Stocking Up on Italian Media

Every time I come to Italy I end up bringing home more Italian CDs and books – and this time is no exception. In our first shopping spree of the trip, the husband and I went to a nearby la Feltrinelli here in Milan last night and left lots of Euro later with five new CDs and six new books. I didn’t find everything I wanted in the music department, so we’ll have to go to another music store before we leave on Sunday, but what I got is a good start. I’m still a little nervous that the music I’m liking is the Italian equivalent of something I would shun at home, but I guess I’m going to have to be okay with that for now.

While the book shopping is a bit of a hit or miss thing, looking for a few selections we specifically want but then picking up other things that look interesting, the music part of the shopping spree is always quite planned out. I often listen to Radio Italia online while I’m working, and if I hear a song I like I type the words I can understand into Google and see if I can figure out who the artist is and what the song is called. More often than not, this method of song discovery is successful, so I end up with a list of artists and albums to look for. It’s a great system, and only collapses when I can’t understand the words of a song. Yesterday’s haul included three CDs by an artist called Neffa, who does a few great semi-jazzy songs that I’ve heard over the years – I think he also does some rap-ish stuff, too, so I guess we’ll see what I ended up with.

If you’re at all curious about Italian music and want to bring anything home from your next Italian vacation, check out a music store or two – many will have a dedicated section for Italian music, and the Feltrinelli we went to last night also had headphones so you could listen to any CD you wanted before you bought it, so that would give you an idea of what you’re getting into. And if you’re trying to work on your Italian language skills, I’ve found a great book section to look in is the kids’ books – I used to always bring those home from trips to Italy, and I still have many of them. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment when you can read something in another language, even if it’s a kids’ book. Baby steps!