Tuesday 4 October at the Dante School, FreemansBay Community Centre, 52 Hepburn St, Freemans Bay, Auckland
Talk 10am-12pm - Lunch break and then, from 1.30pm to 3.30pm, movie screening. All welcome!!
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Dante School News
The school open day of Dante Alighieri Society of Auckland will be on Thursday 13th October 5pm to 7pm at the Freemans Bay Community Centre, a great opportunity to meet and chat with our teachers.
The new term for the adult classes will start on Monday the 17th of October. You can find all the info here. If you are unsure of your level of Italian, you can join us on the open day so the teachers can assist you in choosing the right class. If you are unable to come, then please do not hesitate to send us an email and we can provide you with the information you need: info@dante.org.nz
We have also attached the enrolment form for the Tuesday children class starting on the 18th of October and the Playgroup which will start on Thursday the 20th of October.
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
New book release in October
Tales from the wood’s edge - a memoir
by Wilma Giordano Laryn
In a reversal of the usual ‘Tuscan Dream’, a small Italian family of parents, daughter and dog, move to New Zealand in search of adventure. Here are their stories, as well as memories of life in Italy and Japan, of holidays in Kenya, Turkey and other.This is also a woman’s personal story of emigrating to a new country and integrating with the local way of life, something many will identify with. They will recognize their own efforts to meet new challenges while maintaining their core personalities as defined by their country of origin and their personal and collective memories.Inquisitive readers will find the book’s themes stimulating and the style engaging. They will immerse themselves in a tapestry of people, animals, places, landscapes, colours, buildings, music, wine, food.
“… unless we make things personal, they may not really matter in the end and fade away.
These tales are as personal as storytelling can be, yet they have something to say for
everybody – beautifully and painfully true to life as they are to the author’s life.”
Marco Sonzogni
Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington
About the author
Wilma spent the first half of her life in Italy, then moved to New Zealand in 1996. In Christchurch Wilma has worked with the Dante Society as a committee member for 22 years and was president for 6. She has started the Christchurch Dante Language School and the Festival Ciao Italia. She has run a radio programme, Cartolina, and a TV cooking series; she has coached the opera chorus and taught Italian for Musicians at the Canterbury University.She has been a member of the ComItEs in 2015, besides working as Marketing Manager for the family wine business. Wilma received from the Italian Government a civil knighthood, the “Star of the Italian Solidarity”, for her activity as a journalist and teacher, and a gold medal from the Dante Alighieri headquarters. After retiring and moving to Auckland in 2018, she finally completed her book of memoirs. No surprise that it counts some 400 pages!
Category: non fiction, life in Italy, life in New Zealand, wine-making
Category: non fiction, life in Italy, life in New Zealand, wine-making
Pages: 400 - Size: 6" x 9" - softback ISBN: 978-0-473-65322-4
Kindle edition ISBN 978-0-473-65325-5
Publication date: October 2022
Publisher: Wilma Giordano Laryn
Distributor: Nationwide Book Distributors
Thursday, September 8, 2022
Newsletter di Settembre, e addio Luigi Rocca
La newsletter della Dante Auckland è in rete. Per gli italiani di Auckland: a pagina 4 ricordiamo il carissimo Luigi Rocca, scomparso il 7 agosto a 87 anni. Addio Luigi, che ti sia lieve la terra.
Cliccare qui per leggere la newsletter
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| Luigi con la moglie Dawn |
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Colazione and talk by architect Riccardo Lucignani: A walk around the historic port of Civitavecchia
Cari amici
Join us this Saturday for colazione and to enjoy a talk by architect Riccardo Lucignani.
The topic will be A walk around the historic port of Civitavecchia: Forte Michelangelo park, an informal discussion on the architectural works of the port of Rome and the design challenges in honouring the spirit of a historic site in developing a park around forte Michelangelo. The talk will be both in Italian and English.
Everyone is welcome.
Vi aspettiamo!
Dante Rooms
Freemans Bay Community Centre
52 Hepburn St, Freemans Bay
Auckland
Saturday 20 August 10:00-12:00pm
Thursday, August 11, 2022
Il Cantastorie di agosto
Il Cantastorie - incontro per bambini 5-8 anni che parlano italiano.
domenica 28 agosto, 10 am - 12.00 pm
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Dante in Ravenna
Ravenna is mostly famous for its stunning 5th and 6th century mosaics (many in Unesco sites around the city), but it is also considered Dante's city (Dante died in Ravenna) as much as Florence (where Dante was born) is.
