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La Dolce Vita University: An Unconventional Guide to Italian Culture from A to Z
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About La Dolce Vita University: An Unconventional Guide
Product Description La Dolce Vita University (LDVU) is the perfect sampler for anyone curious about (or already in amore with) Italy and its remarkably rich cultural gifts, both past and present. True to its lighthearted name, La Dolce Vita “U” is all about pleasurable learning, or what we prefer to call “edu-tainment.” Its dozens of entertaining yet authoritative mini-essays on a wide assortment of intriguing topics encourage random dipping at the reader’s pleasure. Even the most erudite Italophile will discover fun new facts and fascinating new insights in the pages of La Dolce Vita U. Mini-essays treat specific topics in one or more of the following subject areas: the Italian character; the visual arts (art, artists, architects); the performing arts (music, theater, cinema); history and antiquity; language and literature; cuisine and agriculture; wine and spirits; traditions and festivals; style and applied arts; unique places. In a wink and nod to the book’s “academic” identity, the 165 mini-essays are arranged alphabetically and accompanied by charming illustrations throughout. A special traveler’s topic index is provided at the end of the book. Review Praise for La Dolce Vita University The title―La Dolce Vita University―captures the great virtues of this reader-friendly book perfectly: it’s delicious and educational at the same time, which each virtue reinforcing the other. Dulce blended with utile, as the great ancient Roman poet Horace recommended. This book sustains that combination masterfully. It’s is a complete delight to read, but (as a professor of Renaissance literature for many decades) I’m happy to report that the authors know their stuff. The research is careful and the analysis is intelligent and witty. I learned amazing new things about dozens of topics – Artemisia, Burano, Casanova, Dante, and onward through the alphabet to zanni. La Dolce Vita University also seasons lots of popular myths with just the right number of grains of salt. It’s written in prose as clear, bright, crisp, and lively as a spring morning in the Dolomites. Add to that graceful but also playful prose, the talent of skilled story-tellers, and it’s no wonder that the entries stay so fascinating. La Dolce Vita University makes me crave a return to Italy, and helps me daydream that I’m already there. Like an ideal platter of antipasti, it’s made of deliciously varied bites you can pick your way through. If you want – or want to give a friend – an appetizer that will rouse up a hunger for the glory and festivity of that wonderful place and its’ no less wonderful culture, this book is perfect. ―Robert N. Watson, PhD Distinguished Professor of English, Associate Vice-Provost for Educational Innovation, UCLA Imagine it as a dessert course of dark chocolates, filled with exotic fruits and nuts, packed with her parents' knowledge and love of history and art, her grandmother's epithets, and her own wisdom and wit, Italian, American, global. The chocolates are alphabetically listed, described and presented beautifully, and offered as something to dip into as you wish. You open it, choose the one you think you will like best, then another, and another. Suddenly it’s gone. Because Carla wears her scholarship lightly, you don't feel over full, but what a feast! ―Denise Scott Brown FAIA, Int. FRIBA and Robert Venturi FAIA, Int. FRIBA Excellent! Bravissima! Delightfully informative, a book to enrich any reader’s life with a greater appreciation of Italian culture―even in everyday experiences here at home, from visiting an art museum to dining in a local Italian restaurant, or from cooking for friends and family to the usage of common expressions and words. Not to mention, it might just inspire you to hop on a plane! ―Commendatore Professor Carlo Sclafani SUNY Distinguished Professor and Former Chairperson of the Modern Languages Department at Westchester Community College Carla is the consummate Italian. Mille grazie for shari
