Famous Italian: Fiorello

Rosario Tindaro Fiorello (born 16 May 1960), also known just as Fiorello, is an Italian singer and also a radio and television presenter.

Fiorello was born in Augusta, Sicily. He began his career working in tourist villages, first as a barman, and then as an entertainer. Near the end of the 1980s, Fiorello met Claudio Cecchetto, a talent-scout. Soon afterwards, Fiorello began hosting the show "Viva Radio Deejay".


Having become popular through the TV show Karaoke, Fiorello went on to host various different TV shows. Soon after, he endured a period of drug problems that kept him away from the world of TV. However, he returned to show business and television in the 1990s, displaying great abilities as a showman, first in the Mediaset networks, then with RAI in 2001, 2002, and 2004 with Stasera Pago Io.

Since 2002, Fiorello has hosted the radio broadcast Viva Radio 2 together with Marco Baldini, Francesco Bozzi and Enrico Cremonesi, during which Fiorello shows off his skills as a singer, mimic and entertainer. In the summer of 2005, a CD was published that collected the best of his radio career. The CD's high points include: the imitation of Mike Bongiorno and the Forgetful of Cologno (Berlusconi). The CD also includes imitations of Andrea Camilleri, Antonio Cassano, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Gianni Minà, Franco Califano, Carla Bruni, Oliviero Toscani, Marina Flaibani from Onda Verde, Nanni Moretti, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, Ignazio La Russa, the prince Albert of Monaco, Monica Bellucci and her husband Vincent Cassel.

Fiorello's skills as a vocalist have brought him to the cinema as well. He has participated in such varied roles as: a dubber in cartoons (most recently Garfield), to an appearance in the film The Talented Mr. Ripley, in which he portrays Renato Carosone.

His younger brother Giuseppe Fiorello is an actor.

Fiorello's most famous imitations include Mike Bongiorno, and that of Silvio Berlusconi as a character called Smemorato di Cologno who, in the parody, loses his memory every time something related to communism is mentioned. Smemorato di Cologno is a pun on the main character of the Italian comedy 'Lo smemorato di Collegno', Cologno being instead the headquarters of Berlusconi's well-known media company.

Find out more about Fiorello at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosario_Fiorello

Italian for homeschoolers

FREE Homeschoolers Kit now available to download. Learning Italian has never been so easy. All the answers to the exercises can be found in your copy of ITALIAN FOR TOURISTS: POCKET EDITION!

Italian for tourists: Pocket Edition is available to buy from lulu.com Now also available on www.amazon.com and other online bookstores!

Italian For Tourists is a basic guide to the Italian language covering phrases and words most needed by tourists. It includes all the words and phrases a tourist is likely to need during their stay in Italy as well as a pronunciation guide and a map of Italy. It is divided into 17 sections to help you find what you are looking for in the shortest possible time.

ISBN: 978-1-4092-7826-9

Map of Italy

Planning on taking a trip to Italy? A lot of different cities can be easily visited during a short trip. In just a couple of hours you can get from Rome to Naples on a train or Milan to Florence. Take a look at the map below and start thinking about which places you'd like to visit.

Famous Italian: Maria De Filippi

Maria De Filippi (born 5 December 1961) is an Italian television host.

De Filippi was born in Milan, Lombardy, but grew up in Pavia where her family transferred when she was ten years old. She is married to talk show host Maurizio Costanzo with whom she has an adopted son.

She has hosted numerous talk shows broadcast by Mediaset's Canale 5 such as Uomini and donne and C'e posta per te. From 1993 until the present day (December 2009), she has hosted on Canale 5 the talent show Amici, which changed its name in 2002 to Amici di Maria De Filippi. Similar to the American series Fame, it features a school with two groups of aspiring young singers and dancers who compete against the other, performing live before an audience, and a panel of judges and instructors. Albanian-born dancer Kledi Kadiu is a regular performer on the programme.

She has won numerous awards over the years for her programmes and is one of Italy's most well known presenters.

Travel Guide to Rome, Italy

A nice video that gives some interesting facts and history about Rome. Great if your planning a trip and want some ideas of places to visit during your stay.

Famous Italian: Francesco Totti

This weeks famous Italian is Francesco Totti, one of the most loved figures in Rome. Excellent football player and also a popular personality for adverts and sponsorship deals on a National and International level. He is also spokesman for UNICEF.



Francesco Totti, Cavaliere Ufficiale OMRI, (born 27 September 1976 in Rome) is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who is the current captain of Serie A club Roma. His position is that of a striker or an attacking midfielder, though he is best known for playing as a second striker. He has spent his entire career at Roma, is the number-one goalscorer and the most capped player in the club's history. He is considered to be Roma's greatest player of all time. "Er Pupone," as he is commonly nicknamed, is universally considered as one of the greatest players of his generation and in the annals of European football.



Totti won several awards in Italy during his career including a record 5 times Italian Footballer of the Year and 2 times Serie A Footballer of the Year. He was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

Totti is currently the top active Serie A goalscorer, and eighth all-time in league history with 187 goals.

Retirement:
Totti intended to retire from the Azzurri after the end of the World Cup, but reneged on his decision and remained undecided on his future for over a year, and was never called up in the meantime. He made his retirement official on 20 July 2007, at the beginning of the 2007–08 Serie A season in order to focus solely on club play with Roma. Italy coach at that time Roberto Donadoni's attempts to get Totti to change his mind for the remaining Euro 2008 qualifiers proved futile. After the national team reunioned with Lippi, Totti announced that he would like to play in the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa if he gets called up.

You can find out more about Totti by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Totti

FRATELLI D'ITALIA

The complete National Anthem of Italy accompanied with images of the Italian flag.