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Italian Postcards: Top Ten List for Settling In
9th April 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Not meaning to sound a know-it-all because that is far from the truth but, on reflection, having gone through it myself, I thought I would put together my own Top Ten List of suggestions about settling into a new country. It isn't easy and, certainly, this list isn't exhaustive but it may just help. Here it is and good luck:
On arriving, learn the value of networking and be thankful for... -
Italian Postcards: A Renaissance UFO?
15th March 2010 | 2 comments | 1 person likes this
The Palazzo della Signoria, better known as Palazzo Vecchio, is situated right in the heart of Florence. Built in 1299 by Arnolfo di Cambio, it is still today the city's town hall and houses the office of the Mayor. But it is much more than that. It is also a fascinating museum that, sometimes, tourists fail to visit in their hurry to reach other more famous museums nearby, like the...
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Italian Postcards: Just take the tram
19th February 2010 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
This year, Saint Valentine's Day in Florence proved to be a day for a different kind of romance. Over 40,000 tram lovers crowded the streets to take their first ride on Florence's new tram called Sirio. This was somewhat surprising because, since 2004 when work on the project began, the city and its citizens have been divided over the building of the tramway system into those who strongly support it...
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Toy Boy? No, Coy Boy
18th January 2010 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
Yet another myth bit the dust this week. A survey carried out by independent market research consultants Nextplora exposed the sexual habits of Italians. Acting on a brief from Akuel, a company that makes condoms and other pharmaceutical supplies, Nextplora interviewed a sample of 944 men and women between 18 and 35 years old. The result, it seems, is that Italians are not the hot stuff in the bedroom that...
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Suzy and the Evil Eye
4th January 2010 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Yesterday, I went to visit my friend Suzy in hospital. Just before Christmas she had the misfortune to be knocked off her motorbike by a driver who did not see her coming and opened his car door as she passed, sending her flying. Result, a grazed face, a badly broken right elbow and a smashed-up left foot as the full weight of the bike fell on it. Talking about her...
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A Christmas Italian Wine List
21st December 2009 | 2 comments | 1 person likes this
Last night, I called into my friend Rachel's welcoming and well-stocked wine shop here in the heart of Santa Croce. I needed some suggestions about which Italian wines I should put on my Christmas dinner table to both please and impress my guests. I was more than happy to accept her recommendations as she is an expert who has spent many years in the wine industry and who was, before...
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All I Want for Christmas
14th December 2009 | 1 comments | 1 person likes this
As the song goes, it used to be 'my two front teeth' but my how things have changed! It seems in Italy that teenage girls over the last few years have increasingly wanted and obtained a gift voucher for breast implants under their Christmas trees. Today, over 5% of operations involving plastic surgery in Italy are performed on teenage girls under 18 years old. But, the government has decided to... -
Whack…y the Golf Ball
7th December 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Describing a typical round of golf, Mac O'Grady, the American pro-golfer and golf teacher, once said 'one minute you're bleeding. The next minute you're hemorrhaging. The next minute you're painting the Mona Lisa.' And what better place to do it than at one of the world's funkiest golf tournaments in the city where Leonardo da Vinci began work on his famous portrait?
In fact, from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 December... -
Pop into Poppi
26th November 2009 | 0 comments | 1 person likes this
On their trips to Tuscany, many tourists visit the picturesque towns and vineyards of Chianti, the area that stretches between Florence and Siena. Fewer venture into the Casentino, in the opposite direction, between Florence and Arezzo. Less geometric than Chianti, the countryside there is more undulating and gentle, although to reach it from Florence you have to drive over a 1050 meter-high mountain. But a stop at Consuma, the village...
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To market, to market
19th November 2009 | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
The Italian architect and engineer, Giuseppe Mengoni (1829-1877) is famous for having designed the Gallery Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. What is more, he tragically fell to his death from its dome shortly before its inauguration. However, before his death, Mengoni also designed several buildings in Florence. These included the Central Market, known to Florentines as the Market of San Lorenzo and, in 1873, the Market of Sant'Ambrogio in the...
CONTRIBUTOR
Deirdre Pirro
International lawyer and freelance writer, Deirdre Pirro recently published a book called 'Italian Sketches: The Faces of Modern Italy' and is the author of a regular column in The Florentine, the bi-monthly English-language paper in Florence, Italy (www.theflorentine.net) where she has lived in the shadow of the Basilica of Santa Croce for more than twenty years. Still trying to fathom out some of the local customs and Italian politics, she compensates by overeating the country's delicious food and drinking too much of its unique wines. But, on the theory that she must have picked up something during all this time, she wants to share a bit of what she has learnt and, maybe, even find a few new answers along the way.
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