Ethics and Beauty in Florentine Restaurants - Our Suggestion Today: Caffè Florian

Chef Daniele Di Sacco

by Laura Tressel

On a mission to learn more about the creative cuisine of Florence, we met with the head chef of Cafe Florian, Daniele Di Sacco. Caffè Florian, located in the heart of Florence, offers the sublime combination of a coffeehouse, elegant restaurant, and contemporary art collection which highlights Italy's refined food and art culture. 

Chef Daniele, can you tell us how you started your career as a chef?

It started when I was very young. When I was a child, my sister gave me a toy oven to play with, and that started my interest in cooking. Professionally, I began my career in 1990 in Florence. Some restaurants that I have worked in have been Don Chisciotte and the Grand Hotel. I began working in the kitchen immediately. Then, when I was 20, I went to school. So at this point, I studied while I worked. 

Do you have a certain philosophy for your cuisine?

I try to take the best ingredients and the best products that I can and put them together. For example, a famous dish from I learned while at school that I like to make is with shrimp, foie gras, pata negra (Spanish pork), and truffle. So, they are four ingredients that are all on different levels, but you can put them together with a certain knowledge of flavor. 

Where did you take inspiration for this philosophy?

Particularly from a restaurant that I was at. I met a chef who was very good and who made me realize the importance of having this passion while cooking. 

What are the best and worst parts of your job?

The best part is the interaction and communication with the clients. I particularly enjoy when I get to go to the dining room and talk with them, finding out what they enjoyed and what they thought of their meal. The worst part is the stress of working in the kitchen and making all of these things. Cooking in a restaurant is not the same as cooking in your kitchen at home. I don't have particular hours that I work. I start when I come in and end when I leave. 

What is your relationship with your culinary vision and the Florian vision?
This is also a contemporary art museum, so I make a point to be more contemporary in the kitchen. I have to pay close attention to details. For example, the brunch that we make on Saturday and Sunday. I try make the colors of the dishes for the brunch similar to the colors of the paintings that are above them to bring everything together. 

Are you Florentine?
No, I am from Pontedera, near Pisa. But my relationship with Florence is strong. I came here a lot when I was younger and I have always worked here. It is the part of Italy that I've been the most. Here I can truly express myself.

What is the level of Italian cuisine, in your opinion?

For me, Italian is one of the best cuisines in the world. I think that French cuisine is also very high quality. It is true that we do have more famous Italian chefs now, which is great. I would say that the top three kitchens in the world are the French, Italian, and Japanese. 

Do you have any advice for young people trying to start working in this field?

Don't look at how many hours you work and don't immediately pay attention to your economic situation. Just do things simply, and show dedication. For example, five years ago I went to a famous chef and asked to work for free, just so that I could get the experience. Eventually all the time you put in to working with help you learn, and will advance your career to where you want to be.  

Caffè Florian is located at Via del Parione 28-32/R, near Via Tornabuoni

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Florence's Explosive Summer Celebrations: Festa di San Giovanni and Calcio Storico

by Laura Tressel

On any given day in Florence, you can find young boys kicking a ball around, playing football (calcio) in their spare time. The radio stations and tv play constant coverage of any and all football related news. A social meeting is rarely complete without an analysis of Fiorentina's most recent game. All of these things are part of the normal, everyday life of Florentines. However, on June 24, a different sporting event takes the spotlight.

This is the day of Festa di San Giovanni, when the city celebrates St. John the Baptist, its patron saint. It is a city-wide holiday, which means many residents get the day off from work and can instead focus all their energy on the festivities. In the morning there is a traditional parade through the city, followed by a mass held at the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, commonly known as il Duomo. The main sporting event happens later in the afternoon, in Piazza Santa Croce. Right now, the square is being transformed from its usual grey cobblestone expanse. Bleachers are being built, and soon the inside square will be filled with sand which forms the playing field for Calcio Storico. 

This event has its origins in ancient Greek and Roman games, and was molded to a more refined version during the 15th and 16th centuries. It is a slightly gruesome sport that allows almost all physical contact, including punching, kicking, and choking. Both teams pass a ball between players, attempting to get it across the goal line on the opposite side of the field. Whoever scows the most goals in a period of 50 minutes is declared the winner. 

Besides being an exciting and brutish game for both the players and audience, Calcio Storico brings to life the vibrant historical culture of Florence. The players dress up in colorful costumes which represent their team, one of the four quarters of the city. The Blue team (Azzuri) is from Santa Croce, Red (Rossi) from Santa Maria Novella, White (Bianchi) from Santo Spirito, and Green (Verdi) from San Giovanni. The teams fight to win the title for their quarter. The festival also involves musicians and flag bearers, all in costume of course. 

