Book Description
CIAO!, Sixth Edition continues to emphasize practical, communicative use of Italian, while teaching the four language skills and providing an enhanced introduction to Italian life and culture. The new edition is distinguished by greater coherence in the grammatical presentation, a more pervasive emphasis upon cultural realities, lexical streamlining, thorough updating, and more consistent support for the instructor through marginal annotations. With thematically based chapters that focus on the vibrant life of modern Italy and the country's rich cultural heritage, CIAO! provides the proven approach-known for its outstanding, easy-to-follow grammar presentation-and superior resources that students need to communicate in Italian with confidence and understanding. The book features a strong focus on spoken proficiency and cultural awareness, all woven into a dynamic presentation that makes it easy and fun to learn Italian.
Customer Reviews:
great quality.......2007-09-21
Book is in pristine condition BUT, didn't come with book code for the online Quia workbook.
Ciao.......2006-03-22
Unfortunately the CD does not seem to follow the text. Presentations on the CD are very limited and do not provide good practice for students. The Berlitz CDs are much better.
The book is very expensive for a language text. In updating the text through sequential editions, the authors have added very little to the topic, but have changed the pagination sufficiently to make it necessary for students to buy the latest edition. Thus increasing the cost for students without any significant improvements in the material.
In some places there are vignettes in Italian with no translation provided. Since some of the expressions are not in the vocabulary, this makes it difficult to understand, for example "Informazioni", page 86 in the 5th edition.
Good accompaniment for the textbook!.......2000-08-29
This lab manual is a great accompaniment for the textbook "Ciao"! I found that the exercises are very helpful. They emphasise the grammatical points made in the textbook very well. The only problem with it is that if you use it to teach yourself, and are not in a classroom situation, you can only do half of the exersises, as no tape or CD is included for the laboratory half of the book. I think it is still worth buying, inspite of this flaw!
What a help!.......2000-06-01
This workbook as tremendously helpful in supplementing the work from the textbook and classroom exercises. It brought together all the activities and lessons as an additional reinforcement. I would definitely recommend purchasing this workbook/lab manual.
Book Description
Enjoy a tour of Italy through a child's scrapbook. Whether you are planning to travel abroad with your children or simply to expose them to foreign countries, Ciao Bambino! will provide a starting point. Your children will discover differences and similarities between Italy and home, while sharing a young boy's vacation to Italy with his bear companion. Bonus, you may learn a few Italian words and novelties on the adventure. For more information on traveling abroad with small children, please visit www.ciaobambino.com or call 1-866-802-0300.
Customer Reviews:
Is this really Italy?.......2007-01-29
I don't know if I was more disappointed or angered at this little insignificant but dangerous book. The contents has very little to do with what children, who travel to Italy, will ever encounter. What I find it does is continue the negative strereotyping of the Italians. Really! No one stomps on grapes and a child who will visit a farm in Italy will hardly see such outdated stereotypical occurrences. Can food be the only thing one would like of Italy? Of course, since the book failed to explain what other things of wonder a child might see. I bought this for my grandchildren, as sadly there are very few book on Italy with some italian words. I returned the book because I would NEVER introduce Italy to my grandchildren this way. A very expensive book that perpatuates outdated images. Poor job.
Charming!.......2006-02-23
What a wonderful introduction for young children to the Italian culture and language -- not to mention the notion of international travel in general! My daughter (4 yrs old at the time of purchase) loved it - particularly the opportunity to learn the Italian words. For a fairly short book (which I think is a good thing for young children) there are actually quite a few Italian vocabulary words presented in a fun, engaging way. The illustrations are charming and sweet.
Review from Buyer.......2006-02-10
I am an American of Italian descent and proud of my heritage. I purchased Ciao Bambino! to read to my grandchildren, Gianna and Dante. It's an excellent introduction to simple Italian words. Nicki"
Date: 7/21/2005 Rated by Buyer: nicki_filipponi
Ciao Bambino.......2005-11-29
We were so disappointed with this book that we returned it. For the price, it's a very thin book - only 30 pages. For preparing a child for a trip to Italy, the illustrations were especially disppointing. Only a few offered images of what might be seen in Italy. Most of the others were generic illustrations that could have been set anywhere, such as a child and his stuffed bear eating a pizza, the circle of a flashlight beam on the pavement.
Have child will travel!.......2004-11-24
What a refreshing idea in children's books! Parents of small children now have a resource to prepare their child for travel, which will help the little vacationer better connect with and understand where they are headed. The beautifull watercolor illustrations add to this highly engaging story as the child learns about the Italian language recognizing, colors, numbers and common speach. Included at the end of the book is a glossary of all the new words for both child and parent reference. If you are headed out on a family vacation, or have friends taking off, this little book is a great traveller. I still read it to my three year old at bedtime. Hopefully there will be more books from Danna Troncatty Leahy in the future.
