Now I write here about everything that sparks joy (to steal a line from Marie Kondo, my letter to her over on the right side of this blog, notwithstanding).
Yet Italian pleasures remain paramount, especially now that my beloved adopted country is suffering so much on account of COVID-19.
One small joy in these dark days has been listening to *Prima Pagina*, a RAI radio program where – I kid you not – a journalist reads and discusses the front pages (= prima pagina) of all of the major Italian newspapers.
Each week, a different journalist is asked to read through the Italian papers aloud, commenting on each article he or she finds on the front page. Commenting, but not commentating. The journalist is presenting the news, at times pointing out relevant facts or dates, but not giving an opinion on anything beyond noting, say, that a particular subject is covered by each paper or covered in different ways by the various pubs.
I imagine Italian housewives listen to it, but it would appeal to anyone who wanted to follow the news without sitting down to read the newspaper -- or really, every major paper in the country!
I suppose for a news junkie/news industry professional like me, it's an obvious draw. But I think it would benefit students of Italian because the program deals heavily with the headlines, which are short combinations of words that, if you wanted, you could even find online. Meaning, you could read along as the journalist of the week reads, reinforcing comprehension.
To be sure, it would be difficult for elementary students so this suggestion is geared toward intermediate and advanced Italian language learners. You need to have a solid vocabulary to follow along, just as you do when you read most English-language newspapers (children don't typically read the newspaper).
But the topics would typically be familiar to any living, breathing, thinking person. Especially now -- if you study Italian and you hear the journalist repeat "coronavirus" over and over, well, the story is about this awful pandemic we all know about.
I listen to RAI Radio a lot, especially when I have a long commute. Another program I love is Il Libro del Giorno, hosted by Loredana Lipperini. Literally: the book of the day. Lipperini (an author, herself, whom I actually had the thrill of briefly interviewing once at Il Salone del Libro) interviews an author of a book that's just been published. It's a nice 30-minute, 40-minute interview that gives the author a lot of time to ponder the questions, answer fully, elaborate on plot points, etc. And she invites authors from the big publishing houses and the small ones. And there's no Charlie Rose treatment, wherein a host might talk on and on for his own self-aggrandizement, without letting an author get a word in edgewise.
The show is part of a larger block of cultural programming, courtesy of RAI Radio 3, that's called Fahrenheit.
Earlier in this post, I said 'I kid you not,' and I guess it's because there's something almost nineteenth-century about listening to the radio so you can hear someone page through the newspaper recounting the stories he or she finds there. Like your grandma, of an evening, huddling close to the radio during the War, say, along with the whole family.
But simple pleasures are almost always the best. We are living through an unusual time so let's take joy where we can find it. And if you want to improve your Italian, tune into "Prima Pagina."
You can find current and older editions of the program here:
https://www.raiplayradio.it/programmi/primapagina/archivio/puntate/
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