I’ve been having an interesting discussion over on Twitter via my @newsfromitaly persona.  The question I posed was ‘Who’s your Italian of the Decade? Someone who has raised Italy’s image positively throughout the world.’

Those who have been mulling this question over, Italians and non-Italians, have come up with an interesting list, which has now been turned into a couple of polls.

See what you think, and then vote for your Italian woman and an Italian man of the decade.

Here are the names of those nominated – with links to Wikipedia entries:

Italian Men

• Roberto Saviano,

• Valentino Rossi,

• Carlo Azeglio Ciampi,

• Luciano Pavarotti,

• Guido Bertolaso, – Wikipedia entry in Italian

• Enzo Biagi,

• Mike Bongiorno,

• Beppe Grillo,

• Gino Strada.

Italian Women

• Rita Levi-Montalcini,

• Monica Bellucci,

• Margherita Hack,

• Sophia Loren – a late entrant, so you’ll have to add her name as an ‘other’ to vote for her.

• Laura Pausini – another late entrant, so you’ll have to add her name as an ‘other’ to vote for her.

Italians of the Decade Poll Results Here

Update: 2nd January 2010 – The Italian Woman of the Decade is actually Italian ‘Women’.

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.

SEE HOW IT WORKS

Vote here for Your Italian Man of the Decade:

Vote here for Your Italian Woman of the Decade:
I do not think than many of the Italians listed here are well known outside of Italy.

Do you agree? One of the people on the list is my own choice, but I’m having second thoughts.

Any other nominations more than welcome.

Actually, I’ve decided that there should be an Italian woman and an Italian man of the decade.

You may express your opinion the polls above, and updates will be given via @newsfromitaly on Twitter.

On the basis of the poll results, one Italian man and one Italian woman will become the ‘Italians of the Decade’.