Social "International Interview" Thread--All Are Welcome!

The 18th century is my favorite actually, especially French history, revolutions and revolutionary wars.

Some of the most important literary works were written by playwright Marin Držić and poet Marko Marulić, but they lived in 15th/16th century. However, I'd pick Ruđer Bošković, physicist, philosopher and diplomat from Dubrovnik. He made some significant discoveries in astronomy and worked for the French navy, among other things.

 

I like the French revolutionary period as well, Eves (though it's been a while since I studied it in any detail).

Thanks for those names of Croatian cultural figures. I will definitely look them up when I get the chance!

 

Did I volunteer for this magic? Sign me up.

 

Great! Welcome, DanielUK !...consider yourself added to the roster

 

Evening Star these photographs you have are so lovely! It makes me very much want to visit your country. Are there many ruins in your country and ruins from a people other than the Roman Empire? Ruins and old castles have always been something that I love and it is fascinating to step into a place that another person has used so many years and years ago!

 

I love old ruins too, Roman or otherwise.

 

Thank you. No, most of other ruins and castles belonged to Croatian noble families. There are a few Venetian castles (in Dalmatia) and Austrian fortifications but they are not too attractive.

 

Hello everyone! Just a little thread update...we will soon be starting the next "round" with our next interviewee:

@panta1978 from Italy!


So panta, look for a PM from me in the next day or so with your questions, and everyone else--stay tuned!

 

That's great. I have to say I'll be on vacation starting from Sunday. I'll be having a trip in Ireland but I think I can find the time to log in to the forum fr9m time to time

By the way, I'm also being interviewed in an EUC thread...

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

 

Ok, one more announcement:

Since both panta1978 and I will soon be mostly away from the boards for a bit, we've both agreed that it would work well for this thread to also take a little summer vacation...







Of course anyone is welcome to discuss past posts during this hiatus, but our regular series of interviews will resume (with panta1978 from Italy) sometime during the week of August 15th!

See you all then!

 

Yes, that's right...this thread is back from summer vacation!


panta1978 from Italy has received his questions and will be posting his responses here shortly...so stay tuned everyone!

 

Hi Pensivia, yes I'm back! An I'm ready to answer to your questions.



1) With the Olympics going on right now, a sports-related question seems in order. Tell us a little about any Italian Olympic athletes you may be following now...or, if you're not following the Olympics, tell us something about what the "sports culture" in Italy is like (for one or more particular sports). For example: Particular "fan traditions" for certain sports/teams? Interesting team names/mascots/logos? etc.

I start with the premise that I love Olympic Games! I love the fact that they give minor sports a chance to be watched by an audience they would never reach otherwise. However, I'm particularly interested in following the sports I like the most, i.e. basketball, football (soccer), and road cycling.
Unfortunately, since both basketball and football Italian teams did not make the Olympic Games, I focused on road cycling, a competition where some Italian athletes are usually supposed to do well. And Vincenzo Nibali aka "Lo squalo" (it means: the shark) was really doing very well. He was leading the race and had a good chance to get the gold medal. Unfortunately, when only a few kilometres was left, he fell off his bike and not only was he forced to retire but he also sustained some bad injuries. He broke a shoulder and will be forced to rest for the rest of the season. It was a shocking moment, his face was covered in tears, too bad!

OK, now let's talk about Italian "sport culture". In my home town (Bologna) we have two basketball teams, Virtus Bologna and Fortitudo Bologna. In the 90s / early 2000s or the "golden age" of our town's basketball the rivalry was beyond belief. Now both team are struggling and have been relegated to the Second Division, but this is a sad story, let's come back to the good old days!
Virtus (the team I pull for) had always been a great squad, but with a generation of outstanding players such as Danilovic, Nesterovic, Manu Ginobili etc it flourished and probably became one of the all time greatest European teams.
On the other hand, Fortitudo (the team I despise ) had always been an underdog, but in the late 90s it became a great team as well and were able to compete against the best Italian and European teams.
The "Derby" (Virtus vs. Fortitudo) was an event that made Bologna stop. Three days before the match everybody was talking about nothing but "the event". In 1998 the tension peaked when for the first time Virtus-Fortitudo was the final of the Italian championship. It is no exaggeration to say that during the decisive Game5 (the series was tied at 2-2 an whoever would win would get the title and even more rewardingly the possibility to mock the other side for at least 12 months) a city with a population of 400,000 turned into a ghost town; but suddenly it became frantic when at the end of the first extra-time Virtus completed a great comeback and destroyed the dream of their "cousins".



