Italians always like to list off things that they hate about their country and love about other ones and I'm usually on the listening end of it. However, I would like to point out one example where I think Italy and Europe in general are better at and that's music. I love that music in Europe is not limited to the language of the country that you live in, instead over here in Canada I'm forced to listen to the Anglo-fied version of "Bailando" by Enrique and it just pains my little heart. Why not leave the Spanish lyrics?! On the radio right now, there are no songs that are non-English. There are hardly ever non-English songs, I can't remember if there ever has been one recently. The top song in Italy at the moment is actually a French song (surprising considering what a hard time Italians give the French and vice versa in their eternal rivalry for being the most fashionable/best cooks/best lovers and the list goes on...). I hate how English-centric we are in North America so Italy is always a treat because I might hear an Italian song, then a French one, then Spanish, and all of a sudden Sam Hunt comes on and blows my mind ("Take Your Time" is #11 on MTV Italia's Hitlist, this is not a joke). 

On a sidenote, vote for my blog! It's been nominated as one of the Top 100 International Exchange Blogs and every vote counts. 

In Italian music, you can pick and choose from a lovely selection of solo male singers (often coming off of X Factor Italia or similar shows like Amici). Never been a huge fan of this one, Marco Mengoni, but his latest single is gorgeous and I think easy to understand if you're studying Italian. The video was filmed in Ireland, so it goes along nicely with my photographs from this past summer. In Italian, there's an expression used which is 'ti voglio bene' (which is the song title, just in the past tense), the non-equivalent equivalent of "I love you" that is not the same as "ti amo". Searching high and low, I've come to the conclusion there's no easy way to explain it- it's a version of those three little words that can be used between friends (whereas English speakers say "I love you" all the same). Italians save their "ti amo" for very intimate, profound relationships perhaps? Truthfully, it's probably best this way. The song is basically about how distraught he is after separating from someone and goes on a long trip (Ireland qualifies I guess) to forget her, but obviously can't because everything reminds him of her. It's one of those rather heart-wrenching songs that is somehow wrongly romantic because every woman wants to ruin a man this bad. I know, so selfish of us. 

This documentary came out a couple years back but worth a mention- a couple of young guys take a trip around their motherland as a last ditch effort to re-discover Italy's beauty before taking on a decision to leave. It's a thought-provoking look at the ins-and-outs of Italy's nuances that are almost never seen through the eyes of us North Americans who think dream the "Italian Dream" and only have a couple vacations to Italy and the first forty minutes of Eat, Pray, Love as reference material. It's especially relevant given the fact that having talked to fellow colleagues and young Italians, the "American Dream" is still alive and kicking and so many people fantasize about life across the Atlantic. What do you guys think, love it or leave it? 

Just as I was doing posts during the year on music that is hot at the moment here on this side of the Atlantic, I thought I'd share some quintessentially summer songs that are quite frankly becoming the soundtrack of the season in Italy. I'm including only songs that are primarily not in English (because all the songs that are popular in America at this moment are equally popular here). Is this one out in North America? Let me know if you're over there! 

We spent Good Friday in Mantova and I've got a ton of photos to share come next week, so stay tuned for those because it was stunning. To tide us over, I'm sharing the latest song by Tiziano Ferro, Italy's version of Michael Bublé basically. I will forever love Tiziano Ferro because every summer that I visited Italy he would have a signature tune topping the charts and since music is so intrinsically linked to memories, all my great memories have a very specific soundtrack- the drive to the airport the first time I had to leave Italy was Il Regalo Più Grande, then when I was moping at home waiting for Massi to arrive in Canada it was Ti Scatterò Una Foto, and finally a couple summers ago it was Indietro. Now, his latest is stuck in my head. Check it out. 

Yesterday night we went to see Cenerentola at the multi-sala (multiple screens, just like in Canada). Massi fell asleep (as usual), but I loved it! It's only a shame that it's dubbed. They do an excellent job of it, but I would've liked to hear their true voices. They also change all the songs to Italian and obviously, due to rhythm and rhyme, they have to change lyrics as well. Here's the Italian version of the original theme song "Strong". It's title in Italian is "Liberi" (Free). Below are lyrics in Italian and the English translation (I didn't translate them, but I think they are more or less accurate). Lyrics always end up sounding strange when you translate them anyways! 