At night, the sky above Florence will explode with color as fireworks are set off in celebration. The beauty of the lights and the city's monuments reflect in on the surface of the Arno river. The city will be alive and the people filled with pride for their history. Florentine people take a lot of pride in the accomplishments and traditions of their home. Festa di San Giovanni is a day to fully soak in this spirit and to appreciate the great richness of its history. 

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“Tante veritá e bugie”: the mysterious affairs of Zeno Cosini

Italo Svevo

by Olga Lenczewska

Zeno Cosini, the main protagonist of Italo Svevo’s novel La coscienza de Zeno, is perhaps one of the most amusing and complex literary characters in modern Italian literature. Whilst telling his story in the first person in a form of a autobiography, as ordered by his psychoanalytic doctor, he manipulates the facts and lies to the reader – or maybe he is not sure himself what happened in reality and what happened in his head. Zeno is the first literary example of Freud’s psychoanalysis, which Svevo was influenced by – yet after having read the novel, one is not sure if psychoanalytic treatment really works.

Already in the opening chapter, Prefazione, written by the psychoanalytist who treated Zenos, the reader is warned about the unreliability of the following Zeno's account of his life. The doctor refers to Zeno's autobiography as a collection of “tante veritá e bugie”, not providing moreover a means of distinguishing between the truths and the lies: “Se [Zeno] sapesse quante sorprese potrebbero risultargli dal commento delle tante veritá e bugie ch'egli ha qui accumulate!”.

Zeno's way of viewing the world results in his alienation from the reality. Every decision he makes is not entirely “his own” but made in order to please somebody else or to falsely appear as a certain personality. This is strengthened when Zeno often visits the Malfenti family. He feels foreign and maladjusted to it, and therefore does or says things he normally would not do or say. As comments a literary critic Vittorini, “Zeno si presenta come lo straniero (xénos) che viene ammesso nel microcosmo del salotto dei Malfenti (un “paese del tutto sconosciuto”)” [Vittorini 2003: 72]. By achieving partial detachment from the society Zeno hopes to escape the social determinism. Yet he does not escape the social determinism but rather follows its norms without consciously deciding to do so or applying a special meaning to them (as for example in the case of the proposal to Augusta). He mimics the behaviours of the others and repeats the schemes of the society: marriage, commerce, family, and death, which are not simply chapters of a book but a thematic autonomy that represents the norms of the society to which Zeno conforms.

I will focus on portraying the protagonist's undecidedness and maladjustment to the society by analysing the reasons for his decision to marry Augusta Malfenti and the general story told in the chapter La storia del mio matrimonio. At the beginning of La storia del mio matrimonio Zeno confesses that “puó perció essere che l'idea di sposarmi mi sia venuta per la stanchezza di emettere e sentire quell'unica nota”. This is clearly not a common reason for wanting to get married, especially as Zeno decides to do so not because of having found the love of his life, but through analysis of the very concept of being a husband. The social normativity and the things that are regarded as “typical”, such as getting married, begin to dominate his own free will and the ability to make responsible decisions based on his own, individual needs. Zeno chose (or was driven into) proposing to one of the Malfenti daughters. This was perhaps the effect of the close bond he had with Giovanni Malfenti. It can be said that the paternal affect of Malfenti which was reciprocated by Zeno was the cause of him wanting to marry one of Malfenti's daughters. He did not so much choose one of them for her own qualities, as for the perspective of having Malfenti as his father-in-law.

Zeno decides to propose to Ada, a woman he truly admires and perhaps is in love with. Yet when she rejects him, he immediately goes on to propose to Alberta and Augusta almost in one go. This grotesque situation – proposing to three sisters at the same evening – is quite amusing to the reader but at the same time reflects a serious problem of Zeno's: the inability to feel something deeply, to be hurt by the rejection of the beloved one, to stop himself from acting without thinking it through first. The act of proposing loses his meaning, or perhaps it is more accurate to say that gains a different one: that of being an element of the social game, of conforming to the norms. In effect, Zeno becomes Augusta's husband without wanting to or loving her. The choice of Augusta, the least appealing of the Malfenti sisters, is portrayed as random and absolutely unpredicted.

