Today was a great day in Italian class! We spent almost the entire two hour period listening to an Italian song called "Le Cose in Comune", by Daniele Silvestri. The title means "The Things we Have in Common". Paula, our Italian teacher wanted us to listen to the song once just to listen and see if we could pick out any of the words. After hearing it one time everyone was pretty lost. Paula gave each of us a print out of the lyrics and there were blanks scattered randomly thoughout the song. We were supposed to fill in the blanks with the correct words! AH!
Here's the link to the song. After listening to how fast the man is singing maybe you can appreciate the difficulty of the task that we had been assigned.
(Just a warning--the music video is a little strange...)
We spent the class trying to figure out the meaning of all the particular words that Paula had underlined. The first line in the song goes like this:
"Le cose che abbiamo in comune sono 4.850" which means, "The things that we have in common are 4,850". Paula made each one of us say the number as fast as we possibly could. This was hard for most people and a little easier for others.
The chorus lyrics are:
perché quando io dormo... tu dormi
quando io parlo... tu parli
quando io rido... tu ridi
quando io piango... tu piangi
quando io dormo... tu dormi
quando io parlo... tu parli
quando io rido... tu ridi
quando io piango... tu ridi
...roughly translated the singer is saying, "because, when I sleep, you sleep. When I talk, you talk. When I laugh, you laugh, when I cry you cry...and when I cry, you laugh"
No wonder why this guy thinks he has so many things in common with this girl! Every person sleeps and laughs and talks. Geez.
Overall, it was a pretty fun exercise and we ended up learning and laughing a lot.
(Danele Silvestri, the singer of "Le Cose in Comune")
After a short lunch break, we went to the Rome Center for history class with Mary. We have been talking about Women and the Family this week. Our main reading this week, in addition to a few selections out of our copied reading packet, was "The Family in Renaissance Florence" by Leon Battista Alberti. Alberti was an Italian humanist who is often thought of as the model of the "Renaissance man". He was born in Genoa as an illegitimate child to a wealthy Florentine merchant. The Alberti family had been exiled from Florence under the rule of the Medici. The book gives us a good idea of the role of women in society and the picture of the "ideal" family. In addition, Alberti gives his opinions of honor and nobility. He introduces the reader to the idea of "nobility of character" whereas all previous nobles had been noble by blood. The main idea that we were able to take out of our readings was the concept that there were two sphere's in Florentine society--a public and a private. Women were supposed to be private people and only in the private sphere and men were supposed to represent their family in the public sphere. This is an interesting idea which has definitely evolved over time.
(Leon Battista Alberti, author and Italian humanist)
Today was another great day in Rome! We're learning a lot and having fun!!
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