Danielle (Dany) Mitzman is a British freelance journalist who has been based in the north Italian town of Bologna since 1998. Before that, she worked in London as a producer for Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. She makes features and documentaries for BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4, Deutsche Welle Radio and Radio Netherlands. Her reports are often rebroadcast on other networks, including NPR, CBC, ABC Australia and SABC. Her favourite areas are human interest, arts and culture and Italy's quirkiest news stories.
If you were in the north Italian city of Bologna last weekend, you’d have been in for an unusual cultural treat. The resonant chimes of the church bells were temporarily replaced by the sharp trills of bicycle bells as scores of poetry lovers cycled through the streets and piazzas of the historic town centre, bringing poems written by poets from all over the world to…well, anyone who fancied listening.
Now in its second year, Poetandem invites everyone to get on their bikes and spread the poetic word to unsuspecting passers-by, as I discovered.
First broadcast on The Strand, BBC World Service, 26th July 2010.
British novelist, Somerset Maugham, once said, “death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.” Clearly, he’d never been to a funeral fair in Italy…
First broadcast on The State We’re In, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 25th July 2010
Shakespeare turned Romeo and Juliet into the most famous teenage couple in history. Their hometown, the Italian city of Verona, has long been a place of pilgrimage for lovesick tourists from all over the world. Now an American movie has pulled the city back into the romantic spotlight.
“Letters to Juliet” was inspired by a book of the same title written by sisters Lise and Ceil Friedman. It documents the history of a unique tradition in Verona which began back in the 1930s, when visitors to Juliet’s tomb started leaving letters addressed to her. The tomb’s guardian began to reply to the letters, signing himself off as “Juliet’s secretary” and the tradition has continued ever since.
Today people leave notes at Juliet’s house and even write to her by post. But she receives so much mail that she now has a whole group of secretaries who reply on her behalf. They are members of the Club di Giulietta or Juliet Club, which promotes the legend of the star-crossed lovers as well as answering the thousands of letters that pour into the city each year.
(first broadcast on Outlook, BBC World Service, 1st June, 2010)