews.com | EasyReaders.org (ebooks) | NativeSpeakerTeachers.com (1-1 lessons)