Leonardo Da Vinci's Machines - Canterbury Museum

30, 31 August, Canterbury Museum
Da Vinci Machines
Join Leonardo da Vinci for a guided tour of the Da Vinci Machines exhibition. He will explain the intricacies of his creations and entertain you with stories and facts from the life of one of the greatest minds in history.
Check back here for tour times.
Admission to Da Vinci Machines: Adult $12, child (under 5 free) $8, family (2 adults and 2 children) $35.00.

Italian Children's School - Term 3

Term 3 of the Italian Children's School has started on 1 August. The school runs on every Friday afternoon from 4 to 5 at the Risingholme Community Centre in Opawa ($30 per term for 8 weeks). Anyone who is interested in joining please phone Maria at 326 6243.

Cartolina, August

Cartolina radio programs “for those who remember Italy and who dream of it”.

This month Cartolina introduces a nice couple from Rome.

7:30pm 6 Aug. & 10:30am 11 Aug: Professor Antonio Capone from Roma University takes us on a fascinating journey through the most advanced research in the field of the tiny components of the Universe. See how neutrinos are chased in Antarctica and in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. And all in plain words!

7:30pm 20 Aug. & 10:30am 25 Aug: Dottoressa Marina Bicchieri from Istituto per la patologia del libro, the Institute of Books’ Pathology in Rome, takes us behind the scenes of how old manuscripts are analyzed and preserved. Egyptian papyrus, a nun’s letter in a bottle, St Francis of Assisi’s autograph, a Leonardo da Vinci’s codex, all of this is part of Marina’s everyday job.

How to listen.

* Radio on demand through the internet: just visit: http://www.plainsfm.org.nz/Podcasts/programmes

Select “Cartolina” and you’ll get the list of all available programs.

* For the actual radio broadcast, tune in on PLAINS FM 96.9 on alternate Wednesdays at 7.30 pm, or listen to the repeat program on the following Monday, at 10.30 am.

PLIDA Exam in November - APPLY NOW!

PLIDA is one of the three Italian language proficiency tests officially recognised by the Italian government. By passing the B2 level or above, you can use it as a proof of language proficiency when applying jobs in Italy or enrolling universities as foreign students. It works just like TOEFL or IELTS for English, DELF/DALF for French or ZDaF for German.

Dante Chch has recently been endorsed by the Dante Alighieri Sede Centrale as Centro Certificatore, and from November this year we will start running PLIDA exams and preparatory workshops in Chch.

Each of the four basic abilities: Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing is addressed and assessed separately. The length of the examinations varies according to the levels and goes from 90 min. for A1 level (Waystage) to a max. 210 min. for level C2 (Mastery). PLIDA takes place twice per year in May and November. A non-refundable fee is payable to sit the exam, currently it is set around somewhere less than $200 for each level, and a more detailed fee schedule will be released once it is decided.

DA Chch is the only committee running the PLIDA exams in NZ. To help us organise the exams and the preparatory workshops, please contact us if you wish to take the exam or you wish to obtain further details regarding the times and costs. Past exams can be found on the Dante website. For more detail about the test please click here. (.pdf file)

Massimo Folliero Piano Concert - 8 August

Società Dante Alighieri di Christchurch presents: Massimo Folliero Piano Concert

Italian Pianist Massimo Folliero has performed widely in Europe, Japan and the USA. Now on his first New Zealand tour, he’ll be playing Beethoven’s Appassionata and four Scherzo by Chopin in a recital organized by the Italian Dante Society.

Friday 8 August at 7.30 pm, Chapel of the Music Centre, 140 Barbadoes Street.
Door tickets: $10; students with ID: $5.

August Meeting - Engineered Wood Structures: building a sustainable future

7:30pm, Wed. 13 August, Linwood Community Arts Centre
The meeting this month will be the presentation titled "Engineered Wood Structures: Building a sustainable future" by Massimo Fragiacomo, Stefano Pampanin, Alessandro Palermo and Andy Buchanan.

The latest massive timber engineering project in the Civil and Natural Resource Engineering Department of University of Canterbury, with the collaboration with University of Sassari and Politecnico Milano, indirectly brings Christchurch closer to Italy. We are very fortunate to have most of the key researchers of this project together in Christchurch at the same time to give us a talk about the future of timber structures. This should be of particular interest to the engineers, but the talk will be very comprehensible and educational to also anyone who is not in this field.

The talk will be in English (with a nice Italian accent), and everyone is welcome to come to our meeting!