Italian is a Romance language spoken by around 70 million people in the world including Switzerland, where it is one of the four official languages, San Marino and the Vatican City.

Starting today until Sunday, the Week of the Italian Language will take place at various parts of the country.

The initiative, launched nine years ago to promote Italian culture and language, is dedicated every year to a specific theme.

This year`s edition will be devoted to Italian as the language of arts, science and technology.

The program for this year features conferences, lectures and performances connected to the theme.

The events of the week have been organized by the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in cooperation with various universities in the country in the hopes of attracting more people than before.



Architect Arturo Vittori will hold three lectures at different universities.

The first will be at Myonggi University tomorrow at 3 p.m., followed by a speech at Hongik University on Wednesday at 6 p.m. and finally Hanyang University on Friday at 2 p.m.

The topic of the lectures will be "From Pyramids to Spacecraft - the history and evolution of architecture" and how this influenced and affected the unique approach of "Architecture and Vision."

Based in Rome, Toulouse and Munich "Architecture and Vision" specializes in aerospace technologies applied to architecture and design.

The art exhibition "Architecture and Vision: from Pyramids to Spacecrafts" is currently running at the Seoul Design Olympiad until Oct. 29.

The prestigious contemporary dance company Aterballetto is retuning to present the immortal classic "Romeo and Juliet" at the Seoul Art Center on Friday and Saturday.

Within the umbrella of the Seoul International Dance Festival, the contemporary dance company Artemis Danza and Monica Casadei will present an homage to Italian film-maker Federico Fellini at the Goyang Center later tonight.

Maestro Filippo Maria Pagliano will present his show "Leonardo Si Racconta" at Sungshin Women`s University on Wednesday. The show is dedicated to the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci and merges solo guitar and acting.

As for the academic activities, two of the most famous specialists in Italian as a foreign language, professors Angelo Chiuchiu and Giuseppe Pace will hold lectures at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul on Friday and Pusan University of Foreign Studies on Oct.26-27.

Stefano Scopel, professor of physics at Seoul National University will conduct a lecture on the role of Italian in the world of research, science and technology at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies` Yongin campus on Thursday.

Other Italian lecturers and professors of Italian Language who work in Korea will hold lectures at Sogang University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and Pusan University of Foreign Studies.

(yoav@heraldm.com)



By Yoav Cerralbo