Download PDF La Passione How Italy Seduced the World eBook Dianne Hales

Product details File Size 1269 KB Print Length 289 pages Page Numbers Source ISBN 0451499166 Publisher Crown Archetype (April 16, 2019) Publication Date April 16, 2019 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B07FS9XYDR

La Passione How Italy Seduced the World eBook Dianne Hales Reviews

• Dianne Hales has a unique ability to express in words the Italian essence. Just as in La Bella Lingua, she captures the Italian Spirit...For Italians, passion is the grist of life. Dianne gives new insights into how this passion has made Italians and Italian culture as wonderful as it is today. I couldn’t have enjoyed this book more.
• I thoroughly enjoyed this history-laden love letter to Italy and all that was either invented or perfected there.
  
  In "La Passione, author, Dianne Hales, takes us on a journey, tracing the histories of a multitude of Italian arts, products, customs, and people to illustrate how they all sprang from "la passione" - the deep-rooted, sometimes incomprehensible, sometimes over-the-top kernel that seems to be at the root of them all.
  
  If you love Italy, you will undoubtedly enjoy reading this book. If you appreciate the Italian sensibility when it comes to living life, you will learn even more about why that is and come away with a deeper understanding about why your appreciation is so utterly (imo) warranted.
  
  The thing that surprised me most about this book was that I could not put it down. Hales gives exactly readers what is needed to illustrate where "la passione" fits in to each category with an economy of words. For me, each chapter was a new present to unwrap - from ancient Rome, to Saints, to the Renaissance, to food, wine, the cinema, and fashion - I was thoroughly engrossed. I even found the chapter on Italian cars (cars are not a big interest of mine) to be fascinating.
  
  I love fashion, so the Fontana sisters came as a huge and delightful surprise. I love opera, but knew little about the wild and crazy lives of the people who invented that art form. Pavarotti as well!
  
  That said, I often wished that some of the chapters had included more. For example, the chapter on cars focusses quite heavily on Enzo Ferrari with much less about Agnelli's FIAT and barely any mention at all of Lamborghini and Maserati. Perhaps it is because I know so little about them that I wanted to know a bit more, and I also know that choices had to made in oder to keep the length of this book under control (the economy I mentioned before), but I miss learning at least a few things about those names I have known my whole life.
  
  Perhaps that criticism is more about my never getting my fill of Italy than about the book itself. Fortunately, there is a wonderfully huge bibliography at the end. I am already reading "Puccini Without Excuses" and waiting for "Verdi with a Vengeance" to arrive. And Dante's Divine Comedy would probably be there too if Dante had be able to write with the economy of words that Hales does. Lol! I've tried reading that a couple of times and failed, so Hales "Dante in an instant" was both satisfying and incentivizing.
  
  This book is about Italy.
  It is unapologetically and unabashedly about all things Italian that arose from the "passione" engrained in simply being of Italy.
  And I loved reading it.
• That Dianne Hales is passionate about Italy is clear. La Passione, however, did not convince me that Italy has seduced the world. The beginning of the book is about Hales’ passion; she certainly likes being passionate about Italy! The book then moves on to Italy’s history in a chatty, informative, but not deep way. Similar to the overview a friend may give you on a topic they love. Hales then goes on to examine various “passions” of the Italians – romance, art, lace and other handmade crafts, food, wine, opera, movies, Ferrari, and fashion.
  
  Overall, I guess I just didn’t enjoy Hales’ apparent attempt to convince me that her passion for Italy should be / is a universal passion. Certainly others, myself included, have found other countries to be passionate about. For example, I enjoyed Mary Norris’ Greek To Me Adventures of the Comma Queen, about, obviously Greece (not just the Greek language). Norris expresses her passion in her enthrallment with her topic, rather than continuously telling us how much Greece is both passionate and worthy of the reader’s passion. For those with a passion for Italy, you will likely enjoy La Passione more than I do. It also offers a reasonable, very readable introduction to someone heading there for vacation who is looking for something other than (or in addition to) the standard guidebook. For that, it earns 4 stars from me.
  
  But that’s JustMe.
• La Passione, by Dianne Hales, is similar to Luigi Barzini's book, The Italians. La Passione is lighter going than Barzini's book, but it is by no means trivial.
  
  This is the sort of look at a nation's politics, history, and art that is published every ten or twenty years. If you're more interested in history, sociology, or politics, I would recommend Barzini's book. If you want to read the diary of someone who has fallen in love with Italy, read Dianne Hales And if languages are your hobby, Hales is interesting.
  
  Hales ends a short history of the Renaissance in Florence with Raphael partying too much one night and returning home with a fever. Either the fever or the remedy killed him. Every time I visit Italy, I commune with the ancient gods and Raphael in the Pantheon.
  
  Bernini, opera, wine, Caruso, Pavarotti, Fellini, Mussolini, and Rossellini are all here. (If you want a history of Italian filmmaking, including Cinecitta studios and the beginning of worldwide celebrity culture, read Shawn Levy's Dolce Vita Confidential.)
  
  Facciamo una festa.
• Dianne Hales, author of “La Passione” is an award-winning author. She was even knighted by the president of Italy for her passionate and jubilant many descriptions of how Italy transformed the western world. She describes in a breezy easy to read passionate manner the many things she likes about Italy. She tells us that her passion for matters Italian is a primal force that cannot be ignored or denied. Her book describes the history of Italy, the many Italian contributions to the world, including law, literature, paintings, sculptures, music, food, fashions, movies, Italy having the first university, first banks, first public libraries, and more, and her reactions to the many things Italian. Her book is an ideal tour guide through Italy’s past and present.