2) Some years ago, an American friend of mine (who lived in Italy for an extended period, and married an Italian woman) told me that it's fairly common in Italy for married adults to live with or in very close proximity to their parents. Is this (still) true and, if so, what more can you tell us about this aspect of Italian family life?

I do confirm that's often the case, especially if you live in a big town in the North of Italy. We find it "convenient", that's it. I myself live in the same condominium as my father.
On the other hand, many young Southerners are forced to migrate due to the lack of job opportunities in Southern Italy and go north or abroad. But they tend to go back to their home towns as often as possible to visit their families and their old friends.



3) What are a couple of places in Italy that you particularly enjoy visiting and why? (Especially ones that might be less likely to be widely known to tourists!)

OK, so I won't talk about Rome, Florence, and Venice... Good question! Maybe I'm biased, or maybe I'm not, after all I'm widely travelled, but I have to say that the density of interesting places you can find in Italy is probably something hard to find elsewhere. So it's not easy to choose, but let's try.

My first pick is Dolomites, the beautiful mountains you can find in North-Eastern Italy. I don't know if that's something you've already heard of, they're very popular in Italy and to an extent also in the rest of Europe, I suppose. However, I'm talking about some of the most breath-taking landscapes I've ever seen. They're great during the summer, as you can enjoy hiking the mountains and escape the scorching weather of Italian towns and overcrowded beaches (By the way, hopefully I'll be there at the end of August for a final 3-day vacation!). But they're said to be even better during the winter, when you can choose between an awful lot of ski resorts and slopes. Unfortunately I can't ski


Moving South and leaving the beaten path I would recommend Umbria, a quaint region you can find near Tuscany. It is full of picturesque little towns, beautiful landscapes, old churches, castles, and monuments. A place to live and discover slowly, perhaps staying in some "agriturismo", a kind of accommoation somehow similar to what you would call "Bed&Breakfast". Best places to visit in Umbria? Assisi, the home town of Saint Francis, then Orvieto, Perugia, Norcia, Gubbio, Spoleto, Todi, Spello, the Marmora Falls...

Sunset in Assisi

 

Thanks for those interesting answers and beautiful pics, panta! There's a lot to comment on in your responses, so this won't be my only reply post.

I'm a lifelong Olympics fan myself. It's probably not a surprise given my interest in hosting this thread that the international aspect was a big draw for me (going back to my childhood days)! Though unfortunately, I haven't had as much time to keep up with this year's games as I would like.

Anyway, I like road cycling as well, though I'm not a cyclist myself and I really only watch it when it's time for the Olympics or the Tour de France. I used to be a pretty big fan of the Tour during the Lance Armstrong days (even though I didn't really care for Armstrong that much personally). I watched hours and hours of coverage during a lot of those years. Unfortunately, when the Armstrong cheating scandal broke, I became kind of disillusioned with the Tour, etc. and haven't watched a lot of it since, though I still watch Olympic cycling if it's on when I have time to watch. Do you know what the current status of the blood doping/cheating problem is in professional cycling? I know they have made a lot of efforts over the years to "clean up" the sport, so hopefully it's made a difference.

I like Nibali's nickname "Lo squalo" ! That is too bad about his crash. It's amazing to think of how hard so many athletes work to get to the Olympics and then it can all be over for them in a second. I remember seeing some similar big "crashes" (both single and multi-rider) in my days of watching cycling!

As I said, I'll have more comments on other parts of your responses coming up...

Also, in case anyone reading panta's interview here is interested, he was also recently interviewed in the EUC forum area. You can read the questions and his answers in that thread starting with this post:
#774

 

I think they somehow cracked down on the problem. After all, feats such as those made by Lance Armstrong in the 2000s or Marco Pantani in the 90s appear to be out of reach for today's cyclists. But even so, today's cycling isn't 100% doping-free and it will probably never be. Some cyclists are still caught red-handed from time to time.

 

panta1978 ,the basketball culture you described sounds like a lot of fun! I like to follow the (American) football team of a university I attended some years ago and I have fond memories of attending home games there when I was a student, especially the ones against our two "most-hated" in-state rivals! Those kinds of sports rivalries can be so much fun...or alternatively, when your team loses, it can feel like your heart got ripped out

Do the local basketball teams there have "mascots"? And if so, what are they? And do they have someone at the games who dresses up in a costume representing the mascot?

And I'm guessing the team names ("Virtus" and "Fortitudo") roughly translate as referring to the qualities of "virtue" and "fortitude"? (yay for all the Latinate words we have in English!) What do their team "logos" look like (can you link to a web pic of one?)