Once married, Zeno comes to realise he loves his wife. What he admires in her is the stability of her life and the order she imposes on things. Augusta truly loves Zeno, too, and brings to his life comfort and order; she consoles and absolves him. She is a mother-figure in the book, not only to their children but also to Zeno himself, and in fact she reminds Zeno of his mother. He finds in her something totally opposite to his own character. Augusta has an opposite view on the truth to Zeno. Whilst for the protagonist the semantic meaning of the words alternates from one situation and social context to another, and the truth is often not what actually happened but what Zeno wishes had happened, Augusta is far away from Zeno's truth relativism: “Da ogni sua parola, da ogni suo atto risultava che in fondo essa credeva la vita eterna. Non che la dicesse tale: si sorprese anzi che una volta io, cui gli errori ripugnavano prima che non avessi amati i suoi, avessi sentito il bisogno di ricordargliene la brevitá. Macché! Essa sapeva che tutti dovevano morire, ma ció non toglieva che ormai ch'eravamo sposati, si sarebbe rimasti insieme, insieme”. Moreover, she lives in the tangible reality and controls the present issues whilst Zeno tends to be absent-minded and the major part of his life is happening inside him, in his reflections and analysis, what is reflected by both the novel's title and the dominance of descriptions of his thoughts over dialogues. As a result of this, Zeno and Augusta have two opposite views of the world. Neither changes the other's view. There is a huge distance between the “A” of the Malfenti daughters and the “Z” of Zeno; it represents a distance from the beginning to the end, from a word to a life. Zeno is detached from the reality and lives in his own world of illusion and projection that is more familiar to him than the reality; he views everything that happens through the lens of his desires and wishes.

When Zeno he decides not to tell Carla, his lover, that he actually loves his wife (she thinks he does not), he tries to justify it by saying that in fact he is not sure whether he loves Augusta or not, and that none of the moments he spends with Carla is appropriate to reveal the truth. Similarly, during his affair with Carla he admits that he has more excuses to innocently visit her than needed, admitting thus that the official reasons are just excuses to make love to her, whereas after having ended the relationship he presents himself as a passive victim of circumstances and Carla's seduction, saying that the love for music was the primary rational motive for the many visits he paid her.

In sum, Svevo's La coscienza de Zeno describes a few episodes from the life of a character who is a literary representation of the first generation of people suffering from an existential condition called “life”. He analyses the reality rather than simply lives it, and, consequently, the life he leads conforms more to his own alternations and projections of the reality than the authentic, “objective” world. Thus he is maladjusted to the society he is supposed to function in and every decision he makes is not truly his own, but a means of conforming to the society's norms. The most prominent example of such an act is, as I tried to show, his decision to propose to and marry Augusta, the least appealing of the Malfenti daughters. Zeno is, moreover, unable to face the consequences of his previous decisions (he, for example, repeatedly cheats on his wife) and lies to himself about the morality of his actions.

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Fate in the works of Giovanni Verga

Giovanni Verga

by Olga Lenczewska

Fate, a notion largely explored and realised in art, philosophy, and literature from ancient times until the present day, can be generally defined as a condition predetermined by a Divine being or nature, invincible necessity, a power which projects one's future. As opposed to the notion of planning which involves an agent organising his own future, fate is supposed to be both independent of one's will, and necessary in its occurrence. In Giovanni Verga's works, however, this notion is substantially challenged and adapted to the society and times he depicts – let us take a close look at that.

Verga, born to a rich Sicilian family during the times of the island's poverty and Italy's social underdevelopment, was inspired by the French naturalism to think of the role of literature as that of portraying the reality as it really was. His particular focus in his mature works such as “I Malavoglia” and “Vita dei campi”, however, was not the “gran mondo” with which the French movement and Alessandro Manzoni dealt, but the “classi inferiori” of the southern Italian villages that, Verga claimed, suffered the most from the difficult economic situation; in the opening story from “Vita dei campi” entitled “Fantasticheria” he clearly presents his ideology: “per poter comprendere siffatta caparbietá, che é per certi aspetti eroica, bisogna farci piccini anche noi, chiudere tutto l'orizzonte fra due zolle, e guardare col microscopo le piccole cause che fanno battere i piccoli cuori”.

