Download or read book Culture and Customs of Italy written by Charles L. Killinger and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2005-05-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans have a voracious appetite for Italy. It remains a primary destination for travel, art history, cuisine, and more. Like no other source, Culture and Customs of Italy engagingly explains the scope of Italy and Italians today to students and general readers in one volume. As well, this book provides the needed context to understand the enormous contributions of Italian Americans in shaping the cultural heritage and current popular culture of the United States. It clearly summarizes the land, people, and history and relates the highlights of a culture that has excelled in so many areas, such as food, sports, literature, the arts, architecture and design, and cinema. The powerful roles of religion and thought, family and gender, holidays, leisure, and media in Italian life are treated in-depth in individual chapters as well. Crucial regional aspects and historical framing of all topics add to the authoritativeness. A chronology, glossary, photos, and maps round out the coverage.
Download or read book Italian Cuisine written by Alberto Capatti and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-17 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italy, the country with a hundred cities and a thousand bell towers, is also the country with a hundred cuisines and a thousand recipes. Its great variety of culinary practices reflects a history long dominated by regionalism and political division, and has led to the common conception of Italian food as a mosaic of regional customs rather than a single tradition. Nonetheless, this magnificent new book demonstrates the development of a distinctive, unified culinary tradition throughout the Italian peninsula. Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari uncover a network of culinary customs, food lore, and cooking practices, dating back as far as the Middle Ages, that are identifiably Italian: o Italians used forks 300 years before other Europeans, possibly because they were needed to handle pasta, which is slippery and dangerously hot. o Italians invented the practice of chilling drinks and may have invented ice cream. o Italian culinary practice influenced the rest of Europe to place more emphasis on vegetables and less on meat. o Salad was a distinctive aspect of the Italian meal as early as the sixteenth century. The authors focus on culinary developments in the late medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras, aided by a wealth of cookbooks produced throughout the early modern period. They show how Italy's culinary identities emerged over the course of the centuries through an exchange of information and techniques among geographical regions and social classes. Though temporally, spatially, and socially diverse, these cuisines refer to a common experience that can be described as Italian. Thematically organized around key issues in culinary history and beautifully illustrated, Italian Cuisine is a rich history of the ingredients, dishes, techniques, and social customs behind the Italian food we know and love today.
Download or read book Italy Culture Smart written by Barry Tomalin and published by Bravo Limited. This book was released on 2016-01-07 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italy delights and stimulates with its magnificent cities and monuments, its stunningly beautiful landscapes, the glory of its art and architecture, the richness and variety of its food, the elegance of its design and fashion, and the vitality and charm of its people. Italian style and culture have been exported all over the world. What is it like at home? Almost ten years after the 2008 banking crisis, Italy struggles to maintain its standard of living, the stability of the currency, and its ability to provide jobs for its school leavers and university graduates, many of whom now leave to work elsewhere in Europe. In addition, the influx of refugees from southeast Europe and across the Mediterranean is putting pressure on both its security and its economy. How are traditional Italian society and politics changing to deal with these challenges, with its most famous political personality of the last ten years, the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, still apparently waiting in the wings? The Italians are the most European-minded of nations, having emerged from a long history of regional fragmentation." Culture Smart! Italy" introduces you to their history and culture and offers an insider s guide to their daily lives, passions, and preoccupations. This is your chance to get to know them better."
Download or read book Cultural Traditions in Italy written by Adrianna Morganelli and published by Cultural Traditions in My Worl. This book was released on 2016-01-22 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italy has been the center of the Roman Catholic Church for hundreds of years. Many of the country's traditions and holidays today are based on religious holy days. This interesting book describes national holidays in Italy that mark such events as religious festivals, as well as important historic events such as the country's independence. Other traditional celebrations featured include food festivals and family occasions.
Download or read book Italian Identity in the Kitchen or Food and the Nation written by Massimo Montanari and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-16 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How regional Italian cuisine became the main ingredient in the nation's political and cultural development.
Download or read book Searching for Japan written by Michele Monserrati and published by Transnational Italian Cultures. This book was released on 2020-03-27 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book pursues the specific case of Italian travel narratives in the Far East, through a focus on the experience of Japan in works by writers who visited the Land of the Rising Sun beginning in the Meiji period (1868-1912) and during the concomitant opening of Japan's relations with the West. Drawing from the fields of Postcolonial and Transnational Studies, analysis of these texts explores one central question: what does it mean to imagine Japanese culture as contributing to Italian culture? Each author shares in common an attempt to disrupt ideas about dichotomies and unbalanced power relationships between East and West. Proposing the notion of 'relational Orientalism, ' this book suggests that Italian travelogues to Japan, in many cases, pursued the goal of building imaginary transnational communities, predicated on commonalities and integration, by claiming what they perceived as 'Oriental' as their own. In contrast with a long history of Western representations of Japan as inferior and irrational, Searching for Japan identifies a positive overarching attitude toward the Far East country in modern Italian culture. Expanding the horizon of Italian transnational networks, normally situated within the Southern European region, this book reinstates the existence of an alternative Euro-Asian axis, operating across Italian history.
