Another month has gone, it’s quite incredible.
March is definitely a long month, but it’s gone so fast this year that I barely realized it passed. And to be honest, I have no idea how that happened.
It’s probably because the weather has been really nice and therefore we had the opportunity of enjoying a lot of time outside and we didn’t notice the passing of time. However, quite a few things happened while we were fully enjoying the arrival of spring and it’s definitely time for another Life in Italy post.
Here’s what happened in Italy in the month of March.
The month opened with a new eruption of the Etna. As you may already know, Etna is the volcano is near Catania, in Sicily. It is an active volcano and, as Wikipedia says, it is the highest active volcano in the Euroasiatic Plate. Since it is quite active, it is pretty common to have eruptions every now and then.
Some of the eruptions are quite significant and the one that took place at the beginning of March was one of them. This one was especially spectacular because there was snow on the volcano, which made it quite impressive for its beauty – and gave a lot of opportunities for taking nice pictures!
People taking pictures on the Etna (photo Antonio Parrinello)
March is an important month, in terms of culture and preservation of the Italian cultural heritage, because it is when the Giornate Fai di Primavera took place. I have already mentioned the Fai in one of my posts last year, but I’d love to talk about them again.
The Fai – the Italian National Trust – is a non-profit organization that takes care of promoting respect for Italy’s natural heritage, art and culture. Thanks to their work, many old buildings – some of which were in a state of complete neglect – have been brought back to life and their original splendor.
To promote awareness of their work, Fai organizes the Giornate di Primavera, which takes place once a year at the end of March. During those two days, it is possible to visit the most important properties owned by Fai – some of which can be visited on those two days only – and even to access some places which couldn’t be visited otherwise.
The abbey of San Fruttuoso, Liguria, part of the Fai trust (photo NanoPress)
Speaking of the Italian cultural heritage, something very remarkable has been recently done in Rome: the new San Giovanni Metro Station, the first museum in a metro station in Rome, has been shown to the public and to the media. Unfortunately, it is still not open but it will be inaugurated pretty soon.
What happened is that, during the works for the new metro line, a lot of ancient relics have been found – as it always happens when you excavating the soil in Rome. So the municipality has decided to show such amazing finds in an underground museum which is a sort of journey throughout time.
Some of the relics on display in San Giovanni Metro Station (photo Il Tempo)
At the end of February, a book was published and it sparked a lot of discussions. The book is Storie della buonanotte per bambine ribelli, which is the Italian edition of the English book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, a book that started as an extremely successful crowdfunding on Kickstarter. They had a 40,000 dollars goal and were given 675, 000 dollars, one of the most successful crowdfunding book projects ever.
The book, written by two Italian ladies, Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo, features the stories of 100 remarkable women, each one told as a sort of fairy tale. The project was destined to young kids, but it is perfect for grown-ups too. It caused some discussions, here in Italy, for the choice of the 100 ladies and for being addressed to rebel girls only, without thinking of boys.
I don’t want to enter into the discussion, too much has already been said and written. I think it is an amazing project, which deserves all the success it gained. It is good for kids – who says that only girls must read it? – but for adults too. Moreover, given its simple language, it could be a great reading opportunity for people who are studying Italian.
My copy of the book
Let’s end this month with some good music. These days a new single has come out and I find it really nice. The song is by Vasco Rossi, one of the most famous Italian singers, and it is called Come nelle favole.
The song is really simple, it’s about the simple joys of life and love and how special daily life can be if you have someone you love and can share your life with. It’s lovely. Moreover, the video has lyrics, so it can be useful for language practicing purposes.
Now it’s your turn, what happened in March where you live?
If you are looking for interesting ways to practice your Italian daily, I’d suggest you check my brand-new program called Giorno dopo giorno, a daily Italian practice.
If you sign up to Giorno dopo giorno, you will receive an email every other day for 365 days. Each email will contain a prompt, a little exercise, something to watch, read, listen or something that will gently force you to practice your Italian every day, making it part of your daily routine.
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