Verga’s interpretation of the notion of fate is clearly visible in his portrayal of a boy nicknamed Rosso malpelo, a protagonist of one of the short stories from “Vita dei campi”. The boy was called Rosso malpelo because, according to the villagers, ginger hair was an attribute of malicious people. The reasoning of the peasants may be evidenced by the use of a causal “perché” in the following statement: “aveva i capelli rossi perché era un ragazzo malizioso e cattivo, che prometteva di riescire un fior di birbone”. From a commonsensical point of view the prejudicial assumption of the peasants seem absurd and it is rather them who 'create' the boy's destiny than himself. Moreover, it is not only the boy's hair colour, but also the popular opinion concerning his father, that contributed to Rosso malpelo's bad fame: the boy 'inherited' the bad fame from his father who, also unjustifiably, was negatively perceived by the society which would judge his stubbornness and hard-working manners as arrogance and selfishness. When the father died during work only he was brave to do, the fellow workers judge Rosso malpelo's mourning as a nasty, arrogant, even animalistic behaviour. A number of animalistic comparisons appear also in other parts of the story, for example, when the reader finds out that even the boy's mother believed he was a malicious just because people were saying so, putting the opinion of others over the bond of family: “La vedova di mastro Misciu era disperata di aver per figlio quel malarnese, come dicevano tutti, ed egli era ridotto veramente come quei cani, che a furia di buscarsi dei calce e delle sassate da questo e da quello, finiscono col mettersi la coda fra le gambe e scappare alla prima anima viva che vedono, e diventano affamati, spelati e selvatici come lupi”. Even more tragically, the boy seemed to be aware of his situation in the village and surrounding him injustice, but unable to free himself from it, accepting is and taking for granted instead: “Mio padre era buono, e non faceva male a nessuno, tanto che lo chiamavano Bestia. Invece è là sotto, ed hanno persino trovato i ferri, le scarpe e questi calzoni qui che ho indosso io”. It becomes clear that it were the villagers' prejudicial opinions, not some higher power, that projected and directed Rosso malpelo's fate.

Moreover, the boy felt obliged to work were his father used to, even though he died there and the place was not only extremely dangerous, but constantly reminded Rosso malpelo of the tragedy. Despite his unwillingness to do so, the boy believed he was born into working at his father's trade: “Certamente egli avrebbe preferito di fare il manovale, come Ranocchio, e lavorare cantando sui ponti, in alto, in mezzo all'azzurro del cielo, col sole sulla schiena, - o il carrettiere, come compare Gaspare, che veniva a prendersi la rena della cava, dondolandosi sonnacchioso sulle stanghe, colla pipa in bocca, e andava tutto il giorno per le belle strade di campagna (…). Ma quello era stato il mestiere di suo padre, e in quel mestiere era nato lui”. Also the job itself seemed to be linked to fatal fate. The ultimate tragism of the injudicious opinion shared by the society the boy lived in is represented and particularly stressed at the very last sentence of “Rosso malpelo”, when the boy goes away, convinced that nobody will look for him anyway: “Così si persero persin le ossa di Malpelo, e i ragazzi della cava abbassano la voce quando parlano di lui nel sotterraneo, ché hanno paura di vederselo comparire dinanzi, coi capelli rossi e gli occhiacci grigi”. The public fear of Rosso malpelo remained even after he had left his home and went missing.

In sum, the short story “Rosso malpelo” from “Vita dei campi” presents the fate of the protagonist as being in hands of the society he lives in that shared injudicious prejudices based on his physical appearance and his mourning after the death of his father; a negative social opinion greatly influences his and his family's life. Moreover, despite not willing to work where his father did, the boy believed he was born into continuing his father's trade and did not see any other possibility, thus being unable to free himself from his family's 'heritage'. The notion of fate in “Vita dei campi” is based on, or mainly expressed by, the social beliefs and opinions shared by the locals of the villages the plots are set in. Finally, the notion of fate in Verga's works directs the protagonists' lives from the 'bottom' – by the society, fellow locals – rather than from the 'top' – by some kind of Divine and omnipotent power, even if the protagonists themselves do not realise this and attribute this force to God. This might be due to the fact that for the protagonists do not want to accept they are controlled by their society's values and other people rather than by God, as they would not be able to explain and accept their course of life otherwise. Such definition of fate as coming from the 'bottom' is very different from its original definition from ancient times of the Greek tragedy. Thus it can be questioned that the force that controls Verga's protagonists cannot really be called fate. Obviously it depends how liberally we treat the definition of fate, but in my opinion it cannot be; I would rather call it 'social inescapableness', which transform the notion of 'fate' into a power that does not bear the notion of a Divine being projecting one's life.

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The courage to change. A review of Edoardo Falcone's film “Se Dio vuole”

by Olga Lenczewska

The Italian film “Se Dio vuole” [“If that’s what God wants”] came out in cinemas a few days ago. It has been directed by Edoardo Falcone, a screenwriter who decided to take on a new role of a film-maker. For the Italian cinematography, it was a good decision, because “Se Dio vuole” turns out to be the best of both artistic worlds – a very witty comedy that nevertheless addresses difficult and interesting problems.

Despite what one may infer just from reading the film’s title, the story presented by Falcone doesn’t openly and trivially indoctrinate towards Christianity. It merely shows how faith affects our lives in different ways and presents a vast scale of the ways in which the interaction of the atheists and the believers may proceed.