Book Description
Sharpen your ear for spoken Italian, practice listening and speaking Italian in real-life situations, and expand your understanding of Italian culture with this practical Italian workbook and lab manual to accompany your CIAO! textbook. Filled with vocabulary-expansion activities, grammatical exercises, and illustration- and realia-based activities, this workbook/lab manual gives you the practice you need to succeed.
Customer Reviews:
Workbook/Lab Manual for Ciao! .......2007-01-15
Book was exactly as described! Shipped very fast! I would do business again!
Book Description
In the wry but affectionate tradition of Bill Bryson, Ciao, America! is a delightful look at America through the eyes of a fiercely funny guest — one of Italy’s favorite authors who spent a year in Washington, D.C.
When Beppe Severgnini and his wife rented a creaky house in Georgetown they were determined to see if they could adapt to a full four seasons in a country obsessed with ice cubes, air-conditioning, recliner chairs, and, of all things, after-dinner cappuccinos. From their first encounters with cryptic rental listings to their back-to-Europe yard sale twelve months later, Beppe explores this foreign land with the self-described patience of a mildly inappropriate beachcomber, holding up a mirror to America’s signature manners and mores. Succumbing to his surroundings day by day, he and his wife find themselves developing a taste for Klondike bars and Samuel Adams beer, and even that most peculiar of American institutions -- the pancake house.
The realtor who waves a perfect bye-bye, the overzealous mattress salesman who bounces from bed to bed, and the plumber named Marx who deals in illegally powerful showerheads are just a few of the better-than-fiction characters the Severgninis encounter while foraging for clues to the real America. A trip to the computer store proves just as revealing as D.C.’s Fourth of July celebration, as do boisterous waiters angling for tips and no-parking signs crammed with a dozen lines of fine print.
By the end of his visit, Severgnini has come to grips with life in these United States -- and written a charming, laugh-out-loud tribute.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful but flawed.......2007-08-26
We are not often shown what our culture looks like through the eyes of a foreigner. American culture is so prevalent these days that most people around the world try to imitate it. Almost anywhere you go, you will find a McDonald's or Pizza Hut, sometimes both. That's why I found this book to be a rare treat.
Severgnini lives in DC for a year, and writes about a lot of things that Americans take for granted being completely foreign to him. For example, buying a car from a dealership or getting his utility service turned on. It's through analysis of these seemingly mundane details of our everyday lives that he shows us how different life is for someone who is not from here. I was an immigrant as well, and a lot of what Severgnini says is very true.
This book would have gotten a higher rating from me, but I found that the tone and "Hey, this American custom is so strange!" refrain got repetitive after a while. Still, it is a worthwhile read to show us how good (or not) we Americans have it.
Boring book.......2007-07-03
Ciao America! is Beppe Severgnini's follow-up book to Ciao Italia!
He should have quit while he was ahead. Ciao America is supposed to be a witty account of Severgnini's year spent in America. However, it's not funny, nor is it witty. The book is composed mostly of the author's day to day experiences of living in America and his wry observations of those experiences. The problem is that the book is as mundane as the author's year in America. It's not funny, it''s not witty, it's not interesting and it's not worth reading.
See America through Italian eyes.......2007-05-01
This book was a simple, humorous De Tocqueville'esque view of America. Severgnini writes about his family's year long stay in Washington and his observations of American society, particulary in Washington. Seeing your own country from a foreigner's is impossible to do on your own, but literature like this almost lets us. It's hard at times to tell how much of Beppe's views are typically Italian or just his own idiosyncratic ways. Surprisingly there's no anti-American ranting or critiques of foreign policy in this light-hearted book.
His views on most things are right on. However, I guess that his views on the American "obsession" with Spam were based on random contacts or something, b/c I don't think too many Americans regularly eat Spam. As an international correspondent it was kind of weird listening to him get "suckered" e.g. paying sticker price for a used Ford Taurus or his difficulties with getting a mattress.
As it was written more than 10 years ago, there are some dates observations. At the end he returns 5 years after his year in the US. While it's hard to believe America really changed all that much in 5 years, he does make all too many notes about America in the 3rd Millenium that seem all too true.
This book is a very quick read and I highly recommend it for anyone curious about America viewed through non-American eyes.
