- FEBRUARY 2018 -
Bridge Italy
Books
Pietro Marti, the great standard-bearer of Salento culture
by Giuseppe Orlando D’Urso Ermanno Inguscio has dedicated a precious monograph to the extraordinary figure of the intellectual from Ruffano – a journalist, conference speaker and editor of La Voce del Salento.Through a reconstruction of Marti’s works and deeds he shines a light on the cultural history of Salento and its characters and their role in Italy September 2014
Even tycoons cry
by Sergio D’Amaro Life at the top doesn’t agree with the heart. Matteo Bonadies’ latest novel explains it for us in a tale of ambition and success set in Italy, the U.S. and Australia, down to the bitterness of old age and the inescapable changes on withdrawal from the scene July 2014
If a “whale” island appears one night out of nowhere…
by Giacomo Annibaldis The adventure of a farmer-fisherman in the Columbia of the 1800s, with echoes of Màrquez, in Il canto della Balena (Tea Editore), the imaginative final novel by Corrado Sobrero, who died in 2012, at only 44 years of age.His previous novel was praised by critics like Segre and Ferroni May 2014
From his ancestral Calabria to Roma Precious memories of a lifetime
by Sergio D’Amaro In Francesco Leonetti’s memoir, Una come un’altra, published by Gangemi, the reconstruction of the experiences of a lifetime with the backdrop of Italy in the last sixty years and more distant family memories March 2014
The importance of rediscovering “fraternity”
by Laura Tundo Ferente Maria Rosaria Manieri, with her long experience as Senator of the Italian Republic behind her, dedicates her latest book Fraternità. Fraternità. Rilettura civile di un’idea che può cambiare il mondo (Fraternity. Civil re-reading of an idea that could change the world), published by Marsilio, to the philosophical analysis of the category of fraternity, lost in the democracies of our times.Kant and Marx had intuited its importance February 2014
In the wax museum to seek the dream of a better world
by Giuseppe Lupo In the latest book by Raffaele Nigro, Il custode del museo delle cere (The wax museum curator), published by Rizzoli, a sumptuous kaleidoscope of stories within stories.Speaking statues that relate a hundred years of history. The dream of Socialism and the death of utopia. But maybe we can still hope February 2014
Naples “Kissed by God and raped by Man”
by Lino Patruno It is unrivalled for its artistic and cultural treasures and is the city where pizza, coffee, pasta, the tarantella, the nativity scene and tombola were born.Home to philosophers like Giambattista Vico, composers like Scarlatti and actors like Totò.
It’s all to be found in the surprising book by young writer and journalist, Angelo Forgione January 2014
Once upon a time there was the padre-padrone
by Sergio D’Amaro In the latest novel by writer, entrepreneur and film producer, Matteo Bonadies, the clash between the family as it used to be and that of today.Expert investigator into the family set-up, the subject of many of his works, the author analyzes what remains of the old meaning of the expression Pater Familias December 2013
Second World War The drama of the fallen
by Sergio D’Amaro Per non dimenticarli, a book by Maria Schiena which has just come out, reconstructs the story of the 140 Italian soldiers fallen or missing in action who came originally from San Marco in Lamis (Foggia).Large-scale History told by aiming the objective at a small tile in the mosaic November 2013
On the Savannah lagoons …to heal
by Sergio D’Amaro Whispering tides, the surprising narrative debut by journalist Guido Mattioni.From the success of the ebook (published by the American Smashwords house) to the book (in English and Italian) the story of an Italian in America seeking an “elsewhere” to get over a great sorrow September 2013
The meaning of the 20th century in the saga of the Stille family
by Sergio D’Amaro Alexander Stille’ latest book, The Force of Things, reconstructs the history of his father, Ugo, a legendary reporter and editor in chief of the Corriere della Sera.Born into a Jewish-Russian family, he was later an Italian in America, where he met his wife, the American Elizabeth Bogert, at a party given by Truman Capote.
The great vicissitudes of the time against the background of their marriage April 2013
In Fellini’s La dolce vita the germs of today’s Italy
by Enrica Simonetti There is a very close relationship, almost a symbiotic one, between cinema and reality. Oscar Iarussi speaks about it in his latest essay, C’era una volta il futuro, l’Italia della Dolce Vita, in which the Apulian film critic individuates in the “Fellinian” Italy of the Sixties a prophetic vision of the future December 2011Basilicata
Craco The “second life” of a ghost town
by Lino Patruno Abandoned after a landslide at the beginning of the 1960s, today Craco, still deserted, is a tourist destination that attracts crowds of visitors and also a sought-after location for film and advertising from all over the world September 2017Po Delta
The Po Delta park Natural beauty and history
by Dario C. Nicoli A paradise of 70,000 hectares, between Emilia Romagna and Veneto, which could become the Biosphere Reserve.Its oldest part, from the Cervia saltpans to the Goro Po, is already a natural park designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO February 2015
Bari
“Cieli americani” in Bari
by Pietro Marino In the photographs taken by Alberta Zallone, a scientist from Bari in love with the States, an interpretation of American spaces, amid urban settings and natural ones November 2012Verona
Verona Shakespeare celebrated its beauty without ever having seen it
by Dario C. Nicoli In the age of Augustus the city was already considered second only to Rome in the whole empire.Always a trading center, it is still the European hub of major trade networks. It has an irresistible appeal for tourists and visitors thanks to events like Vinitaly, FieraCavalli (the International Horse Festival) and the outstanding season of opera and shows held in the ageless Arena May 2015
Courmayeur
Courmayeur All the charm of the low season
by Franco Faggiani Invaded by wealthy tourists for four months of the year, this magnificent resort in the Valle d’Aosta goes back to being a quiet Alpine village in the other periods.And it’s here, amidst little cafés and chats in local dialect, that the author – journalist and writer Franco Faggiani – is setting his new novel dedicated to “Comandante Colleoni”, a forest ranger involved in a series of adventures June 2014
Ferrara
You can still dream in Ferrara
by Roberto Pazzi In an article by the author, which appeared in Corriere della Sera in the distant days of 1987, the refined analysis of an illustrious but provincial city that becomes the symbol of every provincial city in Italy January 2012
“Action!” Amongst Ferrara’s myriad sets
by Dario C. Nicoli On the trail of the places which have been sets for a long series of films going back to the early years of the 20th century and bringing us up to today. A proposal from FILMa pART cultural association.From Vancini’s It Happened in ’43, (La lunga notte del ‘43) with Enrico Maria Salerno, to The Garden of the Finzi-Continis’ (Il giardino dei Finzi Contini) directed by De Sica, from The Gold-Rimmed Glasses (Gli occhiali d’oro) by Montaldo to Olmi’s The Profession of Arms (Il mestiere delle armi). So many famous films but just the one set: Ferrara January 2012
Music
Porretta Soul Festival The Italian Woodstock of black American music
by Vincenzo Zagà Born from Graziano Uliani’s love of soul and R&B, the festival, this year in its twenty-ninth edition, has become the most prestigious soul music event outside the US.And this year in Porretta there is also the “Soul Museum” September 2016