The film begins when the main character’s son, Andrea, confesses to the family he has decided to become a priest. To his father, Tommaso – a renown surgeon, a liberal and modern atheist who puts his career ahead of his family – this news is a hundred times worse than a possibility that his son is a homosexual. He immediately decides to investigate who “brain-washed” his son, unmask him (and thus Christianity) as fake, and bring Andrea back on the right track – which, obviously enough, means studying medicine.

In the meantime, Andrea helps his mother realise what she has known in her heart for a long time: that her life is empty and she is unhappy because of Tommaso’s ignorant attitude towards family, to which she, on the contrary, dedicated her whole life. She leaves the surgeon and moves out (but only to the maiden’s room), yet Tommaso is too busy “fixing” his son to deal with his marriage crisis. In fact, he has always believed in his clear and academic mind inherited only by his son, his daughter - similarly to his wife – being simple, rather shallow human beings, and has always been quick to judge his family members and co-workers.

When Tommaso finds out who inspired his son to enter the seminary, he starts spying Don Pietro, who is known as a charismatic priest who helps people in difficulties. As first, it seems that Tommaso has found something on him; he befriends him and attempts to find a proof that the man’s morality and altruism aren’t authentic and that his Catholic vocation is a cover for some dirty business. Don Pietro isn’t one of these people, though – his intelligence, optimism, tolerance, and authentic willingness to help Tommaso when the latter pretends he’s a poor, depressed man, start slowly getting to the surgeon. Quickly enough, Don Pietro finds out Tommaso’s secret – but instead of turning his back on him, the priest asks him for help at a construction of his new parish in exchange for not telling Andrea what Tommaso tried to do behind his back. At first, the surgeon hates wasting his precious time in a church, but gradually Don Pietro becomes his best friend and Tommaso asks him for advice – this time for real – concerning his family problems.

Don Pietro’s influence, alongside the fact that he doesn’t forcefully try to convince Tommaso to become a believer, changes the surgeon. He becomes less judgmental and more emphatic towards his co-workers in the hospital. Eventually, he also changes his attitude towards his wife and daughter, and thus get his life on the right track. When he finally feels ready to be honest with his son and tell him that becoming a priest will ruin his life, it turns out his son changed his mind long time ago and already has a girlfriend, which Don Pietro has been aware of.

It isn’t, therefore, Andrea’s vocation that is the object of the titular God’s will. It is the gradual transformation of Tommaso’s life that is really at stake here. The film ends with a profoundly symbolic scene: Don Pietro is hit by a car and dies despite the medical help he receives. The ‘physical’ life-saving procedure, in which Tommaso always believed, proves faulty, whilst the ‘spiritual’, or moral, life-saving practise, which he always neglected, has already worked inside of him.
Despite some rather standard plot solutions, the film manages to avoid banality. Don Pietro does not end up being operated by Tommaso, as one might have expected, and Andrea doesn’t enter the seminary, because his faith isn’t mature enough. Nor are we sure whether Tommaso actually started believing in God. And that’s because “Se Dio vuole” isn’t only about taking the “leap of faith” – it’s also about open-mindedness and the courage to change one’s attitudes and to become a better husband and father.

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Silvia, mexicana, estudiante de lengua, arte y cocina italiana en el Istituto Europeo

de Ilaria Gelichi

Silvia cuentenos sobre ustéd, de qué ciudad viene, a qué se dedica,…

Yo vivo en Guadalajara, en el occidente de México, pero nacì en la Ciudad de México. He estudiado Ciencias de la Comunicación y después estudié la licenciatura en Comercio Internacional y la Maestría en Mercado Técnico Global. He trabajado por más de 30 años en negocios internacionales; como profesora de universidad de materias de comercio exterior y en cursos para empresarios, de plan de negocios, desportación e importación.

¿Conocía Italia antes de llegar?

Si, conocí Italia hace muchos años, vine aquí hace más de 30 años. Vine a Florencia y fuí a Venecia: me gustó muchisimo y pensé en regresar.

¿Qué le llamó a estudiar la lengua italiana? Y cómo empezó?

La pasión por la lengua italiana es porqué me gusta mucho el país, las ciudades, el arte y toda la historia que tienen estas ciudades, especialmente el Renacimiento. Estoy segura que se comprende mucho mejor cuando comprendes la lengua, porqué no es lo mismo leer en otro idioma lo que ha sucedido.

¿Qué le gusta más de Italia y de Florencia en particular?

Me gusta mucho lo que se respira aquí, la atmosfera. Y también la antigüedad que se ve en todas partes al caminar.