Good but this is not really a funny book........2006-09-20
Underneath the mask of humor, light-heartedness and enthusiasm, the author is just plain frustrated and let's face it, not a major fan of the US. As an European (Eastern) who has been living here for 8 years (not just one, as the author did) I found most of his observations painfully accurate. Unlike him though, who could maybe notice those things and poke light-hearted fun at them knowing that he'll be back in his gorgeous, deeply human Italy very soon, to me those things are no longer funny. They are downright depressing. I really don't see how some people thought that he was "not laughing at Americans but with Americans". Na-ha. He actually WAS laughing at Americans. The myriad absurdities, idyosincrasies and almost non-human aspects of US life are unique to this part of the world. Quite a few "new arrivals" love the lifestyle, typically if they used to be very simple, materially and socially disadvantaged people in the place where they came from. Then of course they're bound to believe that all the junk that they now can afford to buy at the cheezy mall is the equivalent of "Heaven Found At Last". If you're born here - well, you've never known anything else, case closed. But if you landed in this place thinking that along with that promissing education program or work opportunity you'll also enjoy an actual LIFE - as in "the life of a more evolved, sophisticated human" - then you are in for major trouble: nostalgia for the World Old and constant longing for esthetics, good conversation, decent food, non-superficial individuals, etc. But then again, I finally understood that I am one of those that have NOTHING to do with the "American Dream". And obviously, so is the author.
Fun to read!.......2006-09-14
As an American who has lived in Italy since 2001 and has read countless pieces of writing on Italy by Brits and Americans -- I thoroughly enjoyed Severgnini's book! Many of the criticisms of it are correct, but, in all, it is insightful and plain funny. My husband and I (and many of our American friends in Italy) can certainly relate to his experience -- or his lack of experience with real estate advertisements and car sales and such. I recommend it to all of my American friends in Italy -- and we all get a great chuckle from his stories.
Amazon.com
Cookbooks about Tuscan cuisine abound, but the food of its easterly neighbor, Umbria, remains mostly unexplored. Mary Ann Esposito's Ciao Italia in Umbria meets this dearth handily. A "traveling cookbook," it showcases the region's healthy, rustic food while providing a first-person look at its restaurants, home cooks, and singular occupations, like truffle hunting. The core of the book--an offshoot of Esposito's PBS series Ciao Italia--is its 60 easy-to-do recipes, which feature the area's most notable and delicious products, including olive oil, black truffles, farro, and wine. If the relatively few formulas provided leave readers hungry for more, those offered, such as Carp with Rosemary and Fennel and Fava Beans with Olive Oil and Pecorino Cheese, couldn't be more inviting.
The recipes grow from Esposito's narratives. For example, her truffle hunt chapter yields the traditional Penne with Truffles and Cream as well as the more singular Veal with Black Truffle and Strawberry Sauce. Similarly, a section on local female chefs leads to two unusual gnocchi recipes--prune- and zucchini-filled--while one on Umbrian flatbreads offers formulas for oil-fried brustengo, spinach-filled torta sul testo, and a luscious prosciutto pie. Seafood is well represented, as are recipes for the pork delicacies of Norcia, including the delicious Sweet Pork Sausages with Grapes. Readers will also enjoy making sweets like Chocolate Spumone, exemplary strufoli (honey balls), and addictive mezzalune, almond crescent cookies. With an "address book" of outstanding Umbrian restaurants, the book provides a compelling culinary tour of a region too often neglected by cookbooks but, happily, celebrated here. --Arthur Boehm
Book Description
Known as the Green Heart of Italy, the central region of Umbria, just to the east of Tuscany, is largely unspoiled by the modern world. Mary Ann Esposito loves the foods, traditions, and people of Umbria so much that shes devoting the entire 2002 season of Ciao Italia to it. In this intimate, passionate traveling cookbook, Esposito takes readers through this lush, mountainous, and tradition-filled region, with 60 recipes for its healthy, rustic food, profiles of its welcoming people, and an intimate tour of its food markets, home kitchens, vegetable gardens, wineries, and restaurants.Fans of Mary Anns show as well as anyone who loves the top-notch Italian olive oil, wine, black truffles, vegetables, and country breads will be transported in this very special book.
Customer Reviews:
Ciao Italia.......2007-01-10
I bought this book after seeing Mary Ann Esposito's TV cooking show. We had also recently been to Umbria and had had many great meals. I was disappointed in the book. Not that many good recipes. Some of the items she prepared on the show are very good but the majority are not appealing. I am still looking for a better book on Umbrian recipes.
