Give Ps a Chance Trivia Quiz

Answer: Peppone

Don Camillo and Peppone started as a series of books by Italian author Giovannino Guareschi. It depicts the life in a small town in Southern Italy, in the years following WW2. Don Camillo is the priest, Peppone the Communist mayor. Both fight endlessly, but in an emergency they work together.

The first movie about these magnificent two and their followers made its debut in 1954. Don Camillo was played by French actor Fernandel, Peppone by Gino Cervi. Five movies were completed, all in black and white.

Cervi lived from 1901 to 1974, at one time he also played Maigret on TV. He was married to a fellow actress. The film director Tonino Cervi was his son.

But he is best known as a proletarian mayor, driving his truck and having a brawl with that giant priest.

Answer: Prêt-à-Porter or Ready to Wear

Sofia Villani Scicolone was born in 1934 in Rome. She was "Miss Elegance 1950".
After some small movie roles the roles got bigger and better. She won an Oscar in 1960 for her performance in "Two Women". Movies like "Arabesque" or "The Fall of the Roman Empire" added to her fame. The first marriage with producer Carlo Ponti in 1957 was annulled a few years later, the second marriage to him in 1966 lasted until his death in 2007. Sophia is the mother of two sons.

"Prêt-à-Porter", in the USA "Ready to Wear (Prêt-à-Porter)", was released in 1994. Everything happened at the Paris Fashion week, and the cast was as stunning as the dresses. Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Kim Basinger, Julia Roberts ... a veritable galaxy of stars.

Answer: Pasta

Food, glorious food.
Giada de Laurentiis was born in 1970 in Rome, Italy. Her parents moved to the USA when she was still a little child. When she was grown up, she studied at "Le Cordon Bleu" in Paris. De Laurentiis returned to the USA, worked in some renowned restaurants and in 2003 she started to appear on the Food Network. The name of the show: "Everything Italian", which won a Grammy award.

She has been very busy ever, writing cookery books, and creating a Youtube channel.

And she is cooking pasta. Glorious pasta.

Answer: Politician

Aldo Moro, born 1916, was kidnapped and murdered in 1978. Moro started his life in Apulia. He studied law and the highest rank he reached in this field was in 1963 as a professor of the Institution of Law and Criminal Procedure at Sapienza University of Rome.

Better known is his work as a politician. A member of the Christian Democratic party, he was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1948. In 1963 his first tenure as a prime minister of Italy started and lasted till 1968. After some political fiascos he resigned this position, and from 1969-1974 he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. From 1974 until 1976 he was again prime minister. I know little about Italian politics, but look at the list of Italian prime ministers: in the seventy years from 1946 until 2016 there weren't many to survive over two years in power. Moro can't have been that bad.

And now to the end. The 1970s were a time of terror in Europe. In 1978 Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the militant far-left red brigades. His guards were gunned down. The red brigades wanted to free some of their comrades. The government didn't want to give in. And after 55 days Moro was shot dead in the boot of a car. He left a widow and four grown up children.

Answer: Pinocchio

Carlo Lorenzini lived from 1826 to 1890. His pen name "Collodi" was the name of his mother's place of birth. He himself was born in Florence. He founded a satirical newspaper in 1853. After more publications for adults, he turned to children's literature. First, he translated stuff like the Perrault fairy tales. In 1880 Collodi began his work on "Storia di un burattino" (Story of a Marionette), also called "Le avventure di Pinocchio" which was released weekly in a children's newspaper. Like Mastro Geppotto he stayed single and childless. (Or he hid it well, I couldn't find anything about his private life).

Collodi died in 1890. So he didn't live to watch the success of the little puppet Pinocchio grow, just as the wooden nose when telling a lie.

Answer: Paralympics

This lady was born in 1928 in the Abruzzo region. She lost her legs in a car accident.

When in 1960 the first Paralympics ever happened in Rome, she was one athlete competing.

Not in vain: ten gold, three silver and two bronze medals were won by her.
She mostly took part in throwing competitions, but also in swimming, wheelchair fencing and table tennis! Just admirable.

Considering Paralympics, she was one to win the most on single Olympic games.
Sadly, I couldn't find out more about her life after this. Only that she retired and is still alive in 2019. Any Italian with better informations around?

Answer: Pope

Albino Luciano was born 1912 in the Veneto region in northern Italy into a working class family. He was ordained a priest in 1935. In 1958 Luciano was appointed a bishop of Vittorio Veneto, 11 years later he gained the title of patriarch of Venice. In 1976 Pope Paul VI created him the cardinal priest of San Marco, a basilica in Venice. Only two years later (1978) this pope died. In the papal conclave Luciano was elected. He took the name John Paul I, to honor the two popes before him. It is also reported that he said to one other member of the conclave: "You were a prophet, but my reign will be a short one"

Sadly, he was right. The smiling pope, as he was called, only had 33 days of papacy. One sad morning in September 1978 he was found dead in his bed.

As the next Pope John Paul II was a born Pole, a chain of Italian popes following each other since 1523 ended.

While he was the first pope born in the 20th. Century, he was the last to die in it.

And he really had a nice, warm smile.

Answer: Primadonna

Are you old enough to remember the supposed rivalry Stones vs. Beatles? One decade earlier it was Maria Callas vs. Renata Tebaldi. Tebaldi quoted later in live that it was more a thing of the press and the fans. The two primadonnas respected each other.

Little Renata was born 1922 in Persano, Italy, a town on the Adriatic sea.
Just three years old she had the misfortune of contracting polio. That didn't stop her. In 1944, she had her stage debut as Elena in Boito's "Mefistofele" in the northern Italian town Rovigo.

Just two year later she auditioned in front of the great Arturo Toscanini at La Scala in Milan and from that moment on her career rocketed. She sang Desdemona and Aida and was applauded at the Met in New York. The Diva never married. She considered her job not a good one to raise a family. Aged 82, she died 2004 in San Marino.

Answer: Painting Portraits

Lavinia's father was a painter, and he taught his daughter well. She was a respected portrait painter in her home town of Bologna; the ladies loved to be painted by her. She earned enough that her husband, also a painter, stayed at home and took care of the household and a brood of children. He also helped with painting minor details such as draperies. Signora Fontana also got an invitation from the then Pope and got the position of Portraitist in Ordinary at the Vatican.

Which sounds like a recent modern woman career happened between the years 1552, when she was born in Bologna to August 11, 1614, when she died in Rome. She was outlived only by three of her eleven children. And that was sadly something quite common again for her time.

Answer: Pulce D'acqua (La)

Angelo Branduardi is an Italian singer and songwriter, born 1950 in a little town near Milan. He studied as a classical violinist, an instrument you can hear in his songs. He is married with two daughters.

While "La pulce d'acqua" sounds light-hearted and happy, the story is a more sinister one. The water flea - La pulce d'acqua" has stolen your shadow. And because of this, you are ill. The autumn fly and the green snake, whom you treated bad, will not forgive you. Now you have to sing to the water flea for forgiveness.

This story is said to be based on an Indian-American folk story. The single was released in 1977 on an album with the same name.

The album is also available in a French and English version.

Altogether now:

"È la pulce d'acqua che l'ombra ti rubò e tu ora sei malato
e la mosca d'autunno che hai schiacciato non ti perdonerà.
Sull'acqua del ruscello forse tu troppo ti sei chinato,
tu chiami la tua ombra, ma lei non ritornerà."