Special Sub-Topic: Italy In Quotes And Sayings Click Here To Play: Italy In Quotes And Sayings

Of the women of which Italian town did Shakespeare say :'they do let Heaven see the pranks They dare not show their husbands. Their best Conscience is not to leave it undone, but kept unknown.'?

Venice. Slanderous words spoken by Jago in Othello. Yet Lord Byron in a letter to John Murray, 25 March 1817, expressed the view that Venetian women 'kiss better than those of any other nation'.

About which Italian town did a hero from one of Shakespeare's most popular plays say : 'There is no world without ______'s walls, But Purgatory, Torture, Hell itself. Hence banished is banished from the world'?

Verona. In this case the speaker must have been rather biased as he was in love with a pretty Veronese of the name of Juliet.

A late sixteenth century epigram by one Sir John Harrington remarks that a particular Italian town has a name that - in its Italian version - is the anagram for the Italian word for 'love'. What town may that be?

Roma & Rome. Oddly enough there is an Italian proverb that links Rome much more with saintliness than with love. Maurice Baring in 'Round the World in any Number of Days' quotes {;} 'At Florence you {think;} at Rome you {pray;} at Venice you {love;} at Naples you look.' Amor is an anagram of Roma.

Impressed by the Colosseum , Lord Byron says: 'While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall {stand;} When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall. And when Rome falls - ___________' . Can you add the next word or words?

the World. Though Rome is seen as Eternal, there is an Italian saying that seems to open up the possibility of a substitute for the Pope's city. Don't Italians say 'Dove e il Papa, ivi e Roma' - Where the Pope is , there is Rome. With a travelling Pope such as John Paul II, many Romes must have been created...

The "Square" or "Place" of the 'Duomo' is the 'Centro Citta' of many Italian towns. One of the most famous such cathedral squares is the one at Pisa. It groups no fewer than four impressive tourist attractions: the Baptistery, the Cathedral, the Church of the Campo Santo and of course the Leaning Tower. What is the 'nickname'of this famous Square?

Campo dei Miracoli (Place of the Miracles).

Of which Italian town is the typical inhabitant said to be 'Largo di bocca' (wide-mouthed), but 'stretto di mano' (keeping his hands shut). In other words those people promise loudly but seldom keep their promises?

Napoli( Naples). Napoli - famous for its Bay and its Camorra. Lord Nelson who knew the town well called it a place of 'fiddlers and poets, whores and scoundrels' and yet the saying is 'Vedi Napoli e poi muori' - You should see Naples before you die.

Which Italian town was called a) 'a white phantom city, whose untrodden streets are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting shadows of the palaces and strips of sky' (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) b) 'a city for beavers' (Ralph Waldo Emerson)?

Venice. John Gay an English traveller wrote 'O happy streets! to rumbling wheels unknown, No carts, no coaches shake the floating town.' ('Trivia', 1716). Byron called the town his Heart-Quarters.

Many of the more famous Italian cities were given nicknames. Firenze being la Bella {;} Rome la Santa. Which Italian port was nicknamed la Superba?

Genoa. It was the birthplace of Columbus.

About which Italian town did Florentines say that it was 'Di tre cose è piena , Torri , campane E figli di puttane'. In plain English it meant that it was filled with three things: towers, bells and 'sons of whores'.

Siena. Siena is the town of the famous Palio. Palio or 'Race of the Banner' is a special sort of annual horse- race in Siena (August 16). No saddles are used and the race ends when, after exactly one minute, a cannon is fired.

Because it has very old monuments Ravenna was nicknamed l'antica. Which ancient university town got nicknamed la dotta or the well-instructed ?

Bologna. The complete line is 'Genoa la superba, Bologna dotta, Ravenna l'antica, Firenze la bella, Roma la santa'. Quoted by William Hazlitt in 'Notes of a Journey through France and Italy in 1826.