La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most

La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language

A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one womanâ€™s personal quest to speak fluent Italian.

For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with the â€œthe worldâ€™s most loved and lovable languageâ€ together with explorations of Italyâ€™ s history, literature, art, music, movies, lifestyle and food in a true opera amorosa â€” a labor of her love of Italy.

Over the course of twenty-five years, she has studied Italian through Berlitz, Â books, CDs, podcasts, private tutorials and conversation groups, and, most importantly, time spent in Italy. Â Â In the process the Italian language became not just a passion and a pleasure, but a passport into Italyâ€™s storia and its very soul.Â She invites readers to join her as she traces the evolution of Italian in the zesty graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, in Danteâ€™s incandescent cantos and in Boccaccioâ€™s bawdy Decameron. Â She portrays how social graces remain woven into the fabric of Italian: Â even the chipper â€œciao,â€ which does double duty as â€œhiâ€ and â€œbye,â€ reflects centuries of bella figura. Â And she exalts the glories of Italyâ€™s food and its rich and often uproarious gastronomic language: Â Italians deftly describe someone uptight as a baccala (dried cod), a busybody who noses into everything as a prezzemolo (parsley), a worthless or banal movie as a polpettone (large meatball).

Like Dianne, readers of La Bella Lingua will find themselves innamorata, enchanted, by Italian, fascinated by its saga, tantalized by its adventures, addicted to its sound, and ever eager to spend more time in its company.
Country USA
Brand Broadway Books
Manufacturer Crown
Binding Paperback
Color Cream
ReleaseDate 2010-04-20
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780767927703

Country	USA
Brand	Broadway Books
Manufacturer	Crown
Binding	Paperback
Color	Cream
ReleaseDate	2010-04-20
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780767927703

La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language

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