Download or read book Food Culture in Italy written by Fabio Parasecoli and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2004-10-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is keen interest in the exquisite yet simple Italian cuisine and Italian culture. This volume provides an intimate look at how Italians cook, eat, and think about food today. It describes the cornucopia of foodstuffs and classic ingredients. An overview of the typical daily routine of meals and snacks gives a good feel for the everyday life. The changing roles of women are explored with a discussion of the inroads that convenience foods are making. In addition, the current concerns about the food supply, the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, and the slow food movement are tied in to the debates on these issues in the United States. Food is one of the main reasons why many Americans travel to Italy. Yet, the fascination with Italian cuisine is not all about health or taste. There is much more to it. Italian food is perceived and portrayed in the media as representing a whole lifestyle: Italians live la dolce vita, leisurely eating and drinking with friends and families, families are still important, and communities are close knit. The reality of Italian society is more complex, and this volume offers a balanced view of Italian culture and identity through its foodways.
Download or read book The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of a Global Age written by Paolo Janni and published by Center for Research in Values and Philosophy. This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book How to Be Italian written by Maria Pasquale and published by Rizzoli Publications. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be Italian? Is it pausing to enjoy an aperitivo or gelato? A passeggiata down a laneway steeped in history? An August spent tanning at the beach? This book is a celebration of the Italian lifestyle – an education in drinking to savour the moment, travelling indulgently, and cherishing food and culture. A lesson in the dolce far niente: the sweetness of doing nothing. We may not all live in the bel paese, but anyone can learn from the rich tapestry of life on the boot. From the innovation of Italian fashion and design, the Golden Age of its cinema to the Roman Empire’s cultural echoes (and some very good espresso), take a dip into the Italian psyche and learn to eat, love, dress, think, and have fun as only the Italians can.
Download or read book Italy and the USA written by Guido Bonsaver and published by Italian Perspectives. This book was released on 2022-07-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection takes a cross-disciplinary, transnational approach and gathers together essays from a range of subjects including linguistics, film studies, folk music, oral and written narrative, and history, which provide new comparative perspectives on the questions surrounding the mutual influence between Italian and U.S. cultures. The volume also showcases new research - quantitative, interpretative, and archival - which contributes to the study of cultural contact. It therefore offers new evidence to answer a question which has long been pivotal in various disciplines and research fields (from historical linguistics to cultural anthropology) - namely, how and to what extent cultural contact can affect long-term historical change?
Download or read book La Dolce Vita University written by Carla Gambescia and published by Travelers' Tales. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: La Dolce Vita University, 2nd Edition (LDVU2) is the perfect sampler for anyone curious about (or already in amore with) Italy and its remarkably rich cultural gifts, both past and present. This fully revised second edition includes 125 pages of new material (more than 60 new mini-essays and 40 new illustrations) to expand on the delights in the first edition. True to its lighthearted name, La Dolce Vita “U” is all about pleasurable learning, or what we prefer to call “edu-tainment.” Its dozens of entertaining yet authoritative mini-essays on a wide assortment of intriguing topics encourage random dipping at the reader’s pleasure. Even the most erudite Italophile will discover fun new facts and fascinating new insights in the pages of La Dolce Vita U. Mini-essays treat specific topics in one or more of the following subject areas: the Italian character; the visual arts (art, artists, architects); the performing arts (music, theater, cinema); history and antiquity; language and literature; cuisine and agriculture; wine and spirits; traditions and festivals; style and applied arts; unique places. In a wink and nod to the book’s “academic” identity, the 200 mini-essays are arranged alphabetically and accompanied by charming illustrations throughout. A special traveler’s topic index is provided at the end of the book.
Download or read book The Italian Way written by Douglas Harper and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-01-15 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Outside of Italy, the country’s culture and its food appear to be essentially synonymous. And indeed, as The Italian Way makes clear, preparing, cooking, and eating food play a central role in the daily activities of Italians from all walks of life. In this beautifully illustrated book, Douglas Harper and Patrizia Faccioli present a fascinating and colorful look at the Italian table. The Italian Way focuses on two dozen families in the city of Bologna, elegantly weaving together Harper’s outsider perspective with Faccioli’s intimate knowledge of the local customs. The authors interview and observe these families as they go shopping for ingredients, cook together, and argue over who has to wash the dishes. Throughout, the authors elucidate the guiding principle of the Italian table—a delicate balance between the structure of tradition and the joy of improvisation. With its bite-sized history of food in Italy, including the five-hundred-year-old story of the country’s cookbooks, and Harper’s mouth-watering photographs, The Italian Way is a rich repast—insightful, informative, and inviting.