Lyrics: 
Nelle favole si sa c'è poca verità
Il mondo è buono e poi ne ha di eroi
Ma la vita quasi mai è come tu la vuoi
E solamente tu, cambiarla puoi
Spiega le ali e vai più su
Vola in alto oltre il blu

(In the fairytales, you know, there's little truth
The world is good, and then there are a lot of heroes
But real life is almost never the way you want!
And only you can change it.
Spread your wings and go higher.
Fly up there over the blue.)

Abbi fiducia in te stesso
Sorprenditi sempre
Ama e sorridi più spesso
E il sole si accende
Credo in te
E tu credi in me
Liberi!

(Have faith in yourself
Surprise yourself
Love and smile more often
And the sun lights up.
I believe in you, and you believe in me
We are free.)

Una favola sarà la quotidianità 
Ogni cosa brillerà per te se vuoi
Spiega le ali e vai piu su
Vola in alto oltre il blu

(And everyday will be a fairytale
And if you want, everything will shine for you
Spread your wings and go higher.
Fly high over the blue.)

Apri il tuo cuore alla vita
Sorprenditi sempre
Vivi una storia infinita 
E l'anima splende
Credo in te e tu credi in me
Liberi!

(Open your heart to life
Surprise yourself
Live an endless story
And the soul shines
I believe in you, and you believe in me
We are free)

E lì, dentro te, proprio lì
Una forza grande. Si, si....

(And there, inside you, right there
There's a great power. Yes, yes....)

Apri il tuo cuore alla vita 
Sorprendeiti sempre
Vivi una storia infinita
E l'anima splende
Credo in te e tu credi in me
Liberi!

(Open your heart to life
Surprise yourself always
Live an endless story
And the soul shines
I believe in you, and you believe in me
We are free)

So excited to see Disney's Cinderella, it came out yesterday in Italy. The only issue I have is that it will of course, be dubbed in Italian and sometimes I wish we could watch new movies in their original version. There are a few cinemas that let us indulge in this, however they select one film each week and it's usually an "older" movie (for example last week was American Sniper).  Sometimes I feel snobbish about language preferences, but it's a perk and vice of knowing a foreign language. When I watch a movie in Italian and then the same movie in it's original English, it's apparent that they are not the same movie. Of course, the Italian voices are extremely talented, but you lose the totality of the acting performance. This can go both ways though, because for example, Massi has always insisted that the movie 300 is much better in Italian. 

Anyways, found some short clips from Cenerentola in Italian and this one struck me as I did not know what "me la cavo bene con le scarpe" meant. So I immediately looked up the verb cavare and it's reflexive cavarsi. Cavarsi means to indulge oneself. A fantastic and very useful verb indeed, I need to throw that into my vocabulary list ASAP!  But then wait...you would think that the phrase has something to do with indulging oneself with shoes based on the verb, but me la cavo bene is actually an idiomatic expression from cavarsela for saying "I get along well/I do well/have a knack for", it's just a great example of a modo di dire (a way of saying) in Italian. That's at least my interpretation after scouring the web a little bit, am I on track? If you're a native Italian speaker let me know or if you're Cher Hale. 

Also found this (in Italian however), explaining the use of cavarsela however not sure it's applicable to the Cenerentola context: 

CAVARSELA: è formato dal verbo "cavare" + i pronomi SI e LA.

Significato→ uscire da una situazione difficile; superare una situazione difficile. Esempi: pensi di cavartela all’esame?; "sai giocare a carte?" "me la cavo"; Luca ha studiato molto per l’interrogazione, credo che se la caverà; devi cavartela da solo. Se dopo "cavarsela" troviamo le espressioni "per un pelo" o "per il rotto della cuffia" significa che la situazione è stata superata, ma in modo appena sufficiente: ieri all’esame me la sono cavata per un pelo!

Coniugazione→ io me la cavo; tu te la cavi; lui-lei se la cava; noi ce la caviamo; voi ve la cavate; loro se la cavano;

passato prossimo → io me la sono cavata; tu te la sei cavata; lui-lei se l’è cavata ecc.


