Tell me how you speak and I'll tell you who you are: Italy and the true beauty of dialects
My relationship with Piedmontese, the dialect of my region, has always been ambivalent. Growing up in a small rural community, I learned it without...
Here we are at Chiaravalle Abbey, on the outskirts of Milan. The monastery, situated in the area of Parco Agricolo Sud Milano, was built by the Milanese authorities in around 1150 and donated to the French St. Bernard of Clairvaux. At that time this land was just marshland and was worth nothing, but the monks built this place of worship and farming. Today the monastery is home to 14 monks, who follow the rule of St. Benedict and keep the Cistercian traditions. Chiaravalle Abbey is also known to be the place where Guglielma, "the Bohemian", used to live. She was a laic nun known for her thaumaturgic powers, that led spontaneously to the formation of the religious movement known as the Guglielmiti.