Download or read book The Italians written by John Hooper and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Hooper presents the ideal companion for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Italy and the unique character of the Italians. Digging deep into their history, culture and religion, he offers keys to assessing everything from their bewildering politics to their love of life and beauty.
Download or read book Why Italians Love to Talk About Food written by Elena Kostioukovitch and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italians love to talk about food. The aroma of a simmering ragú, the bouquet of a local wine, the remembrance of a past meal: Italians discuss these details as naturally as we talk about politics or sports, and often with the same flared tempers. In Why Italians Love to Talk About Food, Elena Kostioukovitch explores the phenomenon that first struck her as a newcomer to Italy: the Italian "culinary code," or way of talking about food. Along the way, she captures the fierce local pride that gives Italian cuisine its remarkable diversity. To come to know Italian food is to discover the differences of taste, language, and attitude that separate a Sicilian from a Piedmontese or a Venetian from a Sardinian. Try tasting Piedmontese bagna cauda, then a Lombard cassoela, then lamb ala Romana: each is part of a unique culinary tradition. In this learned, charming, and entertaining narrative, Kostioukovitch takes us on a journey through one of the world's richest and most adored food cultures. Organized according to region and colorfully designed with illustrations, maps, menus, and glossaries, Why Italians Love to Talk About Food will allow any reader to become as versed in the ways of Italian cooking as the most seasoned of chefs. Food lovers, history buffs, and gourmands alike will savor this exceptional celebration of Italy's culinary gifts.
Download or read book Italy s Eighteenth Century written by Paula Findlen and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the age of the Grand Tour, foreigners flocked to Italy to gawk at its ruins and paintings, enjoy its salons and cafés, attend the opera, and revel in their own discovery of its past. But they also marveled at the people they saw, both male and female. In an era in which castrati were "rock stars," men served women as cicisbei, and dandified Englishmen became macaroni, Italy was perceived to be a place where men became women. The great publicity surrounding female poets, journalists, artists, anatomists, and scientists, and the visible roles for such women in salons, academies, and universities in many Italian cities also made visitors wonder whether women had become men. Such images, of course, were stereotypes, but they were nonetheless grounded in a reality that was unique to the Italian peninsula. This volume illuminates the social and cultural landscape of eighteenth-century Italy by exploring how questions of gender in music, art, literature, science, and medicine shaped perceptions of Italy in the age of the Grand Tour.
Download or read book Golden Fruit written by Christina Mazzoni and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2019-03-20 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a close reading of key texts, including poetic and spiritual writings, fairy tales, and a botanical treatise, Golden Fruit examines the role of oranges in Italian culture from their introduction during the medieval period through to the present day. Featuring a beautiful full-colour spread, Cristina Mazzoni’s book brings together artistic depictions, literary analysis, historical context, and popular culture to investigate the changing representations of the orange over time and across the Italian peninsula. Oranges were introduced to Italy in the 1200s, many centuries after beloved Mediterranean fruits such as grapes, figs, and pomegranates—all well-known since Antiquity. Not burdened with age-old meanings and symbolism, then, oranges in early modern times provided a malleable image for artists, writers, and scientists alike. Thus, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, oranges appear in visual and verbal representations as an effective aid in physical and spiritual health, as symbols of romantic and of divine love, and as signs of geographic allegiance to one’s citrus-rich land. Baroque poets, botanists, and painters regularly compared oranges to women for their shared hybrid nature, whereas later folklore presented this dual character of oranges from an economic standpoint, as both precious and dangerous. The violence intrinsic to oranges in these Sicilian texts from the eighteen and nineteen hundreds returns in the controversial representations of the orange harvest in early twenty-first century Italy.
Download or read book Italian Cultural Lineages written by Jonathan White and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2007-12-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Italian Cultural Lineages, Jonathan White seeks answers to the elusive questions: what is Italian culture and what is the Italian identity? By tracing Italian life and art through several themes – viewing and spectatorship, fantasy, passion, justice, reputation, and lifestyles – White offers new ways of perceiving an ancient cultural tradition in the twenty-first century. In doing so, he challenges readers to discern rich poetic seams that bind together his varied subject matter. Italian Cultural Lineages is primarily concerned with factors that unify Italians, however geographically dispersed they may be. Drawing on extensive archival and historical research, White shows how oftentimes Italian cultural traditions that appear to be extinct are, in fact, enduring – pushed out of the mainstream or submerged at some given point in history, only to re-surface and take on new meanings at a later date. Other, more marginal currents might disrupt and fragment Italian identity, politically and socially. However, White proposes that the challenge to Italy in these new and difficult lessons in tolerance has the potential to produce a much stronger culture, primed to welcome the marginal into an expanded spirit of all that counts as Italian. Ideally suited to course use, and written with great lucidity, Italian Cultural Lineages will prove fascinating to students, academics, and general readers alike.
