Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, mainly known as Caravaggio, was a famous Italian painter of the 15th century. He is particularly known for his alternative style, which combined both Naturalism and Tenebrism. Born in Milan, Caravaggio began his apprenticeship as a painter in 1584 under the Milanese painter Simone Peterzano, who in turn had been the …
Culture
Valsesian Christmas markets – traditional products
Christmas is approaching and in many European countries it’s time for Christmas markets. Christmas markets are street markets organized during the four weeks of Advent. This tradition seems to date back at least to 1434 in Dresden, Germany. The first Christmas markets in Italy, instead, began to spread only towards the end of 1900. I …
Five Italian books you might like
Reading is one of the best ways to acquire new vocabulary. Indeed, in books words are presented in context, and this makes it easier for readers to understand their use and meaning. Moreover, with the advent of ebooks and e-readers – like Amazon’s Kindle – acquiring new vocabulary is even simpler, since you have instant …
American stereotypes about Italians (Part 1)
I already talked about some stereotypes other cultures have about Italians in a previous article – Eight common stereotypes about Italians. However, searching the web, I came across a video entitled “Some questions Americans have for Italians”. I decided to watch it, and I found out that many of those questions are based on American …
Italians and health problems – Il colpo d’aria
According to many tourists, it seems that we Italians suffer from mysterious ailments. Ailments that strike only our population and are unknown to them. But is there really such a thing as Italian-only ailments? According to some tourists, yes. According to Italians no. It’s time to discover who’s right. COLPO D’ARIA I remember that when …