Dante is omnipresent in Ravenna, the city where he lived the last years of his life. in 2021 the city celebrated the 700th anniversary of his death with many artistic and cultural initiatives, which are still active today. Also, along the city streets, there are several interactive tags with verses from the Divine Comedy.
When Dante died in Ravenna, in 1321, his tomb was a simple sarcophagus just outside the Church of San Francesco. Then Guido Novello da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, asked for the construction of a chapel just for Dante's Tomb. In 1483, Bernardo Bembo, who ruled the city on account of the Republic of Venice, decided to restore the sarcophagus and commissioned the sculptor Pietro Lombardo a marble bass relief portraying Dante’s face, visible today inside Dante's Mausoleum.
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| Dante's Tomb in Ravenna |
Dante's spoils have been contended between Ravenna and Florence for a long time, and between the 16th and the 18th century, the remains went missing, hidden by the Franciscan friars in a small wooden chest, so that Florence couldn’t get them.
The current mausoleum was built between 1780 and 1782. It was ordered by Cardinal Luigi Valenti Gonzaga (1725 – 1808) and designed by the Ravenna architect Camillo Morigia (1743-1795), who created a little Neoclassical temple made of simple lines and sombre decorations. The rests were recovered and placed in the new mausoleum until 1810, when Napoleon ordered the confiscation of monastic property, and the friars were forced to leave, but first they made sure to hide again the chest with the remains.
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The majestic oak next to the mausoleum was planted by poet Giosuè Carducci at the beginning of the 20th century. The Mausoleum's doors close in the evening. |
On May 25th 1865, during some maintenance works at the monastery beside the tomb, a bricklayer accidentally found a wooden chest in a wall of the Quadrarco di Braccioforte. Luckily, a young student, Anastasio Matteuggi, saved the box from destruction.
The chest had a script saying “Dantis ossa a me Fra Antonio Sancti hic posita anno 1677 die 18 octobris”, which means “These bones of Dante placed by me on the date of 18 October 1677”. It was the original wooden chest where the friars kept the Poet's remains.
On that occasion, the remains were reassembled and put on display in a crystal urn for a few months. The crystal urn, without glass, is now displayed in the Dante Museum (see photo below), and so is the Franciscan friars' wooden chest.
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| The crystal urn, without glass, where Dante's remains were reassembled and put on display |
Since then, besides the transfers that occurred during the Second World War in order to avoid destruction, (see photo below) the spoils haven’t been moved again.
Inside the mausoleum we can see the bass relief by sculptor Pietro Lombardo, on the sepulchre’s top is engraved a Latin epitaph written by poet Bernardo Canaccio in 1327.
At the centre of the little room, a votive lamp burns with the oil donated by Tuscany. Every year, on the second Sunday of September, the city of Florence sends a delegation and offers the oil to commemorate their most famous citizen, who died in exile.
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| The mausoleum with open doors. |
Near the Tomb there is the Dante Museum and Dante House. The museum features several rooms with relics and historical objects, and modern and engaging multimedia rooms about the Poet's life, legacy, and work (especially the Divine Comedy).
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| Our Dante Auckland member Alessandra in one of the multimedia rooms at the Dante Museum in Ravenna |
After touring the Museum you can check out the library (in the same building) which holds everything that has been written by and about Dante, including some very ancient tomes.
Near the Museum, and accessible with the same ticket, there is Casa Dante, hosting art pieces about Dante and the Divine Comedy. This includes a long-term exhibition with some very important works loaned by the Uffizi Galleries in Florence: check out this painting of star crossed lovers Paolo and Francesca!
For more Dante's experiences in Ravenna visit this site https://www.turismo.ra.it/en/follow-your-way/dante-alighieri/
Thursday, July 14, 2022
Italiano ad Auckland per i bambini
Il prossimo appuntamento con Il Cantastorie - incontro per bambini 5-8 anni: domenica 31 luglio
La Dante ritorna con gli incontri per bambini dai 5 agli 8
anni che parlano italiano. È un'occasione per imparare e
usare la lingua attraverso letture animate, giochi e canzoni.
Domenica 31 luglio, 10 am - 12.00 pm
Per prenotarsi mandare un’email a info@dante.org.nz
ed effettuare il pagamento di $10.00 online
a/c: 020192-0309263-00, with ref: bambini
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Italian Language Classes in Auckland
Our new poster, designed by Nicoletta Benella di Arte Mani Studio 
, encapsulates the Italian dream in Auckland. Come and study with us, and get ready for your next Italian adventure: Term 3 schedule available here
, encapsulates the Italian dream in Auckland. Come and study with us, and get ready for your next Italian adventure: Term 3 schedule available here
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