20  Twenty-five minute programs
Grade(s):  9 - 12, College
Curriculum:  Foreign Language/Italian

Geared to the beginner, this excellent series gives students a basic but thorough understanding of Italian, while highlighting all the color, music, and flair of Italian life through the use of mini-documentaries.  The programs, which are entirely in Italian, stimulate student interest and comprehension by focusing entirely on colloquial language spoken by Italians in everyday situations-shopping, traveling, dining, working.  While listening to Italian people talk about themselves and their lives, students gain fascinating insights into Italian society, culture, and language. Shot on location, the programs feature some of Italy's most stunning locales, such as Stresa on Lake Maggiore, Orvieto and surrounding towns in Umbria, and southern Tuscany.

Support Materials:
Complete Buongiorno Italia! Kit (6 Audiocassettes, 1 Textbook, 1 Teachers Notes, 1 Teacher's Guide); Text/Workbook; Text/Workbook Answer Key; Textbook; Teacher's Notes; Teacher's Guide; Study Guide

Program Titles & Descriptions:
The first 12 programs include both an instructional element and a documentary section.  The teaching elements of programs 13 - 20 are drawn from the documentaries themselves. The narration is entirely in Italian

1.  Buongiorno!  (24:23)
Content:   How to greet people.  How to ask for something just by naming it and ask if what you're looking for is nearby.  Saying 'thank you'.   (Buongiorno! Buonasera!  Un caffè, per favore, C'è una banca qui vicino? Grazie!)   Documentary: about Stressa, on Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy.

2.  Dov'è?    (24:18)
Content:  How to say 'Escuse me, please...', ask where something is and understand simmple directions.  How to ask people their name and where they're from.  (Scusi, dov'è il/la/l'...?  Il suo nome, per favore?  Di dov'è)   Documentary:  about local hotels and hoteliers.

3.  Quanto costa?   (24:34)
Content:  About buying things, asking the price and how much it all comes to.   Some numbers, quanitities.  (Quanto costa/costano...?  Quant'è?  Mi dà due etti/un chilo di...?)   Documentary:  about a local shopkeeper who makes pasta, and the 'umbrella men' from the villages above Stressa where there's also an umbrella museum.

4.  Buono, buonissimo!   (24:40)
Content:  How to say you like something, like the look of it, the tast of it, or say that it's a bit expensive.  Asking people about what they do for a living and if they like their work.  (Mi piace/piacciono...  E' un po' caro.  Qual è il suo lavoro?  Le piace?)  Documentary: about the fishermen who live on an island on Lake Maggiore.

5.  Rivediamo un po'...   (24:31)
Content:  Some revision and about the number of foreign languages the local people learn to speak.  Documentary:  an elegant end-of-term dinner prepared and served by students of the local hotel school is contrasted by an open-air village fête where there's much country food, music and dancing.

6.  A che ora parte...?   (24:21)
Content:  about travelling, asking about departure and arrival times; asking people about the number of hours they work and when they take their holidays.  (A che ora/parte/arriva?  A che ora/apre/chiude?   A che ora/comincia...?   Quando prende le vacanze?)  Documentary:   a boat trip on Lake Maggiroe to visit the botanical gardens on Isola Madre and the 16th centure Palace and gardens on Isola Bella.

7.  Cosa c'ê da vedere?   (24:37)
Content:  Asling how to get somewhere, what you have to do, and finding out what there is to see when you arrive.  (Per andare a...?  Devo...?  Cosa c'è de vedere?)  Documentary:  about Orvieto, an ancient hill-top town in Umbria, Central Italy, famous for its wine and the lovely 14th century cathedral.

8.  Ha una camera?   (24:03)
Content:  How to ask for a room at a hotel and ask if you can, or are allowed to, do something. (Ha una camera, por favore?/Posso...?)  Documentary:  about the hotels and bars in and around town, and one bar-owner's farm out in the country.

9.  Cos prendiamo?   (24:29)
Content:  About eating out, and ordering a meal for yourself and others.  (Prendo/prendiamo...   Per me...) Documentary:  some of the local specialities you can order, buy in the local shops, and what local farmers make themselves.

10. Rivediamo un po'... (24:26)
Content:  More revision.  About fesitvals and feast days and what happens where and when.  Documentary:  about the procession in mediaeval costume that takes place every year in Orvieto to celebrate Corpus Christi.

11. Ricominciamo   (24:23)
Content:  And some more revision, to remind us of what we've  learn't, done and seen to date.  Documentary:  about a very particular Orvieto craftsman, a carpenter by family tradition.

12. Mi può dare un numero?  (24:32)
Content:  How to ask someone if they can do something for you:  give you a discount, change money, check the oil.... (Mi può fare/dare/cambiare/controllare...?)  Documentary:  about pottery, a craft for which Orvieto is justly famous.

The teaching elements of the following programs are drawn from the documentaries themselves:

13.  Viene fatto così   (24:31)
Most Orvieto wine is produced by samll family concerns with traditions that go back generations.  This program is about how the vineyards are cared for, the grapes harvested and the wine produced, and about how much wine the growers themselves drink in a day!  (L'uva viene raccolta/porata...;  il vino viene lasciato invecchiare, viene imbottigliato/venduto)

14.  Cosa ha fatto?   (24:36)
This program look at just a few of the cooperatives that abound in Orvieto;  a restaurant, a cattle farm, a fishing cooperative, and arhitects's office, a tourist agency and a children's laygroup.  We ask who did what, when. (Quando ha cominciato/fondata...?  Dove ahi studiato/imparato...? Perché sei andato/tornato?)

15.  Sono stato a... (24:29)
For this program, we visited an old people's home, a charitable institution which also owns a tobacco plantation.  In the home, this aim is to create a family atmosphere and to provide the care and attention old people need.   On the plantation, the aim of the farm manager is to produce a good, profitable crop.  He himself doesn't smoke...  (Introducing:  avere bisogno di...; alzarsi, vestirsi, farsi)

16. Rivediamo un po'...   (24:37)
A revision program in which we listen again to some of the people we met and spoke to in the last few programs.  We also meet an elderly lady who makes beautiful lace and the young organist of Orvieto cathedral.  We ask where and when they learnt their art, and disocver what it takes to achiee the best.  (Introducing: ci vuole...)

17. Casa, famiglia e lavoro   (24:36)
Two Orvieto artists are featured in the program:  a painter who work reflects the three years he spent during the wart in Buchenwald, and a classical ballet dancer who runs her own school in the town. 

18. Com'era una volta?   (24:20)
Orvieto is one of the oldest cities in Italy, going back to early Etruscan times (700-500 BC).  The Etruscan buriel sites at the base of the rock on which the city stands and the samll collection in the Museo Faina are fascinating and revealing.  The program also looks at the state of the rock itself, which has been dug and tunnelled into since the earliest times. (Talking about how things used to be:  Gli Etruschi erano/vivvano/conoscevano/facevano...)

19. Parliamo un po'   (24:40)
A tour through typical Etruscan country in Southern Tuscany and Northern Latium takes us to Sorano, Bolsena and Volsinil, and to Civite di Bagnoregio, a tiny cathedral town perched upon a continuously eroding rock, where the permanent residents number 30 and most of them are old age pensioners.

20. E per finire... (24:44)
A final look at places visited and of the people spoken to throughout the series.   Also a trip, via the 12th century town of Baschi and the Tiber Valley, to Todi, one of the lovliest mediaeval towns in the whole of Italy, where the traditional craft is the making of reproduction antique furniture.