Have you been to Italy ?

[Sybilla]

I've been there; i visited costal towns Montesilvano, Vasto, Chieti, Pescara; and also on the intern; i saw Sulmona, Roccaraso (it was the middle of august but it was freezing, i had a coat), Pescasseroli, Pescostanzo, and the national park of Gran Sasso, where i visited a zoo with Bears.
I also ate arrosticini.
Historically and dialectically abruzzo is south, but it's an anomalous south (more centre italy) beacuse; firstly the people are few (if you compare it with the mess of people in Campania) so you have more space; then they have a different caracter they are very quiet, then there doesn't exist mafia, camorra and blablabla all shitty things the south is full.
You are right you are more central italians.

One of your Compaesan l'Orso Marsicano :grin::cool-v:

Yes we consider ourselves Central Italians who had the misfortune to be annexed to the Southern State of the Two Sicilies. Characterially we are very different from Neapolitans and we have also porchetta which is a typical central Italian dish. :grin:
Characterially Abruzzesi are mountanious people and like all the mountanious peoples we are pretty introvert and the Marsican bear is often used to rapresent our character (introvert and very few talkative).
Anyway the favourite hobby of Abruzzesi is to hit Neapolitans and people from Bari so be careful to compare us with them We consider similar to Machisans, Latials and southern Abruzzo is close to Molise. Also the landscape of Abruzzo is very similar to Marche and Lazio.

 

[julia90]

Sono della provincia di Massa Carrara.

I am from the province of Massa Carrara. However, my father's ancestors are from la provincia di Parma. So, mezza toscana?

You are a tuscan of the border then. almost ligurian (and indeed you are descendant of ligurians who in ancient time lived there: Liguri Apuani).
Your dialect has north italian way to speek too. But i don't know, Do you speek with Si impersonale, or with tuscan c, t, p, ?

I remeber a typical feature of Versilia speech (and i don't know if Carrarese o Massese too), famous in televison also thanks to Mario Il Bagnino di Panariello :grin:. "Marianna'n Gane!!":cool-v: "Beatrige ghe dige!" the use of g in some part of the speech, this is a feature present only in that place, and not in the rest of italy.

 

[julia90]

Characterially Abruzzesi are mountanious people and like all the mountanious peoples we are pretty introvert and the Marsican bear is often used to rapresent our character (introvert and very few talkative).

Indeed that is what i perceived there, the people are "introvert".
I also know some abruzzese who live here in tuscany, and they are introvert; me and my family were hospitated in our abruzzese family friend town in the abruzzo mountains.

 

[julia90]

Anyway the favourite hobby of Abruzzesi is to hit Neapolitans

I saw that many Neapolitans live in abruzzo, when i went there; me and my family hipotized that the transferred there because there live few people, if you compare it with Neapolis hinterland.
They searched tranquillity.

 

[Sid71]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Italy is really a wonderful country with so much to see. Have been to Rome and Florence and enjoyed there a lot.[/FONT]

 

[Angela]

You are a tuscan of the border then. almost ligurian (and indeed you are descendant of ligurians who in ancient time lived there: Liguri Apuani).
Your dialect has north italian way to speek too. But i don't know, Do you speek with Si impersonale, or with tuscan c, t, p, ?

I remeber a typical feature of Versilia speech (and i don't know if Carrarese o Massese too), famous in televison also thanks to Mario Il Bagnino di Panariello :grin:. "Marianna'n Gane!!":cool-v: "Beatrige ghe dige!" the use of g in some part of the speech, this is a feature present only in that place, and not in the rest of italy.

Salve, Julia

I am from the Lunigiana, north of La Spezia.

Although the things I have read indicate that the line between the northern celtic romance dialects and the more central Italian dialects is generally south of La Spezia, other things I have read say Massa. I'm not a linguist so I don't know. In the Lunigiana, anyway, it's more complicated I think; it depends on geography, and whether Emilia, Liguria or Toscana ruled it and for how long. Where I was born, the dialect is a mixture of all three. (And yes, it has that strange "g" sound. I read somewhere it is also present in Corsica, which makes sense, but I have no idea where it originated.)

My parents were of a generation and a type that valued speaking standard Italian rather than dialect, so they made a point of not speaking to me in dialect. I picked it up outside the home, so I am not a pro by any means. It is very different today. There is a resurgence in dialect there, so much so that in Pontremoli students study in dialect one hour a day, and many towns are changing the road signs naming the towns to dialect. A mistake in my opinion. (And God help the tourists!)

FWIW I don't think genetics exactly mirror language here, and I think the people are generally much more similar to Tuscans than to northerners.