Al llegar a la ciudad, ¿cuál fue su primera sensación?

Fue de emoción, de pensar que aquí habían estado muchos artistas y personas importantes del Renacimiento, que habían caminado aquí.

¿A qué cursos asiste en el Istituto Europeo?

Asisto al curso de lengua italiana, al curso de cocina italiana – que me gusta mucho - y en dos semanas empezaré un curso de historia del arte, en italiano. Entonces, por eso necesito comprender mejor la lengua. He tomado también dos clases de dibujo para tener una idea; lo he hecho en pasado y me gusta mucho, es una pasión que tengo. Hoy tengo clase de dibujo; es para compreder mejor también lo que aquí los artistas han hecho.

¿Cómo se siente en el Istituto Europeo? Cómo fueron sus primeros dias aquí?

Me siento muy bien, me encanta y agradezco mucho toda la ayuda que me han prestado. El departamento donde vivo, todo acerca de mi llegada, el taxi... Me he sentido muy bien. Todo ha estado muy bien gracias al Istituto Europeo.

¿Qué le han parecido las clases y los profesores, ha aprendido mucho?

Si, he aprendido mucho. La clase de la lengua italiana es muy intensiva, se avanza mucho todos los dias pero tiene que aplicarse mucho. Los profesores también me parecen bien en general. Ahora tengo tres semanas y me parece que he hecho un avanze: escribo algo y hablo. El curso de cocina también muy bien y el curso de pintura estoy encantada.

Respecto al ambiente de interculturalidad, ¿qué le ha aportado el convivir con personas de diversos países?

Me ha abierto muchas puertas y ventanas. Yo he estudiado Comercio Internacional y he estado en contacto con mucha gente de todo el mundo y me gusta mucho. El ambiente de interculturalidad me encanta. Yo pensé en venir a Florencia en principio a disfrutar la ciudad, pero me parece que esta opción es mucho mejor que estar sola en Florencia. Aquí he conocido gente de Japón, de Brasil, de Australia, con quienes hemos salido y tenemos amistad ahora.

¿Recomendaría esta experiencia en el Istituto Europeo?

La recomendaría ampliamente. Especialmente, no solo a jovenes sino también a personas mayores. Siempre se puede aprender algo nuevo.

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STREEAT, the first Food Truck Festival in Florence

Photo via www.streeatfoodtruckfestival.com

Are you a street food addicted? Then you cannot miss the first Italian food truck festival!

The 28 food trucks from all the corners of Italy will arrive to Florence from Rome this afternoon and will sell their specialties at Cascine Park until Sunday, April 12. Streeat will feature, among others, Chianina beef burgers, pizza, fried specialties from Naples and Sicily, pastries from southern and northern Italy, gelato and even veg food. Not only food, though: at Streeat you will also find deejay sets, entertainment for all, and food-centric lectures and debates. The food trucks will then continue their journey to Bologna, Sarzana, Milan an Padua. Check all the dates on the official website!

Where: Cascine Park, Florence
When: Friday 10 – Sunday 12, 2015
Opening hours: Friday 4:00 PM – 1:00 AM, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 AM – 1:00 AM
Info: www.streeatfoodtruckfestival.com

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Studiare l'italiano all'Istituto Europeo a Firenze: l'esperienza di Priscila

Priscila Braco

Priscila, raccontaci da dove vieni, quanti anni hai e cosa fai nella vita.

Mi chiamo Priscila Braco, ho 23 anni e sono brasiliana. Sono nata a San Paolo ma abito a Rio de Janeiro. Mi sono appena laureata in Amministrazione e vorrei partecipare ad un concorso pubblico per lavorare in un ufficio.

Com’è nata questa passione per la lingua italiana? Hai dei parenti italiani?

Il mio bisnonno era italiano, ma questo non è il motivo: conosco già l’inglese e volevo imparare un’altra lingua. Lo spagnolo non mi piace molto, il francese mi piace abbastanza ma l’italiano mi piace di più; mi piace molto il suono. Lo studio da un anno e mezzo.

Cosa ti piace di più dell’Italia?

Il cibo! Ma anche le città: la storia è dappertutto ed in ogni luogo c’è sempre qualcosa da sapere e da imparare. La storia in generale mi piace molto.

E’ la prima volta che vieni in Italia? Cosa ti piace di Firenze?

No, è la terza volta. Ho già visitato altre città ma la cosa che mi piace di Firenze è che si può andare ovunque a piedi, senza bisogno di prendere l’autobus o la macchina. E poi mi piace il fatto che sia piena di luoghi storici. Nonostante ci siano tanti turisti, è una città molto tranquilla dove vivere.