Book Description
From her Ciao Italia kitchen, Mary Ann Esposito shows people with busy lives and those just starting out in the kitchen how to prepare an authentic Italian meal in thirty minutes, in a book filled with more than seventy mouthwatering recipes from the entire gamut of Italian cuisine: Cibatta toasts with ricotta and salami Zucchini soup with cheese and eggs Quick Chicken Cacciatore Fresh Tuna with Artichokes, Capers and Chickpeas Layered Eggplant and Zucchini Casserole Baked pears with apricots and wine Mary Ann also gives readers tips on maximizing their time in the grocery store, how to love leftovers, and how to create a Ciao Italia Pronto Pantry filled with the necessary ingredients that any busy cook should have on hand for a quick and authentic Italian meal. This is a great new book in a sleek, contemporary package, from one of televisions most beloved personalities.
Customer Reviews:
More confusing than inspiring .......2007-09-30
"Ciao Italia Pronto!" is a better cookbook in theory than in practice.
Italian food? Check! Thirty minute meals? Check! Sounds like just the thing to make a nice meal and still have some time between getting home from work and bedtime. That would be a false assumption.
American kitchens are certainly more sophisticated since the days when Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee owned the Italian cooking franchise. However, many of the ingredients called for in these recipes are still on the exotic side in my corner grocery. Sure, we have farmers markets, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, even an Italian specialty market or two but, if I have to fight traffic gridlock after work to go destination shopping for ingredients, it defeats the purpose of the Thirty Minute meal. The author recognizes this problem and provides a four page directory of mail order houses to obtain some of the required ingredients. This immediately makes about 40 percent of these recipes more trouble than they're worth.
If you do manage to find the ingredients, know that these recipes are neither simple, nor fast.
The recipe for "Lazy Lasagne" requires eight ingredients, and bakes for 30-35 minutes. That's cooking time only, and does NOT include prep time. Oh, and the tomato sauce for the lasagne is a recipe on a separate page. The sauce requires an additional eight ingredients and 20 minutes of cooking time.
Another main dish, "Fresh Tuna with Artichoke, Capers and Chickpeas," requires 12 ingredient and we're advised to make it early in the day, or a day ahead.
Some of the dishes are unfamiliar and pictures of the prepared food would have been a big help. There are only eight full page color pictures located in the center of the book, one appetizer, one soup, two main dishes, two salads, and two desserts.
If you're interested in this book for quick, convenient recipes, look elsewhere. This is far more complicated and time consuming than the advertised "....30 Minute Recipes from an Italian Kitchen." Not recommended.
Ciao Italia Pronto.......2007-02-09
a nice addition to the library but not as essential as her other books.
Recipes are very easy to follow and to prepare in limited time.
Book Description
Join the popular host of Ciao Italia, seen nationally on public television, for an intimate journey back to her childhood in Buffalo, New York, to a time when her mother and grandmothers ran the household from their kitchens.
Food was the connector in our lives; it brought people together. In an Italian family, love is expressed through kisses, kudos, and in the kitchen, writes Mary Ann Esposito. Yet, as a girl, Mary Ann took for granted the endless parade of delicacies emanating from the family hearth. Only when she began studying cooking in Italy did she realize that the techniques and recipes she was learning were so familiar because she'd seen them prepared countless times before! Inspired, Mary Ann spent ten years combing Italy for the secrets of its great regional cooking. Now, in this companion volume to her enormously popular cooking show, she offers two hundred recipes -- some straight from the Mediterranean, others from her family's archives and memories -- plus dozens of anecdotes and tips, to create this intimate loving tribute to her Italian heritage.
The hallmark of Italian cuisine is its freshness, and Esposito shows how to make the most of every ingredient. Here's her recipe for quick tomato sauce, ready in just thirty minutes, plus one made with red peppers and another with yellow tomatoes. A chapter on breads covers everything from hearty focaccia to calzoni with a choice of four fillings to sweet, fruit-filled panettone. Many of her soups are meals in themselves, like rich Sardinian Fish Soup or Spinach and Meatball Soup.
Customer Reviews:
Ciaao Italia.......2000-06-26
I had this book for years and then it was stolen. There are recipes in it I absolutely must have so I find myself buying a new one.
Recipes like my mother usd to make!!!!!.......1999-01-20
These are my home town recipes! Reading this made me feel at home. True Italian flavor. These are real...real..hand-me-down recipes from the old country. Even if your not Italian you can't help but enjoy the tradition presented here. CAIO !
These are the real Italian recipes you've been looking for.......1998-10-06
Don't pass up an opportunity to own this book! With love and warmth the author shares recipes that are simple and satisfying. I've cooked half of this book and the results have always been terrific...especially the Farfalle Picante.
