OK, so I have not been blogging for a while. Too much to do and other stuff too boring to go into here.
Now, what (or maybe who) is Montalbano? Good question. The answer is that ‘Montalbano’ is the fictional head of a police station in a small Sicilian town and ‘Montalbano’ is also the name of the police drama on TV at the mo. It just happens that this is about the only really good and well done drama programme on Italian TV. The lead actor is excellent and the stories are original, and yes, there is a hint of mafia in a few of the episodes, as you might expect.

Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Believe me it takes a lot to for something to really stand out here. Viewers in Italy are regularly bombarded with a seemingly ever increasing number of cop dramas – of Italian, German, Austrian and UK origin, in the main. The Italian stuff is pretty awful, the German stuff is a mixture of good and awful and the UK stuff is up to the UK’s TV standards, which in terms of dramas at least, is much higher than that of Italy, with its full facial camera close-ups, bimbo stars and, er, ‘interesting’ acting.
Montalbano, is in the main, a cut above the usual trash and is worth catching.