Lesson Transcript

Hi guys, welcome back to ItalianPod101.com, my name is Desy, mi chiamo Desy, mi chiamo Desy,
and in this video we're going to talk about famous historical figures in Italy.
5 figure storiche in Italia
Of course there are so many, just think about arts and literature, for example, but in this
video we're going to see five of them.
First one we're talking about Giulio Cesare.
The one you know by the name Giulio Caesar, I'd say, even though it's funny to notice
that in Latin it was supposed to be read as Caeser, so with the hard sound C.
He's not only famous for his life, but especially for his death.
He was born in 100 B.C., so I would say he's the oldest that we're talking about, and he's
famous for being a general, a commander of the army, that at that time was not of the
Roman Empire yet.
In fact, Giulio Cesare is famous because he contributed, he started basically the rise
of Roman Empire.
Even though it was Octavian, also known as Augusto, that actually made it a reality.
So he was a famous dictator in the end, because when the government asked him after the Gallic
War to step down from his role as a commander, he refused that and just led a civil war that
actually led him to take control of Rome.
But then he was too much in control, I'd say, and a lot of people didn't really like it,
and that's how he died.
Before dying, though, I think a lot of you know him thanks to Il Calendario Romano,
so the calendar that we use nowadays, the Roman calendar with all the festivities and
holidays, yes, that's thanks to him.
Also he's famous for being lover of Cleopatra, you know, Queen of Egypt, and maybe not everyone
knows that he also suffered of epilepsy.
As I was saying before, he wasn't really liked by everyone, so the legend history says
that he was stabbed by a group of around 60 men, among which there were Cassius and Brutus,
and he was stabbed 23 times, 23 volte.
A famous quote from him is in Latin, actually, people say that that's what he said last
like before dying, and it goes like
which means even you, Brutus, my son, and nowadays those words, not all of them but
just too quokwe, so even you, is used to express surprise for maybe being betrayed
or anyway not having expectations met, sometimes even in an ironical way, but yeah, that's
where it comes from, too quokwe.
Anche tu, Brutus, figlio mio.
Then let's talk about a man who lived 1.500 years later, actually, we're talking about
Cristoforo Colombo, he was born in 1451 in Genoa.
Actually a lot of people claim, people and countries then claimed his nativity saying
that he was from Spain or Portugal or even other cities like Alessandria in Liguria and
Piedmont, which is Piedmont and Liguria region in Italy, said that he was born there, but
there are written sources that confirm that he was born in Genoa.
He began his career as a sailor, so marinaio, and then became known as esploratore.
As everyone knows, he thought he would actually reach Asia by crossing the ocean, but in the
end, as we all know, he discovered America.
So the 12th October of 1942 is the day that is known as la scoperta delle Americhe.
It's funny to notice that in Italian we say that as in plural, so discovery of Americas,
because then we divided it in like south and north.
For that reason also a lot of places actually take name from him, like Colombia itself, the
country, it's after Columbus.
The names of his three ships are really famous, la Nina, la Pinta, e la Santa Maria.
Nina, which is the little one, la Pinta, and la Santa Maria, holy Mary.
They were three caravel, which are a kind of veliero, shipboat.
He then died in 1506, after some more explorations that he attempted, but weren't really as successful.
Around the same years, actually the year after, another important person was born, I'm talking
about Leonardo da Vinci in 1452, Leonardo da Vinci.
He's known to be an inventor, inventore, artista, artist, also a scientist, scienziato.
We can say that his career started in Florence when he was working at the workshop of Verrocchio,
who was an artist, who was of course his teacher.
In Florence he also worked a lot for Lorenzo il Magnifico, the Magnificent from Famiglia
Medici, and then he moved around a lot, so he also went to Pavia, Mantua, Venice, of course
Rome and so on.
From 1503 to 1506 he worked at his most famous masterpiece, La Gioconda, which is a portrait,
un ritratto, which was the trend of the moment, we can say, but he was also a civil engineer,
un ingegnere civile, made a lot of prototypes, prototipi, such as the flying machine,
which wasn't the plane yet, but also a philosopher, he also studied the human body
and so many other things, and that's why he's known as the genius of Renaissance,
il genio del rinascimento.
