There's an enjoyable Italian TV show available on YouTube for committed Italophiles. '4 Ristoranti' is a fast paced food / restaurant show which visits 4 restaurants per episode with the proprietors of the 4 establishments. Each meal is voted on and the winning restaurant gets 5,000 Euro. The language is decidedly not tourist friendly and the food dishes are seldom the typical guide book icons. Who would not want to know which is the best fegatello in Arezzo? The show is not without faults as when the judges descend into arguing about the suitability of certain beans in a medieval dish, but overall it's molto vivace. Season 6 is now starting to appear on YouTube as Season 7 is broadcast (I think) in Italy. This is a current link to S06 E05 which features 4 restaurants with medieval menus in Arezzo: https://youtu.be/8iguMpb0V18 (The availability of episodes seems to waiver over time, so you may need to search a bit).
Posted by
Sapulpa, OK, USA
6290 posts
Thanks, Mike. I'll check it out.
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
decidedly not tourist friendly
What do you mean? I'm just curious. This is the first time I hear the expression "Tourist friendly" regarding language.
Chefs and restaurant owners judging each other for money... like starving cats trapped in a sack! A guy I know owns a winning restaurant and they tripled their customers for months.
Alessandro Borghese was born in S. Francisco and is mother was a famous starlette in the 70s.
Posted by
OP
Boston
1697 posts
Caro Dario,
On this show aimed squarely at Italians, Alessandro speaks very rapidly with less than clear enunciation, in my opinion. There are many many gracious Italians who converse with visitors who have made efforts to learn Italian at different levels - myself included. They deserve awards for speaking clearly and at moderate speed - what I called tourist friendly Italian. They make us feel good and we swell with pride when they compliment our Italian. Then we encounter Italians speaking normally and it's really depressing - that's why I added the content warning.
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
Thanks for your explanation.
less than clear enunciation
Borghese was born and raised in the states, his father is from Naples and his mother is German. Italians, too, think that He speaks vary fast and that he has a slightly strange accent.
Posted by
Paris
9565 posts
My husband was just telling me about this show a week or two ago. I had better check it out.
Posted by
Sapulpa, OK, USA
6290 posts
Kim, I watched most of the episode in the link; I hopped around a bit, since I really don't much care for the competitive cooking shows; I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the Italian I understood. I've been studying, since my "dream trip" had been planned for this summer. {Sigh.}
I don't know that I'll watch any more episodes, but I might peek in every now and then...