Last night I went out for dinner for some Italian food.... my absolute favourite!! I went to this place called Cafe Nervosa in Yorkville and we got to sit on the upstairs patio which was absolutely fabulous, not to mention that the food was great!
However, this post is not about the delicious meal last night, it is about the real reason why I love the book "Eat, Pray, Love". Before I get to that, I might as well share my outfit with you. I wore my favourite skirt and dressed it down a little with some flats and a semi-sheer t-shirt.
I'm wearing:
Aritzia Semi-Sheer Tee in Black
BCBG Polkadot Skirt
Zara Suede Flats in Black
Forever XXI Purse and Bittersweet Bow Ring
The reason that I love this book so much is because I love food and I love Italy. I've always been interested by its culture and I've been infatuated by their language. I've always thought that Italian is most beautiful language and I didn't know why, until I read it in Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I want to share this exert from the book with you to help you understand why Italian is such a beautiful and seductive language:
"As I will find out over the next few months, there are actually some good reasons that Italian is the most seductively beautiful language in the world , and why I'm not the only one who thinks so. To understand why, you have to first understand that Europe was once a pandemonium of numberless Latin-derived dialects that gradually, over the centuries, morphed into a few separate languages-- French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian. What happened in France, Portugal and Spain was an organic evolution: the dialect of the most prominent city gradually became the accepted language of the whole region, Therefore, what we today call French is really a version of medieval Parisian. Portuguese is really Lisboan. Spanish is essentially Madrileno. These were capitalist victories, the strongest city ultimately determined the language of the whole country.
Italy was different. One critical difference was that, for the longest time, Italy wasn't even a country. It didn't get itself unified until quite late in life (1861) and until them was a peninsula of warring city-states dominated by proud local princes or other European powers. Parts of Italy belonged to France, parts to Spain, parts to the Church, parts to whoever could grab local fortress or palace. The Italian people were alternatively humiliated and cavalier about all this domination. Most didn't much like being colonized by their fellow Europeans, but there was always the apathetic crowd that said, "Franza o Spagna, purche se manga," which means, in dialect, "France or Spain, as long a I can eat."
All this internal division meant that Italy never properly coalesced, and Italian didn't either. So it's not surprising that, for centuries, Italians wrote and spoke in local dialects that were mutually unfathomable. A scientist in Florence could barely communicate with a poet in Sicily or a merchant in Venice. In the sixteenth century, some Italian peninsula needed an Italian language,, at least in written form, which everyone could agree upon. So this gathering of intellectuals proceeded to do something unprecedented in the history of Europe; they handpicked the most beautiful of all the local dialects and crowned it Italian......
So it's really no wonder that I want so desperately to learn this language"
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Oh and P.S. A little secret: I might be planning a little (well two months to be exact) trip all over Europe which you guessed includes ITALY, Portugal, France, Spain, Greece and maybe some more. I don't want to jinx it which is why I'm saying MIGHT. Fingers Crossed!
Love
Ada
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