LangFocus - The Romance Languages and what makes them amazing

I can't wait to show you a great canal on Youtube which I have come across a few days ago. The films are in English and the man who is talking to us, focuses on different languages and linguistic issues. I enjoy watching him because I always discover something new, for example the history of Finnish (which you can see here).

I recommend you to see something related to Italian: a film about the Romance Languages.

I hope you will enjoy it!

The Mouth of Truth

The lies, as you know, have short legs but is it always like that?.... In Rome in the Church Santa Maria in Cosmedin, you can find the Mouth of Truth. If you lie holding your hand into the Mouth of Truth, it will be cut immediately.

This famous marble mask called La Bocca della Verità (The Mouth of Truth) is known around the world for its legend, but not many know that its origins have roots in the Middle Ages. The hand of somebody who was telling too many lies, was actually cut by an executioner placed just behind the mask.

One of the famous legends is about a noblewoman accused of adultery by her husband who wanted a judgment of the Mouth of Truth. When she was walking to the Mouth, between two columns of the crowd , a boy suddenly gave her a passionate kiss. Faced general indignation, he justified himself saying that he had endured a poor innocent girl; The woman, meanwhile, slipped her hand into the rock and declared: "I swear that no man except my husband and the young man who just now kissed me never touched me!". She was recognized by the Mouth as innocent and her hand was saved. It fact she was very clever because earlier she had invented with her lover all this "sudden kiss" in order to distract the judge behind the Mouth.

Are you brave enough to visit La Booca della Verità?

Even all those holes have a history

In Via dei Fori Imperiali there is a building next to the beautiful church of Saints Cosmas and Damian (to visit!) which has a very curious holes, arranged in a symmetrical pattern.

On this wall there was a giant map of Ancient Rome, the Forma Urbis, large 13 x 18 meters .

It was the ancient cadastral database of properties in Rome, engraved on marble slabs. All the population could see and admire the map.

It is thought that it was a hard copy in case of fire or other damage. It was the copy that would not be damaged.

For centuries, only 1186 of the original fragments were recovered. This is only 1/6 of the entire surface.

Below there is a link to the website of the Stanford University where you can see the found fragments.

http://formaurbis.stanford.edu/

Well, let's give them something to drink

In Rome you do not run the risk of dying of thirst even in the hottest months. There is no other city in the world that has 2,000 public fountains from which flows fresh and clear water to drink.We are talking about the famous fountains that are called "Nasoni" from their particular form.The Nasoni are fountains that can be defined "democratic" because you can find them everywhere: in the historic center, in residential districts and in the suburbs. They are made of iron and at its center they have a small hole (on the top) from which you drink if you cover the bigger hole with your hand.

During the hot days it is a real pleasure to drink the water of the fountains of Rome or fill your bottles. It is free, it is good and it is always fresh because of its continuous and uninterrupted movement. 

The most curious and rare Nasone is located in Via della Cordonata because it has three taps, from which comes the water, instead of the traditional model that has a single cinnamon.

 

Since the days of ancient Rome, the water and the fountains were the elements that characterized the urban landscape and the artistic and cultural heritage of the city.

 Some of the fountains were the ends of the aqueducts that were providing water to the city since the Roman times.   

The Trevi fountain, for example, is the Acqua Vergine aqueduct arrival point, while the Fountain of Moses or the Aqua Felix is ​​the the end aqueduct Felice. The squares and the most beautiful streets of Rome, the courtyards of the palaces of the most important noble families, parks and villas of great families have always had the fountains which were designed and made by artists and architects who have made the city of Rome the most beautiful in the world.

Just think of the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza di Spagna, the Acqua Paola Fountain at Gianicolo, the fountains of Piazza Navona, the beautiful Fountain of the Turtles, the Triton Fountain and all the Baroque and Renaissance works of Bernini, Della Porta, Salvi and many others. 

All the water that comes out of the fountains of Rome is not lost or wasted because most is stored in large tanks in order to be used for watering gardens and parks of Rome.