SCROLL DOWN FOR: Links to Italian Dictionaries, Translators, Spell-Checker

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PHOTO GALLERY:

Italian Cooking & Holiday Celebration ~ Dec. 2009:

Carlsbad Class ~  Escondido Class

** PHOTO GALLERY COMING SOON! **

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Jodina’s Italian Movie Picks: {All available at Netflix}

• “Amarcord” ~ Director: Federico Fellini
• “Pinocchio” with Roberto Benigni.  Lovely. Goofy. Upbeat.  Same old story but not animated and starring hilarious, puckish Roberto B.   This movie will put you in a good mood and make you forget your troubles for a while.
• “Pane E Tulipani”- nice film, shot mostly in Venice. A woman on vacation with her husband  & son gets left behind at  a rest stop. She ends up hitchhiking to Venice and establishing a new life there. Quirky, amusing, and interesting in an inward-look-into-other-peoples’-lives kind of way.
• “Cinema Paradiso”, beautiful. This film is poetry in motion. Watch it; you’ll know what I mean.
• “Il Postino”. Poet meets plebeian.  This film has the rare capacity to capture how even the most humbly clothed character may well have more to express than meets the eye.  Massimo Troisi stars in his last role, in which he also called the shots as director.  He finished this ‘capolavoro’ (masterpiece) foregoing cancer surgery, and succumbing to the disease shortly after filming culminated.
• “Divorzio all’Italiana” starring Marcello Maistroiani. A really fantastic fil — wry and at the same time over-the-top. With a flair for the exaggerated-to-make-a-point commentary, “Divorzio” shows  an Italian era gone by in which  women had no power and were whiny and sometimes insipid and the men were arrogant, self-serving and oft-unfaithful, with little or no remorse. Also quite funny and well-acted.

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~~THIS SECTION CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED~~

Jodina’s Italian Music Picks: {To view/hear artists, search on YouTube.com. There are many sources to buy online, I prefer mp3panda.com}

• Radio Italy Live, Listen free online to modern Italian music.
• Un Bacio a Mezzanotte, by Quartetto Cetra Italian Cafe sound from the dolce vita era (post WWII,1950s and early 60s)
• Cannelloni, by Giorgio Conte, Italian Cafe style

• Volare, Domenico Modugno
• Mina, late 60s wild child and femme fatale, Italy’s first female rocker, pop, surf rock, R&B. See/hear my blog post on Mina and her music.

• Jovanotti: funk, Euro rap, dance - Per te - Penso in positivo, Voglia di liberta’ Tanto, tanto, tanto
  
• Dolcenera: Mai piu’ noi due
• Ladri di Biciclette, old school, former funk-blues-rock band
• Pittura Freska, old school, former Venetian reggae band
• Giorgia: Gocce di memoria
  
• Alex Britti: La vasca
• Irene Grandi: La tua ragazza di sempre

• Lucio Dalla
• Liguabue
• Zucchero
• Pino Daniele
• Gianna Nannini
• Andrea Boccelli
  

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RESOURCES: SUGGESTED LEARNING MATERIALS

Shaum’s Outline of Italian Grammar. Outlines and explains most essential Italian grammar. Includes examples, verb charts, and answered exercises. Considered by many Italian teachers as the ‘bible’ for learning grammar.

Italian for Dummies. Despite its name, this is an idiot-proof, low-key intro to the language, with lots of great basic info – from grammar to vocabulary to specific cultural scenarios (planning a trip, dining out, etc), including practice dialogs and a CD.  Acts as a great springboard to practicing the language.

Pimsleur Introductory Level CDs. An excellent way to get your brain gears spinning in Italian–and a great bargain at $9.95 + Free Shipping. Link:  http://adjix.com/t5vc

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ONLINE DICTIONARY:  Word Reference

ONLINE DICTIONARY:  “babla” ~ Dictionary-Vocabulary-Translation Tool

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ONLINE SPELL-CHECKER FOR ITALIANO!

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GOOGLE TRANSLATOR

ONLINE TRANSLATOR:  World Lingo

ONLINE TRANSLATOR:   Babel Fish

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Other Resources:

Play-Learn-Italian: Free Italian word games online

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