Che corso stai frequentando all’Istituto Europeo?

Sto frequentando un corso intensivo di lingua italiana di 4 settimane. Ho imparato alcune cose di grammatica che ancora non avevo studiato in Brasile, ma principalmente abbiamo fatto tanta conversazione e sono contenta perché non ho occasione di farla in Brasile. La nostra insegnante è stata molto flessibile, ci ha chiesto cosa volevamo migliorare e noi abbiamo chiesto di fare conversazione e lessico.

Hai trovato utile questo corso?

Sì molto. Soprattutto perché in Brasile quando esco dalla lezione parlo portoghese, invece qui in Italia quando finisco la lezione vado al ristorante o a casa e continuo a parlare italiano. Penso che per imparare bene una lingua si debba andare nel Paese in cui è parlata.

Consiglieresti ad un amico di studiare all’Istituto Europeo?

Sicuramente, mi sono trovata bene qui. Però consiglierei di venire per un periodo più lungo, ad esempio 3 mesi. Ho cercato di sfruttare al massimo il tempo, ma penso che 4 settimane siano comunque poche.

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Una recensione di “Il nome del figlio”, film diretto da Francesca Archibugi

di Olga Lenczewska

La maggior parte delle discussioni, specialmente quelle che avvengono durante una bella serata tra amici, svaniscono presto senza lasciarsi dietro importanti conseguenze. Questo non è vero, però, nel caso del litigio che apre il nuovo film di Francesca Archibugi, “Il nome del figlio”, remake italiano della pellicola francese “Cena tra amici”. Concentrandosi su una singola scena “indoor”, tipica della rappresentazione teatrale (una scena che non è, comunque, statica), “Il nome del figlio” mostra come uno scherzo innocente possa evolvere in modi imprevisti, sfidando le opinioni comuni su certi “tipi” di persone e rivelando segreti e atteggiamenti dei protagonisti che essi non vorrebbero mostrare. 

Nonostante siano cresciuti insieme, i protagonisti sono molto diversi. Paolo è un “self-made man”, un affascinante agente immobiliare di successo. Sua sorella, Betta, insegna al liceo ed è una mamma molto impegnata, mentre il marito di Betta, Sandro, lavora all’università e non presta molta attenzione alla realtà oltre i libri. Il loro amico single, Claudio, è un musicista eccentrico che ha assecondato i suoi sogni adolescenziali. La moglie di Paolo, la giovane Simona, è l’autrice di un romanzo best-seller con i classici atteggiamenti da “diva”.

I flashback occasionali rivelano gli anni dell’adolescenza di Paolo, Betta, Sandro e Claudio, e raccontano i conflitti con la generazione precedente, quelli che oggi hanno i loro stessi figli. Ma con il tempo la vita dei protagonisti cambia e insieme muta anche la prospettiva attraverso la quale vediamo le loro relazioni.

Il litigio comincia quando Paolo svela quale sarà il nome di suo figlio. Questa scelta controversa diventa lo sfondo per una discussione ideologica, che si trasforma presto in un argomento molto personale. Benché Betta, Sandro, Paolo e Claudio si ascoltino con attenzione e provino meticolosamente a risolvere il conflitto appena emerso, ciascuno di loro ha una parte di sé che gli altri non comprendono. Sandro aspira ad essere trattato al di sopra degli altri perché è un professore e conosce le materie umanistiche molto bene, ma purtroppo non è capace di applicare quello che sa alla propria vita: non capisce sua moglie e vive una vita parallela tra romanzi e social network, perdendosi la vita vera. Betta, completamente dedita ai suoi figli e al marito, è sempre più fiaccata dalla routine della vita quotidiana. Paolo, invece, è orgoglioso di esser un elegante uomo d'affari, liberale e moderno; tuttavia sua moglie Simona di lui non apprezza altro che l’aspetto estetico, non ha nemmeno letto il suo romanzo!

Nonostante la loro complessità, i quattro vecchi amici sembrano più “in gamba” del quinto personaggio, Simona, che rimane alquanto estraneo fino alle ultime scene. Solo alla fine del film si comprenderà, infatti, la sua capacità di “leggere” i commensali, comprendendone i dolori e soprattutto aprendo gli occhi sul loro snobismo e sulla ristrettezza di vedute che dimostrano; per esempio, quando giudicano il libro di Simona banale senza neppure averlo letto, oppure quando dipingono troppo frettolosamente Claudio come omosessuale.

