La Bella Lingua

My Love Affair with Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language

By: Dianne Hales

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

"Italians say that someone who acquires a new language 'possesses' it. In my case, Italian possesses me. With Italian racing like blood through my veins, I do indeed see with different eyes, hear with different ears, and drink in the world with all my senses...."

A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman's personal quest to speak fluent Italian.

For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with "the world's most loved and lovable language" together with explorations of Italy's history, literature, art, music, movies, lifestyle, and food in a true opera amorosa - a labor of her love of Italy.

Throughout her first excursion in Italy - with "non parlo Italiano" as her only Italian phrase - Dianne delighted in the beauty of what she saw but craved comprehension of what she heard. And so she chose to inhabit the language. Over more than 25 years she has studied Italian in every way possible: through Berlitz, books, CDs, podcasts, private tutorials and conversation groups, and, most importantly, large blocks of time in Italy. In the process she found that Italian became not just a passion and a pleasure but a passport into Italy's storia and its very soul.

She offers charming insights into what makes Italian the most emotionally expressive of languages, from how the "pronto" ("ready!") Italians say when they answer the telephone conveys a sense of something coming alive to how even ordinary things such as a towel (asciugamano) or handkerchief (fazzoletto) sound better in Italian. She invites readers to join her as she traces the evolution of Italian in the zesty graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, in Dante's incandescent cantos, and in Boccaccio's bawdy Decameron. She portrays how social graces remain woven into the fabric of Italian: Even the chipper "ciao", which does double duty as "hi" and "bye", reflects centuries of bella figura. And she exalts the glories of Italy's food and its rich and often uproarious gastronomic language: Italians deftly describe someone uptight as a baccala (dried cod), a busybody who noses into everything as a prezzemolo (parsley), a worthless or banal movie as a polpettone (large meatball).

Like Dianne, listeners of La Bella Lingua will find themselves innamorata, enchanted, by Italian, fascinated by its saga, tantalized by its adventures, addicted to its sound, and ever eager to spend more time in its company.

©2009 Dianne Hales (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

My new best friend

I ADORED every minute of this book! I feel like I have a new best friend - who is witty, well spoken and well travelled, likes the same things I do, holds secrets well, is polite but can tell a hilariously naughty story as needed. I learned about the origins of the language, some history, literary figures, things I slept through in school... this is a fun, informative, book about Italy, Italians, and ITALIAN. GET IT on Audible, and get to know your new best friend - you will love her!

Good material, pretentious reading

So sad that this book was not narrated by a truly bilingual English/Italian speaker. It is beyond annoying to listen to this overly dramatic and painstaking attempt at pronouncing Italian words by a non-Italian speaker. The content of the book is interesting, with engaging anecdotes about Italy's history and personalities, but it's difficult to get past the narrator's elevated tone, as if she were on the Shakespearean stage rather than reading little bits about Italy and its language.

I loved it!!

I enjoyed this books that I finished in less than 4 days. It is very informative and full of interesting and funny stories!!

Not only language

This book is full of history and culture as well as a complete investigation of the language in history, film and dialects.

A gift to lovers of all things Italian.

I loved every minute of this fantastic book.
I only wish it wouldn’t end. Grateful.