This is a great film which captures the poverty of Italian life in the south (the region of Basilicata I believe) after WWII. The director of the film is Gabriele Salvatores one of Italy's best contemporary directors (in my opinion of course).

Any tumultuous relationship is better in the language of love (italian). Besides, Stefano Accorsi, the male lead, is quite a hunk.

Laura Pausini has been doing quite well recently, especially with her Cds in spanish, but I prefer to hear her songs in the language in which she wrote them. This particular CD is her covers of a bunch of older Italian songs. She does quite a good job.

These two stories are part of a short trilogy called Our Ancesstors (I nostri antenati). The other story is called the Baron in the Trees. In Italian the titles are: Il barone rampante, Il visconte dimezzato, e Il cavaliere inesistente.

This is best Italian-English dictionary that I have come across (esp. for a compact version). My favorite portion of the dictionary is the false friends or amici falsi, words which are very similar in both languages that have completely different meanings. It also contains colloquialisms at the different entries.