We are forced to stay at home and the kitchen is certainly, together with TV, music and computers, the first resource to while away the time, in a pleasant way, of this forced imprisonment to which the Coronavirus has condemned us. Old recipes are rediscovered, new ones are proposed to make the moments of being together more enjoyable. «The right recipe is to stay at home», says Fedele Usai, CEO of Condé Nast Italia. And, to keep the Italians company who responsibly respect the limitations decided in the collective interest, the publishing house has decided to make the video courses of the School of La Cucina Italiana available to everyone to make the days of isolation less long. “We are producing hundreds of thousands of free codes – explains Usai – we try to give Italians a few carefree moments. And we hope it is one more reason to stay at home ».
From today, and for three months, dozens of online video lessons to be followed on PCs, smartphones and tablets will allow those who want it, free of charge, to discover all the basics of cooking and pastry-making and to test themselves in the kitchen by learning the right techniques, the secrets but also the mistakes to avoid.
To activate the 3 months free, just register your account on corsidigitali.lacucinaitaliana.it/freepass, enter the code CORSILCI4YOU and follow the instructions.
Gambero Rosso also joins the titles available for free in times of the Covid-19 emergency. The monthly specialized in food and wine - dedicated to Italian wine, products and catering - offers a free three-month subscription to the digital edition of the magazine, until the end of the phase of restrictions due to the contagion of the virus.
And after eating what's better than a good read. And here the publishing house of Il Saggiatore comes in handy, making available free ebooks that can be downloaded every two days.
On the same Amazon line on the Kindle, Amazon's ebook store, you can find many works at no cost, classics of literature and works by great authors. Amazon also offers the Kindle Unlimited service, an impressive catalog of books of all genres can be found free of charge on PC for those who do not have an e-reader the service is free for the first 30 days then accessed with a monthly subscription.
Also worthy of note is the Gutemberg Project with an online library of over 40 texts in the public domain or whose copyrights have expired. And also Free Ebook, a website of short stories and novels by emerging authors but also of non-fiction.
For the little ones, Smart Tales comes to the rescue of parents by offering a free three-month subscription to access educational books for children.
Then in the afternoon for the thousands of Italian children and teenagers who study dance, simply joining in the name of a common passion or hoping for a professional career, the first online initiatives appear to contrast forced isolation and inactivity.
Between Bologna and Ravenna “Dancer remotely” was born. Hip-hop in your room”, aimed at those enrolled in the dancER educational project, ie 200 children between the ages of 6 and 14 from the difficult neighborhoods of the two cities. Every week until the reopening of schools, young hip-hoppers will be able to keep fit by following the video tutorials, made by their teachers and posted on the social channels of the LaborArtis Association. Pupils who want to show their progress, to the teachers themselves and their battle mates, will be able to film themselves with their mobile phone (or their mother will do it for them), within the walls of their bedroom, while performing a choreography. The video, sent to a dedicated number, will participate in the competition for the final essay, hoped for in June, complete with a special prize. Vittoria Cappelli, well-known producer of dance events, who together with an all-female team (including the co-creator Gabriella Castelli and the artistic director Monica Ratti) gave life to the social project "dancEr", explains the aims of this turning point online. «The boys are now very fond of their four teachers and very passionate about hip hop (especially girls and boys!) and cannot lose what they have learned so far. We did not want to abandon this project in which we strongly believe, which in three years has brought together young people from the suburbs with a high rate of immigration, at risk of marginalization and bullying. Private sponsors have ensured that the courses were totally free, increased by membership up to five and became compulsory after-school activities. The boys and their families have responded with enthusiasm and even in this difficult period they will not be left alone. Technology will help us."
And still on the subject of youth dance, it should be noted: “United with dance. United for life", addressed to the many students of Italian dance schools, who in normal times crowd the numerous competitions distributed throughout the peninsula. Alessandro Rende, dancer of the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, has thought of an online competition: the appointment is for 1st April, starting at 10.00, on LaSt TV, the Italian web TV dedicated to the world of dance. Aspiring participants, divided by age categories and by classical/neoclassical and modern/contemporary genres, are asked to send a video of their performance, which will be viewed by a jury of experts and voted live during the online broadcast. The winners will be invited to perform at a real Gala, scheduled in Rome as soon as possible. A charity aspect: the participants' registration fee will be entirely donated to the Spallanzani Institute in Rome, on the front line against Covid-19. (Info and regulation Fb and Ig: Uniticonladanza).