 

It's really funny indeed! I think it's quite different from American college basketball, but equally enjoyable... at least when you win as you said
For instance, one difference is the fact that we don't have mascots. It's not part of our sport culture. We used to have one (a kind of rabbit, if I can remember) but it didn't last, it didn't fit the way we live the sport. Because in Europe, choreographies are usually organised by die hard fans (we usually call them "ultras"). They create banners and other stuff.
One of the funniest ones was during a derby when Fortitudo (yep, the other side) supporters created a huge pink V... with their arses! Yes, they took off their trousers and showed off pink panties or... well someone took off their panties too! There are some pictures on the web, but I'm not sure I can post them here...

You're correct. Virtus and Fortitudo respectively mean virtue (but also honour, I think) and fortitude.

And now the two logos.

VIRTUS. "La Vu nera" (The black V). Very simple, but nice. One note. The golden star was added in 1984, after Virtus won their 10th national title. It's a well established tradition in European sport to add a golden star every 10 titles. For instance, Juventus Football Club have won 31 titles and consequently have 3 stars (good for them).


FORTITUDO. "L'aquila" (The Eagle). No stars. They only won 2 titles, and it's still 2 more than I'd have wished

 

^ That is hilarious, panta...definitely sounds like some similar fan "pranks" that are common in American sport culture as well



Those logos are cool, too...thanks for posting them!

 

(Excuse the double post.)

Yeah, those pics are really lovely, panta1978. My only experience with the Dolomites was riding through (or maybe just near?) them on a train from Innsbruck, Austria to Venice. It was an overnight train, but massively over-crowded due to a train strike the previous day that had delayed departure by a number of hours. There were no sleeping cars left, so my husband and I were basically sort of in an aisle area, sitting on our luggage...Anyway, I will never forget seeing the sunrise set off the mountains that morning...so lovely! Definitely one of those little travel "moments" that has stayed with me, even though that trip was nearly 20 years ago now!

I've not been to Umbria (yet!), but one of the first things I would like to see there would be the St. Francis paintings located in the Upper Church of the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi.

My two fave paintings from that cycle are:






IIRC, there was an earthquake a while back near Assisi that may have damaged some of the paintings...Speaking of earthquakes--very sad news about the one earlier today. I just read that the confirmed death toll is already up to 73.

 

I think that if you travelled from Innsbruck (BTW very nice city!) to Venice (absolutely nice, it goes without sayin...) you passed through the Dolomites.

And speaking of the earthquake. Horrific what happened this morning! Only 250 km from where I live, give or take. I didn't feel it, but some people told me they did it here in Bologna too. By the way, it was a 6.2 magnitude earthquake, quite severe but not extreme. Unfortunately the centre of Italy is all about quaint towns with old buildings not designed to resist these events. Had it happened in Japan it would have caused almost no damage at all, I think...

The way the death toll skyrockets is excruciating. When I woke up this morning they were talking about a few people missing (I had a feeling we couldn't have been that lucky), then 5 deaths confirmed, then 10, 24 etc.

And yes, the 1997 one destroyed the frescoes in the St Francis Basilica, but they have been restored almost perfectly. This time the earthquake was far from Assisi, between the south of Umbria and the north of Lazio. It seems there are no damages to meaningful monuments. But hey, people died because of it, so sad.

 

Just saw some video from some of the most affected areas...really tragic.

 

Well, I'm not sure how many folks are reading this thread, but apologies for the delay for those that are. I've been extremely busy for the last couple of weeks...DRL is "relentless" as I think we all know, lol.

Anyhoo...it's time to start the next interview round! Our next interviewee will be El Jedi Colombiano from...well, COLOMBIA, of course!

panta1978 contributed the questions, so EJC will be posting them here with his answers soon!

Stay Tuned!

Also...Skiara: I know technically you were the next in the order of interviewees (before EJC on the first page), but back when I was asking panta for questions for the next interviewee, you were still on "reduced time" away from the boards...I believe you have posted recently that you're back to "normal time" here, so if that's the case, I will have you be the next interviewee after El Jedi's round. If you need more time and want me to skip you again and come back to you later, just PM me. Thanks!

 

Hey everyone, sorry for falling off the radar, DRL has been quite nasty to me too.

I hope it's okay for me to ask a few extra questions to panta1978 until El Jedi Colombiano posts his first round of answers

Panta, can you please let us know what's going on in the earthquake-affected area, as our news outlets don't report on it anymore?

On a happier note, one of my most memorable experiences in Italy was FOOD -- okay, I like good food in general, so I tend to ask a lot of questions about that, and food in Italy is simply epic Can you tell us about a few specialties from your area that we're not likely to know about?