New York University's Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò presents a concert of Italian baroque repertoire with three of Italy's most important specialists in early music (with works by Corelli, Veracini, Vivaldi, Tartini). Concert is Monday, November 9, at 6 PM.

La Macchina dei Verbi Italiani (Italian Verb Machine) is a Flash application that allows users to practice Italian verb conjugations, either by tense or by person. The software can be used online or in a downloadable format.

One useful method for studying verbs is to take an excerpt of several paragraphs—print out an article from an Italian newsweekly—and highlight every verb. Then translate each verb and identify the tense. Parse it out—write out the infinitive, look up the word in a dictionary if you don't know it, and be sure to clarify the tense. You will improve your comprehension immeasurably since verbs are the key to the language.

The Maine Institute for Italian Studies (IIS), located in Portland, Maine, teaches courses in Italian language and culture, offers trips to Italy, and sponsors events and workshops in art, opera, and film.

...at least, if I were siciliano I might. The fried rice balls, coated with breadcrumbs and usually filled with prosciutto, mozzarella, and/or peas, resemble small oranges—hence the name arancini (little oranges). Arancini is masculine plural, the singular is arancino (or in Sicilian arancinu). In some parts of Sicily, the feminine plural, arancine, is common.

Recipes for the delicacies include Arancini di Riso, Arancini al Ragu, Arancini al Prosciutto, Arancini ai Gamberetti, and Arancini ai Funghi. Dining Chicago points out that: "...similar croquettes are called palline di riso in Naples. In Rome, rice balls filled with mozzarella are known as suppli al telefono, because when you bite into them, the cheese stretches out like telephone wires."

Otherwise known as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), the "Pope Scope" is a state-of-the-art facility on the summit of southeastern Arizona's Mount Graham that is part of the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical institutes in the world.

Have you read the New Italian Epic? No, it's not a book listed on the Top 20 Italia, but rather a body of literary works written in Italy by various authors starting in 1993 at the end of the Italian First Republic. The term, as proposed by the Wu Ming Foundation, describes a particular type of "metahistorical fiction" and differs from mainstream literature in that it contains elements of social critique intertwined with the structure of the epic (with certain features that are derived from the Italian experience).

It's an exhortation that even many non-Italians recognize: Mangia! Mangia! (Eat! Eat!).There are many other sayings and terms derived from the Italian verb mangiare, though, that might not be as familiar. Some examples include:

mangiacarte: third-rate or small-time lawyer (pejorative)
mangiacassette: cassette player
mangiadischi: portable record player
mangiaformiche: anteater
mangiafumo: air-purifying candle
mangiafuoco: blusterer, braggart, swashbuckler
mangiamoccoli: hypocritically self-righteous person
mangianastri: cassette player
mangiapane: scrounger
mangiapreti: rabid anticlerical
mangiarospi: water-snake
mangiasoldi: slot machine
mangiatrice di uomini: maneater
mangiatutto: big eater

The verb mangiare is also the basis for the character name Mangiafuoco (Fire-Eater), the fictional wealthy director of the Great Marionette Theatre in The Adventures of Pinocchio. There's even a Torre del Mangia (Tower of the Eater), the tower in Siena's Piazza del Campo that's adjacent to the Palazzo Pubblico. The name is derived from its first guardian, Giovanni di Balduccio, who was nicknamed Mangiaguadagni for his tendency to spend all his money for food!

The New York Times, in Building a Bridge of (and to) the Future, uses an analogy involving a stuffed pasta to describe a new bridge-building technique using composite materials.

"Rather than steel or concrete beams, the structure consists of 23 graceful arches of carbon- and glass-fiber fabric. These are 12-inch-diameter tubes that have been inflated, bent to the proper shape and stiffened with a plastic resin, then installed side by side and stuffed with concrete, like giant manicotti."

Makes you wonder what kind of sauce is used!

Extreme Language Exchange is "...a language exchange that brings together native English speakers, native Italian speakers, and just enough beer to make it less intimidating to practice a foreign language." Participants engage in one-on-one 10-minute conversations in English and Italian, and then switch to a new partner. The speed-learning takes place weekly at a bar in Trastevere, Rome.