It may come as a surprise to you (it shouldn’t), but I am Italian (technically, Italian American). One of my biggest regrets: I can’t speak Italian. Now, my parents speak fluently, but being the last child, I didn’t benefit from them speaking the language at home. By the time I was born, they were mostly speaking English in the home. Now, I can listen to Italian and deduce what is happening, but I can only respond in English. As such, for most of my life, I have had the desire to learn Italian. I love my heritage and read history books on Italy (in the read more section, I will actually share some knowledge I’ve gained about the ol’ boot).
So, when I made the decision to dive deep into learning the language, I quickly came face to face with the sheer amount of time needed to study. The goal is two hours a day, which means, I am severely impacting my writing/reading time during the weekdays. Between painting, learning a language, work, writing, and reading, I am beginning to burn out. As such, I will be maintaining writing/reading as I love it, but I will be (for the first time in 6 years) prioritizing something above reading and writing. The goal, at this point, is to come home from work, study a lesson or two of Italian and then use whatever time I have left to write/read/socialize. I know my output will drop, but I expect that I will be able to maintain 80% of my focus. [Click “Read More” for some knowledge on Italy]
- Italy wasn’t a country until 1871. Prior to this, there were various regions that were always shifting (Papal States, Two Sicilies, Lombardy, ect.) due to conquest by other powers (Spain, France, England, Austria). For example, my family is from the Italian Alps, except 200 years ago the region was technically owned by Austria.
- There really is no such thing as an Italian. We’re basically mutts. Many countries used to come in and hangout (large coastline, easy to conquer) and bang it out. As such, there is no pure Italian genetics.
- The Italian language is actually a dialect from Tuscany. This became “Italian” because writers from that area published regularly. If a Northern spoke with a Southerner in their respective dialects, they would have extreme difficulty (I’ve seen this with my mom who speaks our valley’s dialect).
- Monarch? From what I can tell, there is no sovereign family that could be considered a monarch. I have a whole book on that topic I am reading through. but, I do know there is a family who ended up becoming the ruling family. Most “noble” Italian families were the rich, and they often vied for control of the Catholic church (the Medici had multiple family members who were popes).
- The Medici for example were loaded as they created the banking system for all of Europe. They lived in Florence, which is why I highly suggest going to that city if you visit because they bought a lot of shit.
Either way, the stuff above was taken from my memory so I can’t source it or really say it is 100% correct. Some of it is my implied thought process, I imagine. So take some of them little notes and look them up. The first point is valid, the rest is accurate but could be picked apart by a historian (probably).