Leonardo da Vinci, il genio del rinascimento, è morto nel 1519.
Leonardo da Vinci, the genius of Renaissance, died in 1519.
Another important historical period is il risorgimento, which could be mistaken for
Renaissance as well, because it also means rebirth, risorgimento, but it actually took
place 300 years later.
A relevant character from this period is Giuseppe Garibaldi, born in Nice in 1807.
He was a generale e condottiero, so general and commander, known as the
eroe dei due mondi, the hero of two worlds, which are Europe and South America.
He led a lot of missions, but the one that made him the most famous, at least in Italy,
is la spedizione dei mille, the expedition of the thousand.
In 1860, so as the name said, there were thousands of people, actually even more than
thousands, but that's how we remember them by, thousands of people led by Giuseppe Garibaldi,
volunteers actually, went to the kingdom of Sicily, il regno delle due Sicilie,
il regno delle due Sicilie, because it was the two Sicilies at that time, fought against
the army and population as well, and in the end they unified it to the kingdom of Italy,
which was just about to be born at that time.
So he's famous for being the unifier of Italy.
In fact, the word Garibaldino, Garibaldino, it's an adjective that comes from the word
Garibaldi, so Giuseppe's surname, in the beginning it just identified someone who
fought with him, but then it also meant someone who was really heroic and someone that achieved
the big goal without having a proper structure supporting him, Garibaldino, and that's where
it comes from, because basically he just went with volunteers, so not even a proper army,
but still managed to unify the kingdom of Italy.
At that time though, Italy wasn't all Italian, there were still territories that were on their
own, such as Venice and Rome, so he also tried to do the same thing with Rome, but in that case
it was a failure, and that's known as la sconfitta di Aspromonte, where Aspromonte is just the name
of the mountain.
At that time, in fact, the capital city of Italy was Turin and then it moved to Florence.
When he died in 1882, his last words are known to be
Muoio con il dolore di non vedere redente Trento e Trieste.
So I die with the pain of not seeing Trento and Trieste united to the kingdom of Italy,
so not to see the redemption of Trento and Trieste.
And that's why in almost every city in Italy, the biggest street or square is named after
Garibaldi.
Lastly, I want to talk about a man that had nothing to do with wars, because a lot of the
ones we saw did, and that is really famous for being the best comic actor.
I'm talking about Totò, even though his real name was Antonio de Curtis.
His art name is Totò.
He was born in Naples in 1898, and he's known as il Principe della Risata, so the Prince of Laughs,
Laughs Prince, because he's the symbol of Italian comedy.
Comicità Italiana.
So he's an attore, actor, attore, but also a poet, poeta, poeta.
He used to work in theater, al teatro, and cinema as well, al cinema, cinema.
He was so famous that when he died in 1967, he actually got three funerals in different
cities so that everyone could go and see him one last time.
For two hours, the city stopped, the shops closed, and even the traffic was closed so
that people could actually walk behind the funeral car.
Some of his most famous titles are 47, Morto che parla, so 47, the dead who speaks, which
refers to Tombola, which is a game where we have meanings, different meanings for each
number, in this case, 47, morto che parla.
A famous phrase from this movie is, e io pago, e io pago, so and I pay, and I pay.
It's also a satirical movie.
Another famous quote from this movie is, e io pago, e io pago, so and I pay, and I
Another famous quote is, c'è chi può, e chi non può, there is a who can and who can't,
c'è chi può, e chi non può, e io può, and I can, which of course is not grammarly correct
because otherwise it would be, and io posso, but he uses io può, like a poetic license.
You may know him from his famous gag, I'm always talking about movies that were
still in black and white, but when he sells La Fontana di Trevi, so Trevi's fountain
to a tourist, La Fontana di Trevi, go watch it if you haven't.
So those were the top five historical figures in Italy.
I hope you enjoyed and you learned something that you didn't know.
Thank you for watching and if you want to learn even more about Italy and Italian,
click the link in the description and download our PDF lessons.
I'll see you soon! Bye bye! Ciao ciao!

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