What your book has given me!! | La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting...

La Bella Lingua | La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language | Dianne Hales

books:


	• La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language Dianne Hales Broadway, 2009 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Answer To My Prayers

For years I thought I must be alone and crazy in my efforts to speak Italian. I love anything associated with Italy, but I could not understand why this beautiful language was so difficult to learn. Then I discovered Dianne's wonderful book. I cried for joy to find a kindred spirit. Thanks to Dianne's entertaining style, I now appreciate the joy that comes with peeling away the complex layers of la bella lingua. Brava Dianne!

What your book has given me!!

Thank you for writing such an amazing book. Being of Italian heritage it was fantastic to learn a little more about how our language has developed over time. The best part about your book was how it provided for the opportunity to sit back and have a great meal with my dad (80 years old) and uncles and talk about the history of the country and the creation of a wonderful language. My father was born just outside of Rome in San Vittore del Lazio and actually lived in Rome for many years prior to emigrating.

I also am looking forward to having my daughter Veronica (17 years old) read the book over the holidays this year (way too busy with grade 12 studies to read it now!).

Thank you for your dedication to the language and culture and sharing with us the history.

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La Bella Lingua

I would like to write a strong recommendation for the book "La Bella Lingua." I have ordered three copies to give as gifts.
Ms. Hales has written a book that is not only well-written but also very well-researched.
I have been a student of both the Italian language and Italian culture for many years, and still I learned many interesting things from the book.
I highly recommend anyone who is interested in Italy, its language, its history, or its culture to read "La Bella Lingua." Ms. Hales covers all those topics well. The book makes a wonderful holiday gift.

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A must-ready for any Italianista!

This is a must-read (at least once) for any lover of Italian--the language, it's people, history, culture, art, etc. Hales describes the evolution of the Italian language and how it shaped the nation, with historical vignettes, passion, and humor much like a full-blooded Italian. It's in English, but it flows like a canto of Dante, peppered by the spiciness of a pasquinade by Aretino (defined in the book).

Thank you!

La Bella Lingua came recommended by a friend, as most of my favorites have. And now the first thing I ask friends is, "Have you read this book?" It is a testament to Ms Hales' genius that she has written a book that appeals to Italophiles at every level. There is no particular knowledge of Italy or its language and culture required, but--as the jacket comment by Beppe Severgnini (a sort of Italian William Safire) attests--even experts learn from this book. You don't have to be an opera lover at all to laugh out loud over the description of a long anticipated visit to a performance at La Scala.

This is a book I plan to reread many times.

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?Italians say that someone who acquires a new language ?possesses? it. In my case, Italian possesses me. With Italian racing like blood through my veins, I do indeed see with different eyes, hear with different ears, and drink in the world with all my senses??

A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman?s personal quest to speak fluent Italian.

For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with the ?the world?s most loved and lovable language? together with explorations of Italy?s history, literature, art, music, movies, lifestyle, and food in a true opera amorosa?a labor of her love of Italy.

Throughout her first excursion in Italy?with ?non parlo Italiano? as her only Italian phrase?Dianne delighted in the beauty of what she saw but craved comprehension of what she heard. And so she chose to inhabit the language. Over more than twenty-five years she has studied Italian in every way possible: through Berlitz, books, CDs, podcasts, private tutorials and conversation groups, and, most importantly, large blocks of time in Italy. In the process she found that Italian became not just a passion and a pleasure, but a passport into Italy?s storia and its very soul. She offers charming insights into what makes Italian the most emotionally expressive of languages, from how the ?pronto? (?Ready!?) Italians say when they answer the telephone conveys a sense of something coming alive, to how even ordinary things such as a towel (asciugamano) or handkerchief (fazzoletto) sound better in Italian.

She invites readers to join her as she traces the evolution of Italian in the zesty graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, in Dante?s incandescent cantos, and in Boccaccio?s bawdy Decameron. She portrays how social graces remain woven into the fabric of Italian: even the chipper ?ciao,? which does double duty as ?hi? and ?bye,? reflects centuries of bella figura. And she exalts the glories of Italy?s food and its rich and often uproarious gastronomic language: Italians deftly describe someone uptight as a baccala (dried cod), a busybody who noses into everything as a prezzemolo (parsley), a worthless or banal movie as a polpettone (large meatball).

Like Dianne, readers of La Bella Lingua will find themselves innamorata, enchanted, by Italian, fascinated by its saga, tantalized by its adventures, addicted to its sound, and ever eager to spend more time in its company.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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