“Il nome del figlio” è una buona e sofisticata commedia che vi farà ridere, ma allo stesso tempo interromperà la tendenza a giudicare gli altri attraverso schemi prestabiliti e sulla base di pregiudizi, e vi incoraggerà a riconsiderare il vostro atteggiamento verso gli altri. Uscirete dal cinema con animo nervoso, ognuno in modo diverso, e ciò che vi renderà nervosi sarà proprio quello che dovrete rivedere nella vostra vita.

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70 years after. Auschwitz in the eyes of Primo Levi

Primo Levi

by Olga Lenczewska

In 2015, the year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, it is important to remember the significance of those events, in the hope that they will never be repeated. In the United Kingdom, a new documentary on the liberation of Auschwitz has been recently released. André Singer’s documentary “Night Will Fall” uses original footage collected by the soldiers in 1945 and powerfully reminds us of how easy it is to live unaware of the tragedies which take place in a country neighbouring one’s own. It is also worth reminding ourselves about literary testimonies from that time, amongst which prominently figures Primo Levi’s ‘Se questo è un uomo’ [‘If this is a man’] – one of the most crucial books on Auschwitz ever written.

What was Levi’s goal when he was starting to write ‘Se questo è un uomo’? Why did he decide to immerse himself in the horrifying experience once more, and again and again, writing about it so much during his whole life after Auschwitz? Would it not have been easier to simply forget, or at least try to forget? The author answers these questions himself in the preface: ‘Il bisogno di raccontare agli ‘altri’, di fare di ‘altri’ partecipi, aveva assunto fra noi, prima della liberazione e dopo, il carattere di un impulso immediato e violento, tanto da rivaleggiare con gli altri bisogni elementari; il libro è stato scritto per soddisfare questo bisogno; in primo luogo quindi ha scopo di liberazione interiore’.

From the very moment when Levi decided to write not only a testimony, but a collective description of the Auschwitz imprisonment on behalf of those who died and cannot speak for themselves, it was clear that his work would be much more than just an account of his days in Auschwitz, in the centre of events that shaped the modern Western cultural legacy and changed the way we look at the man. Levi underlines the need to both remember and sanctify those who died in Auschwitz – the need that existed inside him during his time in the death camp and was nearly as strong as the hunger or cold. To save himself from Auschwitz was not enough; to save the others meant to write about the sufferings and to consecrate them. ‘Auschwitz mi ha segnato, ma non mi ha tolto il desiderio di vivere: anzi, me l’ha accresciuto, perché alla mia vita ha conferito uno scopo, quello di portare testimonianza, affinché nulla di simile avvenga mai più’, Levi writes in the afterword to his book. By passing the essence of his memories to future generations the author attempts to ‘normalise’ his experience, which he himself finds hard to believe in. It is only when he realises that he must write about his past that he undergoes an ethical turn from involuntary to voluntary memory.

In one of the most important chapters of the book, ‘I sommersi e i salvati’, Levi raises the moral problem of salvation. Who could be saved? How could one be saved? Who deserved being saved and why did I survive? These disturbing and repetitive questions indicate how hard it was for Levi to remain unemotional, not to go beyond a mere description of facts. He portrays the prisoners and the whole Lager society through philosophical aspects such as ‘the value of man’, ‘the value of human personality’, ‘the value of moral responsibility each of us towards others’. Moreover, the author analyses people as equal human beings, paying no attention to the ethnic categories that were in fact crucial to the Nazis. The discourse, carried out in a way that leads to universal ethical statements, is therefore separated from the Auschwitz law. In ‘I sommersi e i salvati’, he compares the Lager’s set of rules to a juridical system. He also, almost academically, defines Auschwitz as a perfect example of injustice, providing a historical and biblical context for his hypothesis: ‘Nella storia e nella vita pare talvolta di discernere una legge feroce, che suona ‘a chi ha, sarà dato; a chi non ha, a quello sarà tolto’. Nel Lager, dove l’uomo è solo e la lotta per la vita si riduce al suo meccanismo primordiale, la legge iniqua è apertamente in vigore, è riconosciuta da tutti’.

In ‘Se questo è un uomo’, Levi truly engages the reader in his philosophical discourse and the description of the loss of human dignity. His work is subjective, coherent with the facts (although not always chronological), and at the same time truly academic, as it manages to philosophically analyse the Holocaust phenomenon. Such a range of various approaches allowed him to create an original book that cannot be labeled as just one literary genre. Thanks to Levi’s determination and faith, we can now be aware of what had happened not that long ago and what can happen in the future if we do not respect each other, for, as it wrote Bruno Bettelheim, ‘Those who seek to protect the body at all cost die many times over. Those who risk the body to survive as man have a good chance to live on’.

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