Giulia, I just realized our conversation about language is probably off topic for this thread. If you or an administrator want to move it, that's more than fine with me.

 

[julia90]

From wikipedia (Italian):

Da fonti classiche si apprende che il territorio fu abitato nell'antichità preromana dai Sengauni, detti anche Liguri Montani o Liguri Apuani.
Al tempo della Seconda guerra punica, gli Apuani (che abitavano non solo la Lunigiana, ma anche la Garfagnana e la Versilia) si schierarono con Annibale e restarono fino alla fine gli unici Liguri che non si arresero mai ai Romani, a differenza di tutte le altre tribù che, ad una ad una, capitolarono di fronte all'espansione di quello che sarebbe di lì a poco diventato l'Impero Romano.
Con la deportazione in massa nel Sannio dei circa cinquantamila Apuani che popolavano la regione (evento testimoniato da Tito Livio) si completa il difficile processo di conquista romana del territorio (180 a.C.).

All North-West Tuscany was inhabitated by Ligurians types.


A map of Tuscan Dialects:

apuano Anche se per molti linguisti questa attribuzione del dialetto massese ai dialetti toscani, non ha altre giustificazioni che di ordine geografico, essendo evidente, a un analisi di tipo linguistico, la scarsissime influenze del toscano, salvo nella zona d'immediata frontiera, come la fraz. di Montignoso, dove si può invece parlare di dialetto di transizione tra il toscano di versilia e i dialetti gallo-italici apuani.

As you say your dialect is of Transition From Gallo italic- to Tuscan;
in the area of Versilia instead is definitely tuscan

This is the way they speak in Versilia and also in Lunigiana maybe:
Mario Il Bagnino by Panariello :-D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1665qgcaAU&feature=related

 

[BusyBee]

I've been there twice and loved it! I feel that Rome is a city where I would like to live for a few years...

 

[Cimmerianbloke]

Went to Sardinia, Rimini and lately Torino and Cuneo, which I both recommend, amazing destinations to see another facet of Italy. I'd love to spend a couple of years in Roma, it's an idea maturing in my mind for quite some time. When the german winters will be too hard to bear...

 

[Riccardo]

I've been there twice and loved it! I feel that Rome is a city where I would like to live for a few years...

Went to Sardinia, Rimini and lately Torino and Cuneo, which I both recommend, amazing destinations to see another facet of Italy. I'd love to spend a couple of years in Roma, it's an idea maturing in my mind for quite some time. When the german winters will be too hard to bear...

I'm 22 and it's 22 years living here in Roma! I can't stand the traffic anymore!!! Ahahahah!

 

[Sybilla]

I'm 22 and it's 22 years living here in Roma! I can't stand the traffic anymore!!! Ahahahah!

I love Roma and I consider Latials our closest brothers in Italy.
Ps: Neapolitans then should shot themselves in the head for the traffic.

 

[Ferreiro_]

Yes, I have been to Italy 7 times.
I have visited the following cities:
Rome, in my opinion the most beautiful city in Italy and the second in Europe after Paris.
Turin/Torino, elegant French-style city.
Milan/Milano, modern and bustling city.
Padova, Only I could see it at night.
Bologna, I liked it.
Venice, the second most beautiful city in Italy.
Verona, very intesting, with a lot of monuments.
Trieste, I didn't like. Trieste has a grand square by the sea, but the rest of the city wasn's nice for me. Sorry for trentinos.
Genova, typical coastal city of the Mediterranean sea, it reminded me some cities in Spain and Portugal (Porto). A lot of monuments too. Interesting but a bit shabby.
Florence/Firenze, I was a little disappointed. For me it is inferior to Rome or Venice.
Siena, very nice.
Napoli. This is the city in Italy I least liked, because although it has plenty of historical monuments, the city is in chaos, and is very neglected.
Sorrento. Nice place, totally different of Napoli.
Palermo. Similar to Napoli.
Catania, nice city, more modern and cleaner than Palermo.
Taormina, too tourists.

 

[Riccardo]

I love Roma and I consider Latials our closest brothers in Italy.
Ps: Neapolitans then should shot themselves in the head for the traffic.

