Ciao gruppo, you're going to love today's. Ch-ch-ch-check it!

Uberto -

Uberto is a bizarre character. He was born in 1951 in Alexandria, Egypt. He is Italian, though, and was born in Alexandria because his grandfather, the last King of Italy, was exiled when Italy became a republic. He now lives just outside of Rome in a beautiful villa next to the Egyptian embassy. In his work, Uberto raises purebred Neapolitan mastiffs for dog shows and is a photographer on the cutting edge of art in the field of photography. He says that the subject matter of his shots is usually characterized by the two things he loves best, big Neapolitan mastiffs and gorgeous women. When we talked, Uberto said that he had 55 dogs, mostly mastiffs living on his property. We met a few of the dogs, but Uberto hasn’t named them all yet, and so it became hard to tell them apart. When asked what his favorite thing to do in the world is, he said he loves to wear a fez while sitting on a chair.

re - king

mastino - mastiff

Gabriele –

We met Gabriele working at a little bookshop called Fahrenheit 451. He has been working at this bookshop for the past 7 years. He is quite the literary aficionado, giving us much insight into the Italian literature scene. We asked him what his favorite author is, and he answered Calvino. We knew Calvino from reading his Invisible Cities earlier this quarter, and we compared notes about our perceptions of the book. It is a small world after all. He loves the book Invisible Cities because it is very complex, beautiful and dreary at the same time. Gabriele doesn’t have a preference between Italian and other authors with different nationalities, he just likes good books. When asked about film adaptations, he says he has no preference because books and films are so different that he can’t make a decision between two of the same subject. Finally we asked him about the name of the shop, whether it was the owner's favorite book or something. We were wrong, it is actually an analogy to Giordano Bruno who was burned as a "martyr for science" at the stake in the Campo de’ Fiori (where the shop is also located) because the book Fahrenheit 451 is about the burning of books because those in power don’t trust the ideas that books provide.

traduttore – translator
libro – book
autore - author