Corso di geografia turistica

WRITING

1. Translate the leaflet you prepared for activity n.3 p.14, addressing it to English speaking tourists.
2. Search the Unesco website to find out more about the World Heritage List. Then choose from the list one of the properties belonging to an English speaking country and write a short presentation of its main features.
3. Prepare an itinerary similar to the one related to activity n.2 p.43, choosing a region belonging to an English speaking country. You can browse the Slow Food international website to find out more about local traditions.

CONVERSATION

Work in pairs. One of you will pretend he/she is an English speaking friend of the other. You are planning a 5 days school trip in Italy for both your classes. Discuss the pros and cons of visiting:

• an Italian National Park
• Tuscany
• the Dolomites
• Matera

and select your favorite destination.

GEOGRAPHY AND LITERATURE

English Romanticism and the mountainous landscape

The English Romantic and Gothic authors loved the mountains, particularly the Alps and their extreme landscapes. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein contains spectacular descriptions of the Swiss Alps and the North Pole, showing the feeling of awe that nature inspires. Read the following extract and underline all the expressions referring to such feeling, and all the words related to the mountainous landscape. Then use some of them for a short description of the Dolomites.

My mule was brought at the door, and I resolved to ascend to the summit of Montanvert. I remembered the effect that the view of the tremendous and ever-moving glacier had produced upon my mind when I first saw it. It had then filled me with a sublime ecstasy that gave wings to the soul and allowed it to soar from the obscure world to light and joy. The sight of the awful and majestic in nature had indeed always the effect of solemnizing my mind and causing me to forget the passing cares of life. I determined to go without a guide, for I was well acquainted with the path, and the presence of another would destroy the solitary grandeur of the scene.
The ascent is precipitous, but the path is cut into continual and short windings, which enable you to surmount the perpendicularity of the mountain. It is a scene terrificly desolate. In a thousand spots the traces of the winter avalanche may be perceived, where trees lie broken and strewed on the ground, some entirely destroyed, others bent, leaning upon the jutting rocks of the mountain or trasversely upon other trees. […] The pines are not tall or luxuriant but they are sombre and add an air of severity to the scene. I looked on the valley beneath; vast mists were rising from the rivers which ran through it and curling in thick wreaths around the opposite mountains, whose summits were hid in the uniform clouds, while rain poured down from the dark sky and added to the melancholy impression I received from the objects around me.
[…] It was nearly noon when I arrived at the top of the ascent. For some time I sat upon the rocks that overlook the sea of ice. A mist covered both that and the surrounding mountains. Presently a breeze dissipated the cloud, and I descended upon the glacier. The surface is very uneven, rising like the waves of a troubled sea, descending low, and interspersed by rifts that sink deep. The field of ice is almost a league in width, but I spent nearly two hours in crossing it. The opposite mountain is a bare perpendicular rock. From the side where I now stood Montanvert was exactly opposite, at the distance of a league; and above it rose Mont Blanc, in awful majesty. I remained in a recess of the rock, gazing on this wonderful and stupendous scene. The sea, or rather the vast river of ice, wound among its dependent mountains, whose aerial summits hung over its recesses. Their icy and glittering peaks shone in the sunlight over the clouds. My heart, which was before sorrowful, now swelled with something like joy; I exclaimed – «Wandering spirits, if indeed ye wander, and do not rest in your narrow beds, allow me this faint happiness, or take me, as your companion, away from the joys of life.»

to ascend = climb up (noun: ascent)
Montanvert = was the common name in the 18th century for a portion of the glacier now known as the Mer de Glace. It is the longest glacier in France, located on the northern slopes of the Mont Blanc massif
to soar = to fly or to rise high in the air
cares = troubles, problems
to be acquainted = to know, to be familiar with
path = a way for walking
precipitous = dangerously high
windings = spiral movements
avalanche = a mass of snow, ice, and rocks falling rapidly down a mountainside
strewed = spread untidily on the ground
bent = curved, having an angle
jutting = protruding, extending beyond the line of something
vast = very large
mists = clouds of tiny water drops suspended in the atmosphere, limiting visibility
to curl = move in spirals
wreaths = rings, circles
to overlook = to have a view from above
breeze = gentle wind
uneven = irregular
interspersed = containing, featuring
rifts = cracks, fissures
to sink = to go down below the surface
league = a measure of distance (about 5 km)
width = extent, measure
bare = without trees
recess = a small space
to gaze = to look intently, in admiration
to wind/wound/wound = to move in spirals
aerial = in the air
hang over = be suspended above
glittering = shiny
peaks = top of the mountain
to swell = become larger
wandering = moving around without a specific direction
ye = archaic form of «you»
faint = weak