Che Bella Figura!
Title | Che Bella Figura! PDF eBook |
Author | Gloria Nardini |
Publisher | SUNY Press |
Pages | 180 |
Release | 1999-01-01 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 9780791440919 |
A colorful ethnography of an Italian ladies' club, this book explores the historical and linguistic importance of the women's language and behavior.
Che Bella Figura!
Title | Che Bella Figura! PDF eBook |
Author | Gloria Nardini |
Publisher | State University of New York Press |
Pages | 180 |
Release | 1999-04-23 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 1438414129 |
Literally translated, fare bella figura means "to make a beautiful figure," and figuratively it refers to the act of putting on a good show, performance, or display. The author uncovers the "real rules" of an Italian "ladies'" club by analyzing their language and behavior. In so doing, she gives examples of the historical and linguistic importance of this concept, as well as its potential for cross-cultural misunderstanding.
Che Bella Figura!
Title | Che Bella Figura! PDF eBook |
Author | Gloria Nardini |
Publisher | |
Pages | 344 |
Release | 1995 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
La Bella Figura
Title | La Bella Figura PDF eBook |
Author | Beppe Severgnini |
Publisher | Crown |
Pages | 242 |
Release | 2008-11-12 |
Genre | Travel |
ISBN | 0307486877 |
Join the bestselling author of Ciao, America! on a lively tour of modern Italy that takes you behind the seductive face it puts on for visitors—la bella figura—and highlights its maddening, paradoxical true self You won’t need luggage for this hypothetical and hilarious trip into the hearts and minds of Beppe Severgnini’s fellow Italians. In fact, Beppe would prefer if you left behind the baggage his crafty and elegant countrymen have smuggled into your subconscious. To get to his Italia, you’ll need to forget about your idealized notions of Italy. Although La Bella Figura will take you to legendary cities and scenic regions, your real destinations are the places where Italians are at their best, worst, and most authentic: The highway: in America, a red light has only one possible interpretation—Stop! An Italian red light doesn’t warn or order you as much as provide an invitation for reflection. The airport: where Italians prove that one of their virtues (an appreciation for beauty) is really a vice. Who cares if the beautiful girls hawking cell phones in airport kiosks stick you with an outdated model? That’s the price of gazing upon perfection. The small town: which demonstrates the Italian genius for pleasant living: “a congenial barber . . . a well-stocked newsstand . . . professionally made coffee and a proper pizza; bell towers we can recognize in the distance, and people with a kind word and a smile for everyone.” The chaos of the roads, the anarchy of the office, the theatrical spirit of the hypermarkets, and garrulous train journeys; the sensory reassurance of a church and the importance of the beach; the solitude of the soccer stadium and the crowded Italian bedroom; the vertical fixations of the apartment building and the horizontal democracy of the eat-in kitchen. As you venture to these and many other locations rooted in the Italian psyche, you realize that Beppe has become your Dante and shown you a country that “has too much style to be hell” but is “too disorderly to be heaven.” Ten days, thirty places. From north to south. From food to politics. From saintliness to sexuality. This ironic, methodical, and sentimental examination will help you understand why Italy—as Beppe says—“can have you fuming and then purring in the space of a hundred meters or ten minutes.”
La Bella Figura
Title | La Bella Figura PDF eBook |
Author | Rose Romano |
Publisher | |
Pages | |
Release | 1993 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
The Italian American Experience
Title | The Italian American Experience PDF eBook |
Author | Salvatore J. LaGumina |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 733 |
Release | 2003-09-02 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1135583331 |
First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Bella Figura
Title | Bella Figura PDF eBook |
Author | Kamin Mohammadi |
Publisher | Vintage |
Pages | 263 |
Release | 2018-05-08 |
Genre | Self-Help |
ISBN | 0385354002 |
“My ideal type of armchair travel: immersive, insightful, seductive. In Bella Figura, Kamin Mohammadi takes us to the year in Florence that changed her life, and gives us the tools to bring the grace of the Italian lifestyle to our own lives.” —National Bestselling Author Stephanie Danler “She walks down the street with a swing in her step and a lift to her head. She radiates allure as if followed by a personal spotlight. She may be tall or short, slim or pneumatically curvaceous, dressed discreetly or ostentatiously—it matters not. Her gait, her composure, the very tilt of her head is an ode to grace and self-possession that makes her beautiful whatever her actual features reveal.” This is the bella figura, the Italian concept of making every aspect of life as beautiful as it can be, that Kamin Mohammadi discovered when she escaped the London corporate media world for a year in Italy. Following the lead of her new neighbors, she soon found a happier, healthier, and more beautiful way of living. The bella figura knows: • That the food that you eat should give you pleasure while eating it. Pause for meals, and set a place, even if you are eating alone. • To seize any opportunity to get moving—be it taking the stairs, doing a coffee run at work, or dancing with abandon. • To drink a spoonful of excellent-quality extra-virgin olive oil four times a day. • To seek out nature, be it a city park, a tree on your street, or some wild place. • And to love yourself. The bella figura—occupies her space, emotionally and physically, with style and entitlement.