What more has to be said!!.......1997-07-06
Ciao Italia is filled with traditional Italian recipes and is not only
a wonderful book that is an associate book to the public television show
but the host of the show and the author of the book Mary Ann Esposito is
one of the most down-to-earth and personable people I have ever met
Wonderful!.......1997-05-07
This is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks. The recipes are easy to follow and they turn out just like you'd imagine them to taste. I also love the commentary on Italian ingredients and cooking techniques. This book is the perfect way to try Italian cooking
Book Description
The hosts of the PBS cooking show Cucina Sicilia! return with a colorful volume of hearty fare of Tuscan derivation, From antipasti to dolci.
Customer Reviews:
Just Like eating in Tuscany.......2006-02-24
I have made serveral of the recipes in the book and each one tasted like I was back in Tuscany. Both cooks have been to Tuscany and found many great dishes and put them together in this cook book. If you want to cook like they do in Tuscany, then I would recommend this book to you.
Their TV show is great too. Both of them love food, Tuscany, and are very funny too.
Recipe miss print.......2006-01-31
The amount of salt (1 1/2 tablespoons)in the recipe Tuscan Sausage page 112 must be a miss print. It was too salty to eat. An expensive and time consuming disapointment. Other than that it is a good cook book.
Average customer rating:
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I Vigili Del Fuoco (Language - Italian - Whiskerville Books)
ASIN: 888203142X |
Book Description
talian-cooking expert Mary Ann Esposito does it again, pre-senting eighty authentic recipes from the region of Tuscany. Tying in to the 2003 season of 'Ciao Italia,' this delightful new cookbook includes warm personal anecdotes from Mary Ann's travels through Tuscany, along with color food photos and black-and-white photos from her unforgettable Tuscan adventure. Recipes include Tuscan Leek Tart, Flat Olive Pizza, Grilled Steak Florentine Style, Almond-Meringue Cookies, and many others. Ciao Italia in Tuscany is a must-have for cookbook lovers and fans of all things Italian.
Customer Reviews:
A fairly good book on Tuscan Cuisine.......2004-03-02
When I opened this book by Mary Ann Esposito to read and review, I was looking for something that would raise it above it's face value of a companion volume to an average PBS cooking show series. When I embark on a review with this objective, I almost always find something. In this case, I did not.
This doesn't mean this is a bad book, only that it may not have that much to offer to someone who is already steeped in Italian culinary lore. It is inferior to, for example, David Downie's book on Roman cooking as a snapshot of an Italian regional cuisine. It is less genuine on a personal level than Mario Batali's `Simple Italian Food'. It is less of a cookbook than Lydia Bastianich's two books accompanying her PBS series on Italian food and Italian-American food. I will recommend this book as a source of classic Tuscan recipes over books by Pino Luongo, who clearly states that most of his recipes are original with him or his restaurant staff. They are not Tuscan; they are inspired by the Tuscan cuisine.
Part of the problem is that, unlike Lydia's books, this one has recipes in chapters which follow the episodes on the TV show rather than recipes organized by course as is typical of most Italian cookbooks. This awkwardness is not offset by a supplementary table of contents listing all recipes by food or by course.
Another part of the problem seems to be that unlike Mario's book, the experiences of Tuscan culture are all second hand. Most life experiences are not of the author but of the owner and employees at the Tuscan villa, Spannocchia, at which the PBS crew is housed. Ms. Espositio's experiences feel like a tourist's experiences.
One thing that impressed me about the creation of this book is the number of people it takes to put on a cooking show, even on PBS. There must be a dozen principle contributors at least in the Acknowledgments. In comparison, Julia Child started her show at the Boston PBS station with nothing more than her husband, a cameraman, a soundman, a producer, and herself.
I really wish I would have seen the PBS series on which the show is based, as I am sure that would have increased the value of the book for me by two or threefold. My experience with books by the `Frugal Gourmet', Jeff Smith show that books like this can be very attractive if you are not familiar with the wider world of cookbooks. Twelve (12) years ago, I thought Jeff Smith was something special. Now I know he was simply a decent communicator with a gimmick. I don't even think he was especially frugal. Since this book does accompany a TV show, I am really surprised at the dull photographs. The sepia coloring even seems to obscure some details in the picture.
There is no problem with the recipes in this book. Many classic Tuscan dishes are here and all of the recipes give competent instructions on how to prepare them.
I would recommend this book to anyone who plans to travel in Tuscany anytime soon. The book has a strong travelogue flavor about it and its recommendations about where to eat in Tuscany are not doing anyone any good unless you go there. The price of the book rescues it from a below average rating. As I stated at the outset, the book provides what is expected and nothing more. My only regret is that unlike many other regions of Italy, I have yet to find a good cookbook that effectively explores this cuisine.
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