Source: http://www.zanichellibenvenuti.it/wordpress/?p=3308

I am so bloody excited that I'm going to be able to watch The Oscars live. For anyone in Italy, they are broadcasting it on Cielo starting at 22.50. Sometimes you feel a bit out of the loop when it comes to North American television etc, which I know is dumb: it's not life-or-death if I don't get to know who was eliminated on The Bachelor when the rest of Canada and the US does. However, it was always kind of a tradition for us to watch The Oscars (and especially the red carpet) as a family so it's a nice feeling to be able to partake all the way over here. Not sure if I'll watch right up to the end which will be 6.00 Italy time, I'm not enough of a cinema lover for that, I just want to see what Charlize is wearing...

Here are the two winners from Italy's big music festival, San Remo, that features only Italian songs and songwriters which helps in selecting the contestants that will represent the country for Eurovision (an annual song competition in Europe). Usually after San Remo, there's a sudden surge of Italian music on the charts. It's a great period of the year because most of the time, the top songs in Italy are all in English so it's nice to have some Italian back in the mix. 

Just the cutest video of a son trying to teach his Italian mother to use Siri in Australia. Unfortunately her accent keeps 'confusing the computer', can someone just tell her the time in Italy!? 

Since I'm currently working as a temporary Italian housewife at the moment as I wait for my actual permesso di soggiorno to arrive, I've had the fantastic pleasure of watching a variety of Italian television. Somehow, I stumbled upon this one yesterday and it was kind of horrendous. I think it would suffice to say that most females watching this would be screaming and pulling their hair out whilst hardcore feminists would probably shoot themselves in the foot to detract from the pain of knowing such a spectacle actually exists. The premise is that a group of men give ratings on a scale of 1-10 to each woman that walks the 'runway'. The scores are tallied up and the women ranked from worst to best in different categories like best body, for example. To make matters worse, the host even deigns to ask certain male judges why they gave a woman a particular score, allowing them to give an explanation of sorts. Then the whole lot got into an argument over which woman had the best body as the host disagreed (gasp) with the final result. I was in such a state of shock that I could not even change the channel. However, that's Italy for you, where young girls aspire to become veline (showgirls) so they can marry a Juventus striker, get onto Isola dei Famosi, and live happily ever after. 

Yesterday night, I watched a new Italian program on Realtime called I Colori dell'Amore. The concept is to profile 'mixed couples' (consisting of one Italian and one non-Italian) living in Italy. I was initially really excited about it as obviously we can identify with these couples tremendously. It's amazing that this idea can even be marketed as a television show because where I come from, mixed couples are almost the norm these days. Canada is a melting pot, Italy's pot is just getting warmed up. That's not to say that all is smooth-sailing for mixed unions in Canada (check out this article), but my home country is known to be 'leading the pack' when it comes to 'setting the global standard for multicultural acceptance and integration' (read this editorial in Macleans). I'm happy to see progress in this area here in Italy as slowly the first-generation children of immigrants grow up as 'Italians', however we are in for a long and tedious battle, against mindsets and attitudes that refuse to grow up with the times. I think Russell Peters once said something about how sooner or later, everyone in the world is going to be a mix of some kind of Asian (India and China having the two largest populations) and therefore the entire world will be beige-colored. But it's a joke that will have some older, more 'traditional' Italians grumbling instead of laughing...The most disheartening part of the show was when the parents of each couple were interviewed and many couldn't hide their dissatisfaction with the partner their child had chosen, solely based on racial background. One mother even breathed a sigh of relief, exclaiming 'è bianca' (she is white) after seeing her daughter's daughter for the first time (the father being Mauritian). It's a shame and it will take a few more generations before people like this will learn to appreciate the richness that comes from combining two cultures. The children of the future will have two mother tongues, a palate open to flavours from around the world, and most importantly, they will grow up as open-minded individuals who will perhaps not even need to self-identify as 'Italian' or 'Chinese', but as citizens of the world. 

Just had to share this being a pharmacist and all- such a clever ad from Fiat. Gotta love the Italians and the fact that this is totally appropriate for all audiences here. I guess they've never seen the head-scratching Cialis ads that are barely allowed in Canada. 

Check in under "Italian Music and Media" for links to the tunes that we're obsessing over on this side of the pond. What I love about Europe is that the radio plays music from all around the world, no matter what language it is (although of course, English and Italian are the most popular). So unlike Canada, we get to hear a huge diversity of music. And for some odd reason, Europe also seems to get new material first. It was not unusual for me to come back from Europe in the fall and not hear the huge summer songs until the next year in North America. Enjoy!