Dance and Travel

Portuguese/Spanish Flags Although Portuguese and Spanish are closely related to the point to be somehow mutual intelligible, there are also important differences between them, which can pose difficulties for people acquainted with one of the languages who attempt to learn the other. In this article, I will focus on the Portuguese learner’s point of view that approaches to the Spanish language. He always has to pay attention to “ false friends ”: In Spanish “estar embarazada” means ‘to be pregnant’. In Portuguese “estar embaraçada” means ‘to be embarrassed’ or ‘to be entangled’. Nevertheless, Spanish has the term “embarazoso/a “meaning ’embarrassing’.’Pregnant’ in Portuguese is “grávida”. Portuguese/ Spanish False Friends: Embarazada Spanish “vaso” means ‘drinking glass ‘, while in Portuguese “vaso” means toilet (from “vaso sanitário”). A ‘drinking glass’ in Portuguese is “copo”, while Spanish “copa” is a wine glass. Here a top ten of the most frequent errors done by

“Genova che mi struggi, intestini – caruggi” (Genoa, you pine me, you are intestine - you are tiny streets)  cit. G. Caproni* The first time I saw Genoa was in 2008. I was with my father heading to this city to enroll me at the University. I have never before though about Genoa as a possible city where to live. I was just choosing it because I had the impression of a good University with subjects that I would have definitely liked. I was in the train, and after many dark galleries, here it was Genoa with its colorful houses which seem to be clinging to the mountainside. I suddenly thought:“That’s the city where I want to live”. Genoa: mountainside I spend almost two year in a wonderful neighborhood called “Castelletto”, where you can enjoy one of the most beautiful city landscape. I used to stop there read a book or just relaxing after a day of intensive study. Genoa Castelletto Then I moved to the hearth of the city, near to the harbor. The historical ci

Why Cemeteries are so important? They are important because visiting them will help you to know the history of the city and the nature of its people, since they represent the heritage of a place. In this case The Poblenou Cemetery (in Catalán “Cementiri de Poblenou”) is the most ancient cemetery of Barcelona. It is located in Poblenou district in Barcelona and it is an authentic open air museum waiting for a restoration necessary to preserve its artistic and historical richness. Historically it was conceived as a solution to the  unhealthiness of the parish graves present inside the city. It was inaugurated in 1775, but destroyed few years later by the Napoleonic troops. In 1813, it was request to a young Italian architect, Antonio Ginesi, to build the outdoor area. The Neoclassical style reflects the tastes and the political aspiration of the new emerging classes of the city,  the businessman and the  indianas  manufactures. In 1821 it was used in almost its totality, due to a

« Et toi, Marseille, assise aux portes de la France, comme pour accueillir ses hôtes dans tes eaux. » (O Marseille, established at the gateway of France, as if to welcome its guests in your waters) cit. Alphonse de Lamartine Marseille is the second largest city in France, after Paris. Historically was the most important trade center in the region and it is still the France's largest city on the Mediterrean coast and the largest commercial port. Actually for me is more than this, for my it was the door for the Orient, the Near East with its smell and mix languages. A mixture of cultures where Arabs and French coexist together since generations. However, it is not an easy coexistence: in the Sixties the so called “Pieds-noirs” from the former French Algeria come back to France and they had to be integrated in a country new for them, the first city they met was Marseille, most of them decided to stay there. Besides, a lot of Algerians after the Second World War come to

“Quem dança é muito mais feliz” (The one who dances is much more happier) People dancing forro in the Streets of Amsterdam This is actually the biggest truth I have ever experienced in my life. However, I am not referring to any kind of dance, I am referring to a couple dance called Forró , which is intimately link to idea of happiness, good vibes and joy of sharing moments with others. What is forró? It is a Brazilian dance typical of the North-West Region of Brazil.  It is associated to various types of popular North-Western music such as baião, quadrilha, xaxado, which have Portuguese influences.  It is played traditionally by three people a "Sanfoneiro" (the person who plays the "sanfona" which is the accordion), a zabumbeiro (the person who plays “zabumba”, a type of bass drum).  The player wears the drum while standing up and uses both hands while playing) and a musician who plays a metallic triangle (triangulo). The three instruments o

This year I had the pleasure to assist to one of the most important event that opens the spring in Spain: Las Fallas de Valencia . In this article I am going to investigate which was the original meaning and see how it has transformed all over the centuries . Sacred and Secular Origins: The mixture between sacred and secular it has always been strong in Catholic countries. However, there are different hypothesis about the origin of Las Fallas festival. O ne suggests that the Fallas started in the Middle Ages , when artisans used to burn broken artifacts and pieces of wood that they saved during the winter in order to celebrate the Spring Equinox. Another one is that Valencian carpenters used some planks of wood called  parots  to hang their candles on during the winter. When spring came, they were no longer necessary, so they were burned. Over time, and with the intervention of the Church, the date of the burning of these  parots  was made to coincide with the celebr

As a Portuguese learner I had soon to face the problem of learning new vocabularies. Among them it is impossible not making reference to one of the most important: “Saudade”. If you have been in Portugal or in Brazil at least once in your life, you should have heard about this feeling. Yes, because I am talking about “a feeling” which is untranslatable in other languages and that is a key word to understand the culture and the two countries as a whole. As a consequence, in this article I am going to explain the etymology of the term first, then I will try to give a definition. Finally I will propose possible translations of the word. The etymology of Saudade is controversial, however the prevailing theory affirms that it derives from the Latin Solitate which means “solitude”; from that term derives the modern for of Soledad” in Spanish and Solid ã o in Portuguese. Nevertheless, the form Saudade involves also the influences of Saudaç ã o, greeting, and Saude, health, salvat

When I approach first the Portuguese language as Italian speaker, I was thinking to a single unitary block. I already expected some dialectal influences, in particular in Brazil, due to the fact that is composed of many federal states. However I could never expect that Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese could differ in grammatical, syntactic and lexical forms. We are not talking about British English and American English, we are talking about almost two different languages and cultures. Of course also for the people who do not know the syntactical and lexical differences, it seems to be evident the musicality of the Brazilian variant, due to the different pronunciations of the words. Pronunciations: Ex. Sauda d e, felicida d e, aon d e, d epois (“d” sound for Portuguese, while “gi” sound for Brasilian variant) Ex. Noi t e, gen t e, sen t ir  (“t” sound for Portuguese, while “tch” sound for Brazilian Portuguese) Besides, I recollect 10 different expression and

It was in 2009 the first time that heard about Portugal and it is in my heart since then . I was almost 19 and it was my first time living  far from my family. You might know that it is not so common for Italians to go to live far from their parents so early. The most of us love living at home almost till 30, someone also more than it. Anyway, I went to Genova to study and I lived in a student residence. There I met one of the most important person of my life. She was Polish and she had 7 years more than me. At that time she had already traveled a lot. For her everything started with an erasmus in 2005 in Portugal. We spent our evening talking, in English of course, and  learning, a least I have lerned a lot from her. It was a new language, a new culture, a new perspective . My first big discovery: there was someone living outside my country which could understand me much better than people from my own country . She was the first one who thalk me about Portugal and Lisbon. I reme