In Part One of What Would The World Be Missing If Italy Did Not Exist, we talked about some important contributions that Italy has given the world, for example, Italian food, the most popular being pizza and pasta. Again I ask what would the world be missing if Italy did not exist?
Can you imagine a world without Italian art or literature? Can you imagine the Renaissance being cradled anywhere else in the world? No Italy, no Florence or Tuscany, no Michelangelo, DaVinci, Botticelli, Donatello, Brunelleschi, no Medici, no 17 foot David, no doors of paradise, no dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, no Santa Maria del Fiore, no Giotto’s tower, no Uffizi gallery, no Renaissance, no Ballet which was born during the Renaissance in Italy, no Mona Lisa, no Raffaello, no Macchiavelli and his Prince, no Rome, no birthplace of the Baroque, no Bernini, no Caravaggio, no Borromini, no Pieta’, no Vatican City, no St. Peter’s square, no Italy, no Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy, no Giovanni Boccaccio, no Petrarca, no Humanism, no Italy, no Rome, no Roman Empire! Without the Roman Empire we would not have the calendar, as we know it. No months of August (named after Augustus), no July (named after Julius Caesar), no aqueducts or viaducts, no Roman archways, no sewage systems, no efficient highway system, no Roman Law/Politics, no Public Welfare, no newspapers, no Roman Alphabet which is used in the Western world, no Latin, no Italian language. Oh wait a second, what?…no Italian!?
0 Comments
Look at a map of Europe. Look at where Italy sits on that map, with its boot-like shape, Sicily at its toe, Sardinia floating freely near its knee and surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea.
Now, imagine Italy wiped out. No more boot-like shaped mass and islands, no more Alps and Apennine Mountains, no more Italy, just water, just water.
If Italy never existed, what would the world be missing? Think about it? What would the world be missing? I’ll give you some time to think, maybe jot some things down on a piece of paper…what’s on your list? Now, as I continue, I do not want to imply that one country alone is the sole contributor of the following and if Italy did not exist, other countries would have given the world these things (maybe, not in the same way) yet as you read on, read again, and truly absorb what Italy has given the world…
Part three: Florence and Venice
Florence Yes, it’s true that a group I was staying with during one of my many visits was robbed in Florence yet it did not distort my view of this magnificent city and region---how can anyone be disillusioned by the Cradle of the Renaissance? Impossibile! From Brunelleschi’s Dome, Giotto’s tower, Dante Alighieri’s true inspiration, Ghiberti’s golden face on the gates of Paradise, Michelangelo’s David to the Uffizi, the Ponte Vecchio, Santa Maria del Fiore and the Tuscan countryside there is no possible way that Florence can be a disappointment. A must see, indeed! https://www.visitflorence.com http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/italy/florence http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Florence.aspx |
Ciao, io mi chiamo Anna
E' un piacere conoscervi. Nice meeting all of you. I am an Italian teacher in the States and have been teaching for almost 20 years. I love teaching Italian yet Public Education has changed since I started; or it may be that I have changed since I started--maybe a little bit of both. I was granted a sabbatical year to work on a project about my family that metamorphosed into something bigger than my family. It developed into a website called the Story of Silence. It speaks about seven women and the stories they tell about their personal experiences during WW2. I am hoping it can develop further into a resource for teachers of all subjects and for life-long learners in general who believe in the power of Storytelling and its capacity to connect us in the most human of ways. Storytelling lead me to create For the Love of All Things Italian as well. I love Italy and thought this would be another way of sharing Italy with others who have the same passion and love for this breathtakingly beautiful yet unabashedly flawed and enigmatic country--it is what makes Italians so very human. You'll find stories from different areas of Italy I have had personal experiences in; however, I highlight Sicily. It's where I go every year and where a little piece of my heart remains until I return. Archives
July 2017
Categories
All
|