Hey, hey, hey! You couldn't offend me more calling me "Latial". Forza Roma!!!! xD =D =D =D

 

[zanipolo]

Yes, I have been to Italy 7 times.
I have visited the following cities:
Rome, in my opinion the most beautiful city in Italy and the second in Europe after Paris.
Turin/Torino, elegant French-style city.
Milan/Milano, modern and bustling city.
Padova, Only I could see it at night.
Bologna, I liked it.
Venice, the second most beautiful city in Italy.
Verona, very intesting, with a lot of monuments.
Trieste, I didn't like. Trieste has a grand square by the sea, but the rest of the city wasn's nice for me. Sorry for trentinos.
Genova, typical coastal city of the Mediterranean sea, it reminded me some cities in Spain and Portugal (Porto). A lot of monuments too. Interesting but a bit shabby.
Florence/Firenze, I was a little disappointed. For me it is inferior to Rome or Venice.
Siena, very nice.
Napoli. This is the city in Italy I least liked, because although it has plenty of historical monuments, the city is in chaos, and is very neglected.
Sorrento. Nice place, totally different of Napoli.
Palermo. Similar to Napoli.
Catania, nice city, more modern and cleaner than Palermo.
Taormina, too tourists.

I agree Paris is better than Rome, but i dislike them both, its because I do not like cities which are over 500000 in population, their character is lost.

BYW trentinos are not from trieste , they are from Trento ( north italy in the alps), people from trieste are called triestini

Also, Cinque Terre is very nice in Liguria as well as Portovenere ( the castle there is used for the man in the iron mask movies)

 

[Vallicanus]

Yes, I have been to Italy 7 times.
I have visited the following cities:
Rome, in my opinion the most beautiful city in Italy and the second in Europe after Paris.
Turin/Torino, elegant French-style city.
Milan/Milano, modern and bustling city.
Padova, Only I could see it at night.
Bologna, I liked it.
Venice, the second most beautiful city in Italy.
Verona, very intesting, with a lot of monuments.
Trieste, I didn't like. Trieste has a grand square by the sea, but the rest of the city wasn's nice for me. Sorry for trentinos.
Genova, typical coastal city of the Mediterranean sea, it reminded me some cities in Spain and Portugal (Porto). A lot of monuments too. Interesting but a bit shabby.
Florence/Firenze, I was a little disappointed. For me it is inferior to Rome or Venice.
Siena, very nice.
Napoli. This is the city in Italy I least liked, because although it has plenty of historical monuments, the city is in chaos, and is very neglected.
Sorrento. Nice place, totally different of Napoli.
Palermo. Similar to Napoli.
Catania, nice city, more modern and cleaner than Palermo.
Taormina, too tourists.

Bergamo (Upper Town) and Mantua are worth seeing too. So is the old town of Bolzano (Bozen in German) which has a beautiful Tyrolean/Austrian feel as do nearby towns like Ortisei and Merano.

I agree that Florence is overrated.

 

[zanipolo]

Bergamo (Upper Town) and Mantua are worth seeing too. So is the old town of Bolzano (Bozen in German) which has a beautiful Tyrolean/Austrian feel as do nearby towns like Ortisei and Merano.

I agree that Florence is overrated.

agree fully

I forgot Bergamo, coming out of the rail station and looking straight up these very wide roads to the upper walled city.

Bassano ( Basan in venetian ) di Grappa is another nice town , with its nice bridge and looking into snow capped alps.

Lucca in north west tuscany is very nice.......make sure you scale the tower, view of the full town is great,...BTW , the only town in Italy where I got lost and I had a map with me as well

 

[Knovas]

Two times, and very nice country

I enjoyed visiting Pompeia!

 

[PaschalisB]

I've been in Rome about a year ago for one day. I would really like to visit again and spend more time there.

 

[Mars]

I've noticed most tour operators arrange Venice-Florence-Rome journeys; other beautiful parts of Italy are often snubbed. Such a pity!
Anyway, I'm from Genoa and most tourist come and visit the Acquario (ok, it's the largest in Europe, but not the most interesting attraction we've got... no way it is...), as others go the Cinque Terre. Every corner is touristically precious although. Damn those tour operators

 

[Auld Reekie]

I love Italy. I left my heart there so I have to go back and claim it, it's probably at the baggage claim in Fiumicino. I've been to Milan, Turin, Verona, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Almalfi/Maiori and Campobasso. My family are from the commune of Ferrazzano of Campobasso, though, I am from NY. Molise has a very interesting history with the Samnites and Lombards. I really hope there will be more studies on Samnite culture. I hear a lot of negative things about Naples and the south generally speaking but I must say that Naples and the people from the mezzogiorno are some of the nicest and beautiful I've met. Naples is a jungle for sure, but it gets a bad rap. I like it's attitude and chaos. I can't say any city is overrated in Italy simply because I come from a small town that has the aesthetic beauty of an abandoned warehouse and charm of a cold sore.