Webcam in New York

Times Square is a major commercial intersection^[1] and a neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is located at the junction (congiunzione) of Broadway and the Sebventh Avenue, and stretches from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. Brightly adorned with billboards (insegne luminose)and advertisements (pubblicita'), Times Square is sometimes referred to as "The Crossroads of the World",^[2] 

See the centre of New York live !!!!!

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/?cam=tsrobo3

audio books for English

Audio books are useful instruments to improve our English.

Sites on the net offer lots of them for free.

Visit this one , you can just listen or you can download the text (all books are in original version)

http://www.mosalingua.com/it/lista-dei-migliori-audio-books-libri-audio-per-migliorare-in-inglese/

When you have chosen the book you'd like to read, go to the bottom (fondo) of the page and you'll find the link Read e-books

Victoria Beckham's interview

Do you ever wonder why Victoria Beckham never smiles? Here you'll find the answer.

Listen to 73 questions Vogue has asked her ,listen many times and I'm sure you'll understand everything.

http://video.vogue.com/watch/73-questions-ever-wonder-why-victoria-beckham-never-smiles?c=series

e-books for English

If you want to read some books in English to improve your language, you can use this site,

you'll find here easy versions of famous British and American novels,

choose your level and enjoy reading....

http://english-e-books.net/

Conrad and the sea

Joseph Conrad  was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. He was granted (gli fu concessa) British nationality in 1886, but always considered himself a Pole.^{[note 1]} Conrad is regarded (considerato) as one of the greatest novelists in English,^[2] though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with a marked accent). He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials (lotte) of the human spirit in an indifferent universe.

He loved the sea and made many voyages across the ocean on merchant ships. One ofthis voyages on the Congo river inspired him his masterpiece "Heart of darkness" (cuore di tenebra),which symbolized the mystery and the cruelty of human heart

Read this poem about the sea by an American poet ,it talks about the cruelty but also about the fascination of the sea

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/young-sea/

Beyond beauty (al di la' della bellezza)

Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century".^[1]

In Rome an exhibition has been organized, named "Beyond beauty" with portraits (ritratti) of celebrities and of common people..Watch this site:do you recognize any of them?

http://www.avedonfoundation.org/

Watch this site too: which celebrities can you recognize?

/www.google.it/search?q=avedon+beyond+beauty&biw=1920&bih=955&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=uskRVbjDI6GxygOct4GgBA&ved=0CCwQsAQ&dpr=1

The best teacher in the world

Nancie Atwell, an English teacher from Maine in the United States, has been named as the winner of a competition to find the world's best teacher, with a prize of $1m (£680,000).

But Ms Atwell has promised to donate the money from the Global Teacher Prize to the school that she founded.

This school, which will receive Ms Atwell's prize cash, has a library in every room and pupils read an average of 40 books a year.

The prize was created to raise the status of teaching.

The winner of the inaugural Global Teacher Prize, who received her award at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai on Sunday, was recognised for her work in teaching reading and writing.

On receiving the award, she said it was a "privilege" to work as a teacher and to help young people.

National Portrait Gallery in London

The National Portrait Gallery  is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856.^[4]The gallery moved in 1896 to its current site  off Trafalgar Square, near the National Gallery.

Queen Elizabeth I

The gallery houses portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter, not that of the artist..^[5] One of its best-known images is the Chandos portrait, the most famous portrait of William Shakespeare^[6]although there is some uncertainty (incertezza) about whether the painting actually is of the playwright (commediografo).<sup>[

7]</sup>

Shakespeare

"Ulysses" by James Joyce

Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's Ulysses. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror those of Ulysses/Odysseus inThe Odyssey.

Leopold Bloom's character was inspired by James Joyce's close relationship with Aron Ettore Schmitz (Italo Svevo), author of Zeno's Conscience.He is the ant-hero, the ordinary man who lives an ordinary life ,symbol of the lack of heroism and ideals of modern man.

Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce during which the events of his novel Ulysses (which is set on 16 June 1904) are relived. It is observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere. Joyce chose the date as it was the date of his first outing with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle; they walked to the Dublin suburb of Ringsend. The name is derived from Leopold Bloom, the Ulyssean protagonist.

meaning of flowers

What's the meaning of flowers? Every flower inspires and suggest a  quality.

Visit the site and discover the history of all flowers and their meanings

http://www.teleflora.com/about-flowers/flower-meaning.asp

Frank Sinatra's anniversary

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra  1915 – 1998^[3]) was an American singer and  actor.

Sinatra is one of the best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide.^[4] He was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom byRonald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. One of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century, Sinatra had a popularity that was later matched only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles,^[5] and Michael Jackson.^[6] American music critic Robert Christgau called him "the greatest singer of the 20th century".^[7

This year is the anniversary of his birth and there will be shows and celebrations in the USA to remember him].

^{Listen to two of his best known songs, really unforgettable}

English landscape garden

The English landscape garden,or simply the English garden 

is a style of "landscape" garden which emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical jardin à la française of the 17th century as the principal gardening style of Europe.^[1

^] The English garden presented an idealized view of nature.^2]

 The English garden usually included a lake, f gently rolling lawns (prati) set against groves(boschetti) of trees, and recreations of classical temples, 

Monk's House in Sussex is the former home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf. It was bought by them in 1919 as a country retreat, somewhere they came to read, write and work in the garden. They created a brilliant patchwork of garden rooms, linked by brick paths (sentieri), secluded behind flint walls and yew hedges (siepi). A book reveals how important a role the garden played in their lives, as a source of both pleasure and inspiration. Virginia wrote most of her major novels at Monk's House,